Ragin’ Rick is Ahead by a Nose. . . .

Tags

bigotry, Citizens United, contraception, Election 2012, Fox, Humor, Koch Brothers, Mitch McDonnell, Obama, Whitney Houston, women's rights

At least some of the latest polling have Rick with a narrow lead. Even later polling suggests he’s pulling ahead in Michigan, long thought to be a Willard surety.

As you know, Newty is being bankrolled by one guy. And so is Rick. And Romney is beholden to a handful of very rich.

It looks for all the world as if a few oldish white dudes are having themselves a dog race. You can hear them at the fence, yelling for their dog to “get there”.

Grayhounds wear muzzles to keep them from biting. I’m sure the Sugar Pops have their dogs muzzled as well.

Which in some sense, makes it all the more a circus I guess. But this Citizens United has some really bad consequences. When it comes to local races, a single man can pretty much put into office, be it mayor, councilperson, state senator, or representative, anyone they choose, simply by pooring tens of thousands into campaigns that are usually waged for a few grand.

Over time, you build a majority. We saw the religious right do this on the issue of creationism by stacking school boards with hidden creationists. We have seen it in state legislatures who upturned states into Republican majorities and now are pushing anti-union, anti-voter, and more social legislation that could never been passed in statewide referendums.

Citizens United is a much more dangerous thing than most believe. We really must get behind a constitutional amendment to declare corporations “non-citizens” as it relates to campaign contributions. We must insist on full transparency of donors, and we must enforce strict limits on individual campaign contributions and eliminate “super pacs” and other such creative organizations whose sole purpose is to destroy fair elections.

*stepping off the soap box

¶

I’m guessing that turtles don’t have the most passionate and exciting sex lives in the world. I’m guessin’ that they must be pretty lousy in fact. I know that because Mitch McConnell, has decided that it makes a lot of sense to back a bill in Congress that allow any employer the right to refuse to cover birth control in the health care packages they offer to employees.

And Mitch? Women don’t like you either.

And apparently Mitch, probably because of the shell and all, can’t see the end run going around behind his back. Hehe. Poor turtle.

¶

You might have heard that Ricky is being largely held aloft by a dude by the name of Foster Friesse. You might want to take a look at who he is. (You can assume he’s nutty as a fruit cake, cuz he is.) Islamophobe, Liberals are satan, and a founding donor of Daily Caller.

¶

Christine, *I am not a witch* O’Donnell has indicated that she might be willing to serve in a Romney administration, if she can find the time.

I’m wondering do they have an opening for chief caldron stirrer? Or would she just entertain at parties?

¶

Whitney Houston was a singer that stood at the top of her profession. Her abilities cannot be overstated. She was also a deeply troubled woman who, like so many, found some solace in drugs. And in the end, it may turn out that the drugs took her life. I am sorry to learn of her death.

I have never pulled any punches here as to what I think about Fox News. They are a slick, wily organization who set out to capture an audience that they thought had no voice. While touting their “fair and balanced”, they have been anything but. They have used every code word, every nuance to suggest that the racists among their followers, were in some sense justified in their bigotry. They have sought to embrace, explain, excuse, and ignore the real demographic of hate that embraces their version of “journalism”.

Little Green Footballs reports that they were inundated with over 5000 comments on their report that Houston had died. They were among the most ugly I have ever read, and I read Blaze comments regularly.  Perhaps Fox has closed the thread, because I could not locate it on their report. Perhaps you need to register on their site in order to see them. But in any case, this is shameful. It is beyond shameful and yet, of course, you see nothing from Fox commenting on the hate that floods their site. It is instructive.

¶

There is a new book out called The Obama Hate Machine. There is a review of it over at Politicususa. You might want to take a look. Never have a small group of men done so much to destroy one man. And they started from the moment he took office.

¶

Was it just after his win in Carolina that Newtster told Santorum that he ought to withdraw from the race so that Newt could solidify his “inevitable” nomination? One wonders if Newt will now take his own advice and withdraw in favor of Santorum who is starting to pull out in front of Willard?

Some how, I’m thinkin’ he won’t.

¶

Remember when Chris Christie made all that stupid talk about how if the LGBT crowd was so sure of itself, they should just put it up for a referendum in the state? Well, there was a reason. The marriage equality bill is about to pass in the New Jersey Legislature, and old Christie will be forced to veto it. He’d rather not, so he could stay out of the issue.

Now go try to have an hypocrisy-free day, if ya can. It’s always a struggle.

**excuse any typos, I’ve been having a war with the spellcheck on WordPress for a week. Mostly it won’t work.

The Changing Face of Dearborn Michigan

Tags

bigotry, Dearborn Michigan, Muslim Americans, racism, terrorism

I spent most of my life living in Michigan. And I spent a year living in Dearborn, Michigan under the mayorship of Orville Hubbard, pictured at the right.

So I have some knowledge.

Dearborn, is probably like a lot of small towns. If you look at the history of any small town, you will probably find some fascinating changes that have occurred over the time span of the 1700’s to today.

But few would exhibit the amazing changes that have occurred in this seemingly unimportant suburban community outside Detroit, Michigan.

Originally of course, much of Dearborn was occupied by members of the Algonquin family of tribes. But that soon changed with America’s revolution, and white folks populated the area and named it after Revolutionary patriot and Secretary of State under Jefferson, Henry Dearborn.

For a long time Dearborn was of no consequence. That was until areas surrounding it (still in farm land) caught the eye of resident, Henry Ford. Some of that land became the Ford estate, the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters (The Glass House), Ford Proving Grounds. People still come there to see the Ford Museum, which features so much stuff that I can’t begin to tell describe it all.

Along came a man named Orville Hubbard who became Mayor in 1942 and retained that job until 1978 (I lived there in 1972-73 I believe).

Now you have to recall that Detroit at that time was in its growing pains. Car companies thrived in and about the city, which steel was forged at the Rouge plant down the river. Building cars was big business. And African-Americans, beaten down by Jim Crow laws throughout the South were migrating north to find a better life. Many found it in Detroit where employment in the factories were plentiful.

A few years later, in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination, the Civil Rights Act was passed and then the Voting Rights Act.

Orville looked out upon this landscape, and came to a few conclusions. Hubbard has been styled by some as the “suburban face of resistance to racial integration.” And he was.

He had an abiding and hideous hatred of African-Americans. He was all that one would expect of a Southern plantation owner and more. He describes being in Haiti in the Marines and claims they practiced cannibalism, even “eating a few Marines.” He once called the “bullet-ridden body” of a black man found in the city as “a clear case of suicide” and ordered the case closed. He ordered his local police to “shoot looters on sight” during the 1967 insurrection in Detroit.

The slogan of his administration which continued until 1978, was “Keep Dearborn Clean” which was widely recognized to mean, “Keep Dearborn White.”

The way it worked was simply this: white folks found “reasons” never to sell to blacks, and whites who were rumored to be doing that were vandalized. Of course he didn’t think much better of Jews or the Irish, and later, the Arabs either.

The Arabs that first moved into Dearborn were almost all Lebanese Christians. They were later followed by Muslims from various countries. After Hubbards retirement blacks slowly moved in, but today, still nearly 85% of the population is “white”. However, 34% of that “white” demographic is Arab.

The largest Mosque in North America is found there.

And well, sadly it has now become the focus of hatred in another vein.

I don’t know much about the show. Actually I know nothing other than there is a “reality” based show about Muslim families in Dearborn, and how they incorporate their faith with their patriotism for America. As with all commercial television shows, it has corporate sponsors who buy ad time (known as commercials)  throughout the program.

A fringe group, Florida Family Association, whose sworn duty is to promote all things biblical, has launched a campaign against the show and more particularly against the sponsors of the show, being some 67 companies. They claim that 65 have now pulled their ads. Some of these companies are: McDonald’s, Bank of America, Campbell’s Soup, Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, Sears, Wal-Mart, and most famously Lowe’s.

What is insane, is the FFA objects to the show because it fails to present Muslims as terrorists! In other words, the show is not “fair and balanced” showing only law-abiding, patriotic, good citizens.

Well, it’s all insane. This is bigotry at its worst. This is un-American. This is absurd. It is reprehensible. It cannot be allowed to stand.

Go to SignOn.org to register your anger.

Or go to Lowe’s Facebook page: and register your views directly.

 

**Orville Hubbard: the ghost that still haunts Dearborn

    Wikipedia:  Dearborn Michigan

Spotting a “Christian” Bigot

Tags

bigotry, Christianity, God, Islam, Jesus, Qur'an, Terry Jones

What probably first comes to mind, is that isn’t this a contradiction in terms? One would hope that Christian and bigot couldn’t possibly go together. Alas, all too often they do. At least for a certain type of Christian.

I’ve been thinking a good deal about the “Pastor” Terry Jones and his tiny brigade of haters who had planned to burn Qur’ans. This spurred a world-wide whirlwind of response from the President, Pope, and others in positions of power and influence.

Terry seemed undisturbed by it all, claiming that God told him to do this.

Indeed, his god probably did. But is this THE God or only the convenient one he has created to salve his guilty conscience at his alive-and-well wealth of hatred? I would think the latter.

A few weeks ago, someone (speak up if it was you!) suggested that “born agains” which most of these fundogelicals are, don’t really experience any real conversion interiorly. They simply profess that Jesus is my savior and then go about their lives pretty much the same, with a generous “amen” and “have you confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior” sprinkled throughout their conversations.

The Bible, then, becomes for them, a hugely wonderful resource for finding all kinds of quotes to sustain whatever personal beliefs they have about just about anything. I for instance have been told that Jesus never authorized governments to take care of the poor. (I just can imagine Jesus condemning Rome for its decision to take over the care of the widow and orphan in Jerusalem, freeing the Jews to spent their money on Temple maintenance!) 

I can only speak of my own conversion some seventeen years ago, as an example. I was flooded with guilt for months, until my baptism, and I actually went around to a number of people who I felt I had wronged and asked forgiveness and made my amends as best I could. I allowed to come forth all those natural feelings that hate and prejudice toward others was wrong. I resolved to actively work against the desire to blame “others” for whatever ills I fashioned were wrong with the US and the world at large.

Of course, I fail more than I succeed. Yet, I resolve each day to do better, and occasionally I think I’ve beat another hatred back a bit. It’s an ongoing battle, and of course it is meant to be. We don’t become saints over night, and most of us never. But we try.

Our new resident troll seems to suggest that we are intolerant because we aren’t tolerant of intolerant people! Wrap your brain around that one if you can. He misunderstands of course. I am most tolerant of anyone’s right to spew hatred whether they be Christian bigots ala Terry Jones, or the KKK or self-serving money grabbers such as Glenn Beck.

They have every right to do what they do. This is what freedom is about after all. But I, I have every right, and frankly a duty to speak out against their hatred. Their intolerance cannot be allowed to go unchallenged lest the uniformed be persuaded that this stuff is the right way to think.

Christian bigots as I said, sprinkle their talk with lots of godly words. They make Facebook entries like “Do you love Jesus?” They are always punctuating sentences with “Praise God.”

But if you look closely at what they cite in their defense of their bigoted ideas, it is almost never Jesus. No they speak of Jesus but never quote him much. Much of what they quote is either Paul taken outrageously out of  the context of very specific issues, or Hebrew Testament cherry picking. This is the more interesting because when they don’t like something in the HT, they invariably tell you that NT subsumes the Old, and Jesus fulfilled all the HT. That allows them to eat pork, and charge interest, and a plethora of other things that they find unpleasant or tedious.

You can know them almost precisely because they don’t quote Jesus, who, by overwhelming degree, spoke about love, forgiveness, and taking care of each other. Jesus above all talked of treating “enemies” not as such, but gently, with friendship, with love, and with hospitality. For as he often said, sinners treat well people who treat them well. Doing the same is nothing to brag about for the believer. Jesus spoke of the poor, the outcast, the sinner.

To suggest that God wishes us to burn the spiritual book of another faith is simply absurd. Most of us know that. Most of us know that Jesus would have condemned anyone who tried to box an entire faith system as evil. He found faithful people among the Roman legions for goodness sake.

Terry Jones, is a preacher in his own mind. He has so little sense, that he apparently actually became convinced that  Imam Rauf, who has stood against all manner of politically powerful idiots, suddenly bows to a dolt such as Terry and agrees to move his Islamic Center. I mean how full of it can one be?

Jones is captured by his own press at this point, and actually apparently thinks he is an important individual. He is nothing but a pimple on the butt of Satan. And the media, ever ready of course, to take the easy road, gives him play all day long. What should be done, is simply to ignore the fool and his tiny band of ill-educated, and unconverted hate mongers. Their god is no god, but an idol they have constructed to justify their bigotry.

We would do well to get on with life, leaving Terry and his ragtag troop to their marshmallow roast, ignored and shunned.

Related Articles

• Defending Intolerance: Terry Jones and the Quran (blogher.com)
• Pastor Terry Jones Still Defiantly Set On Burning Quran Despite Pressure To Call It Off (pinkbananaworld.com)

Curbing the Rhetoric?

Tags

bigotry, business, conservative, duelism, liberal, political labeling, Politics, religions

It seems that as never before, at least since the Civil War, has this country been so ideologically divided. The fractures appear to be between what are known as liberal/conservative labels, but in truth, there are several dozen cracks–small groups who have their own personal issues.

Some are interested in health care reform, others in gay rights, others in abortion denial, tax reform, regulators or not, first amendment issues, church/state, and on and on. We artificially call people liberals, socialists, fascists, communists, conservatives, neo-cons, right-wing evangelicals, wackos, reactionaries, anarchists, you name it. Some of us fit one category and some of us fit partially in several. We are all at each other’s collective and individual throats on any given day.

People have solutions or not. Obama urges that we sit down and bypass the rhetoric and get down to details–look for common ground issues and build on them. Others want utter purity within their ranks and will give in on nothing. The GOP increasingly becomes branded as the party of “NO!” Tea Party adherents in more than a dozen organizations emphasis different core issues. Plenty of people are more than happy to give lip service to any group to gain their vote.

Fran, who is a great blogger and posts often on Facebook, decries this labeling. Many others do as well. Some decry the fact that those in powerful positions cause much of our dismay, by “modeling” bad behavior and making it “okay” for others to come forth with their favorite brand of bigotry. Those who feel put upon decry their martyrdom, and those who are accused of the outrages point to their own martyrdom imposed from the other side. We talk past each other.

We are the product of a lousy inadequate public education system that leaves us ill-prepared to evaluate the problems of our day. We are victimized by a co-opted media that no longer has much of  a clue as to what journalism is supposed to do.  We are the recipients of too much wealth and “stuff” and have developed the attention span of gnats. We are lazy and want others to do our thinking and research for us. We are susceptible to the “snappy retort” the glib “sounds good” bite.

We, all of us, are mired in way too much rah rah flag waving exceptionalism. If we are “best” then somehow, others must be less. If Episcopalians are best, then Baptists must not be. If Toyota is best then Kia can’t be. We are dualistic to an extreme. If there is left, there must be right, and if there is right there must be wrong. We like tidy columns like that, even when it leads us to “sides” that are separated by an increasingly uncrossable chasm.

Our churches, those valuable places where so much good could be done, are often times just exactly the opposite in that they claim exclusive ownership of the “interpretation” of God. Mainstream churches have lost their way, sliding into secular happy religion, while the Evangelicals are trapped in a rigid sense-deprived world that demands pure faith against physical realities.

Wherever we look, we are asked to choose. It is the battle cry of big business. Our car/computer/kitchen cleanser/potato chips are better than theirs. Pick us! Buy us! Taste test  us and them–See! We are better. They suck. Polls are run now, not days later, when we have had time to digest, reflect and work through new information, but now, as it’s happening. We have the clicker in our hand, dial it up for “like that” and dial it down when you don’t.

The immediately generated “public opinion” is pulled from the copier and sent off with a click to all those that need to know, and adjustments are made on the fly. A little less emphasis on “green” power Senator, the voters are projected to not favor that so much today. We can perhaps mold, manipulate that opinion later on, if you truly care that much about it. The election is the thing today. Stick to the script of what works.

We are caught, you and I with having nobody out there that we can rely on for truth much any more. Everyone has an axe to grind it seems. Everyone is lying or cheating, or somehow disguising who they really are for whatever they think is some greater good, for the moment. I may be a philanderer, an abuser of the public funds, but hey, guys, you need me! I’m convinced only I can save you from yourselves. So I tell myself, and will tell you if you catch me in all my naked wrongness.

I have not a clue how to get beyond this. I can only, it seems try to carve out my little corner of sanity in an insane world. I’m a offender. You come here to read my “witty” repartee, my sarcasm dripping with some truth and a lot of anger. Occasionally, I write uplifting stuff, but truly, you come for the ball-busting screech at the other side. That makes you chuckle and nod, or it makes you angry enough to write comments dripping with your own sarcasm and lauding my lacking mental faculties.

I am part of the problem, yet I have no clue what would work. They are wrong, and I want to state that very clearly. And so I do. You right wing wacko! Get a brain, get a life! And then I confess my sins and promise to do better. But you see I don’t.

As the snow starts and we face another long week of being locked within, I’ll give it some thought. But I don’t think I’ll come up with an answer. After all, I am right, right?

OOOOh I Love New Friends!

Tags

bigotry, minarets, Muslims, Switzerland, terrorism

When I read about this, I just wiggled and giggled with delight, and thought about getting some appropriate gift for my new friend–Switzerland!

Indeed, though it would be highly unproductive to do so out here in the Meadow, I’ve a mind on Wednesday when I return to the city, to give a good shout-out in the Walmart parking lot calling forth any Swiss citizens. I just want to hug to stuffings out of them.

We are muy simpatico as they say. Hadn’t you heard?

It seems that by a 57% majority vote, the fine citizens of Switzerland have voted that Muslims who erect mosques within the confines of the country will be prohibited from adding minarets to their peaks.

It seems that the Swiss are increasingly concerned about being overrun by Muslims who presently constitute somewhere between 4 1/2 – 7 % of the population. There are at present something like less than half a dozen of the pointy edifices on Swiss soil, and one must take a stand.

This has prompted the rest of the Swiss to hang their heads in shame, post placards at “vigils” saying “This is not my Switzerland” and well, otherwise point the finger down the road at some other poor schmuck as the one voted for such a bigoted law.

You ask why I am so giddy with glee at all this? Why because, as anyone with a brain knows, this wandering around in the desert by ourselves in the land of unforgivable bigotry, grows tiresome. (Way to make that connection to Exodus hey?) We are no longer alone as being insufferably bigoted towards people whose only crime seems association via generalized religious belief under the rubric “Islam.” We now have FRIENDS!

Yes, indeed, proof indeed that America is not the dumping ground of every right wing wacko on the face of Mother Earth. I think that grounds for celebration don’t you? We are not alone! It’s akin to finding life on another planet doncha think?

I just want to call up everyone I know. “Did ya hear? We aren’t he only bigoted idiots on the globe any more! The Swiss, can you believe it, are nutty too!” Yay, God can turn his attention and the spotlight off us for a while! Cartwheels are in order here folks.

I really can’t tell you how relieved I am. After finding that nearly everyone whom I went to high school with has become a flaming fundie and stooge for Fox news (well some of them at least),  I had considered my escape (read Exodus?) from said Mayfair district, Flint, Michigan, to be a miracle of sorts, worthy of a life time of thanks to the dear Lord.

“Thank you from saving me from being an idiot, Lord.” I’m a liberal and still sane.

Still, one has to accept the disease of crazy towel biting insanity seems to have spread widely in the US of A. One attempts to remain calm, yet they are effective after a sort, in derailing and weakening any number of legislative initiatives by their deliberate lying and plain lack of ability to see truth spitting at them in the eye. Personal selfishness has that tendency to overcome rational thought apparently.

Seeing this on every freakin’ issue of substance in the last year, I began to wonder if it were sabotage or something. Maybe in the pre washed spinach, or in the Domino’s pizza? I thought perhaps Starbucks, but then realized that they were too foo foo to be trusted with such a deed. I wondered if perhaps it had to do with NASCAR. Perhaps the tickets were saturated with stupid juice. I was seriously investigating all this, mostly so as to avoid contamination.

Now, I don’t know where to look. If the infection has spread to Switzerland, then, well, maybe the culprit is chocolate (gasp) or watches. The latter, I can handle, since I seldom wear a watch. The chocolate, oh dear Lord, how can I avoid that most perfect of foods? But no, it can’t be that for I consume plenty of it every week, and you can see, my liberalism is strongly intact.

So, well, whatever the cause, I’m just so pleased to know that we are no longer alone in the land of crazy. So Europe, get a grip, we are not your little toy to punch out any more. We are not the sole repositors of eyeball spinning stupido beliefs or logic. There is a new kid on the block, and he’s in your back yard. So there!

Now we can finally say what we have all been thinking all these years: Swiss yodeling is simply awful. Just sayin’ between friends ya know.

Fearing Not I’ll Become My Enemy in the Instant I Preach

Tags

bigotry, extremism, Left, political rhetoric, racism, right wing

As usual Sherry’s recent posts have made me think. As a white man I feel embarrassed when I see the subtle and even overt racism that has recently been displayed on our political stage. The question isn’t, “Is there any racism or bigotry being displayed?” Or even how much. The question is how do people of intellect address it?

When I returned from Vietnam I had had my fill of violence and liked to describe myself as a pacifist. The problem with that was that I was angry for a whole variety of reasons. I forgive myself because I was young, in my early twenties; I did not understand that passivity and anger mix worse than oil and water. It took me several false starts to realize that it is impossible to defeat violence using violence as the weapon. No matter which combatant wins the contest, violence has the final victory. Further, it is equally impossible to hate hatred and hate mongers out of existence. Simple math tells us, add even a small amount of hate to hatred and you multiply the monster.

I am disappointed that all the news outlets prefer to report on the personal conflicts rather than the policy differences. I am fairly aware of the world, but have only a vague idea of how other countries handle health care. Most of what I do know has been filtered through the lenses of the right or the left. Why couldn’t one of the major networks spend some of the time they talked about who called who what, and tell us how Japan, Germany, England etc. etc. handle this issue. Wouldn’t we be better served and more informed if this approach was taken.

I understand the importance of an individual, who feels his position is moral, voicing his views to the majority. Silence in the face of oppression by the masses is being a coward. However, that is not our present situation. Last November we all cast our ballots and elected Obama as our president. Therefore I offer that the bigotry of the present is a small, albeit vocal, minority. At his peek in the 30’s Father Coughlin was able to reach as many as 40 million Americans, with his smears against Jews and FDR. Many many more than our current simpletons advise. Our nation survived Coughlin we will survive this. I don’t diminish the ugliness of the racism. I am only pondering a response.

I am a professional football fan. Better said, I am a Green Bay Packer fan. In the early seventies many times televised games would be interrupted by some idiot (clothed or not) running onto the field until he was finally captured by security. These single individuals were able to disrupt the entertainment of the many. When all of the networks agreed to quit showing the morons it ended. It seems we live in a country where some people are not satisfied being cretins, they want spectators. My suggestion then is simple, I refuse to be the audience to dimwits. I choose no longer to respond to the stupid signs or the stupider talking heads who encourage them. I will try to not even mention their names or organizations. They spend enough time and money promoting themselves, they do not need my assistance. If there is disagreement on policy I will answer, but if the discussion becomes ad hominem, I will return to the silence of our meadow. I will try to do this no matter if the personal attack come from either the left or the right.

I say “try” because it is a continuing hard lesson for me to accept that, “I’ll become my enemy in the instant that I preach.”

*My apologies to Bob Dylan for borrowing a line from his song “My Back Pages.”

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ‘neath heated brow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Copyright ©©1964; renewed 1992 Special Rider Music

　

A Different Perspective

Tags

bigotry, Fox News, fundamentalism, Neo-cons, political theory, psychology, right wing religious

This post is part confession, part retraction, and a little bit of retooling.

I’m still not quite sure myself, but I’m convinced that yesterday’s post was not one of my best. A little too much rant, too little thought.

It became a topic in my household during the evening, and was expounded upon as the evening went on. The Contrarian read yesterday’s post and had some thoughts. His thoughts were that I was a bit too harsh, and elitist in my words. He saw things from a different perspective. He is right.

It only goes to remind me that we do see the world through our own lens, and we are not always the best judge of objectivity. Indeed, the most objective conclusion usually comes from a fair listening to all sides, or at least more than one. I plead guilty of not doing that. And moreover, not sitting down and really thinking it through, since if I had, I might well have seen the Contrarian’s position with more ease.

I certainly plead guilty to being deeply concerned (perhaps obsessed?) with fundamentalism as a danger to our society. I admit that, and frankly, I don’t back off that much. Fundamentalism is not a religious tenet, though once it was. Today, it is a state of mind, and it transcends religions. It permeates, especially in this country, Christianity, but is also the danger in Judaism that drives the “dig in one’s heels” approach that counsels no negotiations with the Palestinians. It is, as we know, the arm of Islam that continues to wreck havoc around the world.

It’s basis is a worldview that is essential to one’s phychological well being, and it brooks no alternative nor differing point of view. Everyone else is wrong, everyone else is an obstruction, an IT that must be overcome. No ecumenism, no tolerance, no compromise. When two of these groups lock horns, ugliness is coming. Many see the world now poised for the next war–Christianity vs Islam. That is the danger.

My view of fundamentalism leads me to great anger, and intemperance at times. I freely relinquish friendship at this point, because I find it intolerable not to be able to find any tolerance from fundamentalists. Enough said. It leads me at times to belittle, taunt, and otherwise excoriate people who take this extreme position, especially those that have married their biblical fundamentalism, with right wing bizarro politics, with anti-intellectualism in the guise of a repudiation of science and human advances in culture and learning.

This tripartite system is illogical and does extreme violence to the bible, and thus by implication to the message. It makes mockery of our mission as Christians, to do our best to improve the life of all persons and to carry out our responsibilities as brother’s keeper and steward of the planet.

The problem is, as the Contrarian pointed out so clearly to me, is that I am beating the wrong group.

One of the things I have learned about my husband over the years, is that he has unfailing patience and kindness to children and animals. He is utterly impatient with almost every other aspect of life. He hurries everything else. Yet, when it comes to kids and pets or other wildlife, he is soft, gentle, infinitely patient, infinitely forgiving and so forth.

I’ve asked him why. He tells me that it is because they are not adults and not human. Thus much less is expected of them. He doesn’t expect a child to be an adult, so doesn’t expect them to act in life as adults. They will be irrational, silly, impatient, and so forth, and it is irrational to get angry at them being their age. Similarly, animals are not human, and we cannot expect them to not act stupidly, and without regard to their safety or ours at times.

He says, I have expected way to much from people whom one should not expect so much from. The guy who listens to Rush and Sean and Glenn, hasn’t had the luxury of a top notch education, or perhaps anything much past high school. He has had to work hard every day just to make a go of it. He doesn’t have time for reading a lot of books, nor to watch a lot of high brow educational shows. He’s told by the Fox types that he is right to blame anyone but himself. He learns its right to blame African Americans for lots of stuff that’s wrong (they are the highest number of inmates after all in our prisons), and he’s subtly informed that he should avoid saying that out loud, but believing it is okay. And sadly, the list of who to blame becomes inexhaustible, including immigrants, Muslims, Asians, socialists, communists, gays, liberated women, the Left in general, liberal churches, virtually anyone who the neo-con can dream up that they can direct the ire of the religious right and working class at.

The people to blame are not those who have been so taken advantage of and so horribly co-opted to do the devil’s work. The blame resides with the conservative elites, the neo-cons like Billy Krystal and Billy O’Reilly, and Demint, and Bachmann, and all those who have had benefit of all the elite educations.

These are the folks who are playing pied piper to the children of the bowling alleys of America. They are the ones who for personal profit or ideological advantage, say the things these folks long to hear and want to believe, if only to make themselves feel equal in a decidely unequal world.

They do it deliberately, manipulating fears. And we all have plenty to fear. We fear how we will end up in our old age. We fear being unable to give our kids the kind of life we felt we enjoyed. We fear not being able to have our medical needs met. We fear annialation by those who think very differently than we do. And they push every button, assuring us our fears are legitimate, and that all would be well if we just returned to a set of moral precepts they assign to the Christian religion.

Moreover, we are gently led down the road to believe that “tough love” is required. We are re-inforced that “love the sinner, hate the sin, is legitimate and for the good of the sinner. It’s nothing but blatant bigotry of course, and masks nothing but fear and resentment, but that is not what we are told. We are told to admonish, to force by legislation if necessary, rules and laws that will make God proud. This they say, but of course this they do not do.

No, they are at least as bad as any Democrat when it comes to personal shortcomings. Those of us on the Left remain astounded that this doesn’t sink in, and cause a dissaffection. But it does not, rather it evidences that Satan is alive and working even harder than ever.

I have no answer, but the Contrarian was right. The one so abused is not the one to rail at, it’s the person who so coldly and with so much calculation is using the little guy to support a hidden agenda, that in the end will fall as hard on him as on the Left. I apologize.