By nature I’m an apolitical person; also truly areligious. Politics and religion to me are simply divisive entities. Politics and politicians are so thoroughly distasteful to me because of the sleazy, smarmy crap that goes on under the surface of the pretense of helping “the people” while many of these guys help themselves to the coffers of fame and fortune. Today Jerry Brown announced and presented the keys to his budget – the people that will suffer will be the poor, the indigent and those mentioned in Billie Holiday’s infamous God Bless the Child… This is about Brown leaving a legacy after his last mediocre term as Governor. Schmuck that I am I voted for him….
I come from Philadelphia where two political extremes have always existed: high-minded freedom and peace, and low-brow greed and political power. It is the place of the discovery of American freedom and the desire to find and hold liberty true. Elementary school students were, probably still are, taken yearly to the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House and the cradle of Liberty, Independence Hall. The energy of the men that created the documents of freedom for this country was always palpable, no matter how many times I went there. I was perennially in awe of that process, those feelings. William Penn in developing his Quaker State created the underlying desire for peace and reasonableness; this, too, is palpable and admirable. I cannot help it if I am a dyed-in-the-wool peacenik – this history I was taught made me so. I took it to heart and believed it. It made me a patriot, too, though I deign not to be a flag-waving type. It just is not my style. My beliefs are not necessarily for public consumption, and no one really needs to know what I think, believe or care about – this may well be the last time I ever write about them.
Philadelphia also offered Tammany Hall-style politicians — Mayor, Police Chief and other people in government – who really did nothing to help the city. These guys were embarrassing, annoying and turned me off to government and the politics and strategies they lauded as much as our unique history made me proud to be an American, a Pennsylvanian, a Philadelphian (there’s more to that last element but that’s for another blog trust me!!!) – mostly to make them more money. This was a corrupt power-mongering group at best.
One mayor used to say “Youse guys…” I mean, really. You Philadelphians – remember James H.J. Tate??? We schoolchildren were being taught correct grammar and agreement, and this guy with bad language and political doublespeak represented our city??? I was forever mortified when this man spoke. Did no one tell him what an embarrassment he truly was? But I digress…
What happened to Gabby Gifffords and her co-victims this weekend is shameful for so many reasons. And this makes me incredibly disturbed. It takes me back to the sixties when many of my heroes were shot. I don’t know whether those guys were good men or not. Their politics and personal lives were kept separate yet people kept trying to blend them like they tried to do later to Clinton (who, despite my lefty-liberal type sensibilities, is not my favorite president – many economic problems we have now were from his administration and became the death knell for people like me). I never got to know whether these men were good men or good at their jobs – they were each gunned down in their primes. The sixties are another reason I fail to see the attraction to politics. We Boomers were unable to fulfill the dreams we had because they were stolen from us in the violence of multi-assassination. This made me sick then and continues to do so today. Tucson, Arizona and the subsequent intolerance it seems to be spawning is also making me ill. It feels like the dawning of an age of stupidity and unreasonableness. Like Germany in the thirties – everyone who possibly can, should watch Berlin Alexanderplatz, a German TV mini-series from the eighties available on DVD; directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080196/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001202/bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Alexanderplatz_(television)
Firstly, Loughner was thought to be ill by so many people – he was thrown out of a community college for god’s sake for irrepressible anger. A young neighbor told his mother he thought the guy was a serial killer from the “moment I saw him.” His teachers, fellow students, and community thought the man was a problem – the man who sold him the BANNED gun couldn’t see a problem or try to determine this before the final sale??? Loughner would never admit to being insane or bi-polar or schizophrenic…he barely knows.
As for the blame game spawning itself all over the news, the internet and the world – give it up. I am no fan of Sarah Palin: I think her crosshairs targets are reprehensible, along with her purportedly “entertaining” TV political campaign and the rest of her trigger-happy political statements. And trust me when I say I NEVER thought I’d defend Palin for anything but from a feminist viewpoint this link seems mostly right on the money: http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/2011/01/09/palin-and-clinton-obsessives-suddenly-discover-that-violent-discourse-is-a-bad-thing/
That said, I do think she is indefensible of her idiotic rhetoric and loose tongue. Kinda like the posters you saw in Great Britain in the forties saying, “Loose Lips Sink Ships…” There are, as Gabby Giffords said a few weeks ago, consequences; there are always consequences no matter what you do; why shouldn’t wannabe politicians suffer them as well when they act unreasonably to obtain power?
Yesterday I reposted a Keith Olbermann video on Facebook. I am not an avid follower but I like him; in the trenches I think he has a reasonable POV. No surprise that I do not watch nor like anyone on Fox. Presently I am too sick to let any of that vitriol and false angst touch my senses; for the same reason I am untrusting of John Boehner’s tears. I try to listen when there is a balanced viewpoint. Some woman wrote this on the original post: “He is the worst on TV He creates problems and should be fired, and off the air.”
She did not bother to listen to what he said. Her opinion is infinitely more important to her than what happened in Tucson – 20 people shot at: more than half dead or critically injured. And many people are condoning these actions though the alleged suspect is, as I said earlier, clearly ill. We’re not talking a moment of madness, we are talking progressively, violently mad. When I read her response in all honesty I wanted to choke this woman. (So much for the peacenik, eh?) Her anger is so obvious, so unrelenting…so bad-tempered. She’s unwilling to hear what the man had to say before condemning it. It took everything in my soul to restrain myself from saying anything negative. I did say something but I contained it (it took 3+ hours for me to get un-riled) to a bland statement because I realized that my anger incited by her anger only will rile someone else.
The original poster, a friend, must’ve sensed that because she commented her well-thought and presented opinion; different than and as passionate as mine but acceptable in its lack of wrath.
And that’s the thing, folks. Anger has a way of being contagious.
I also have a theory. We have not in a million years gotten over 9-11; we think we’ve resolved our anger, our hurts and our fears. Not a chance. The fact that this country is going down in flames economically, politically, socially and culturally – just like Rome did – is very scary, but the only thing that will help us get through this long process is clarity, common sense and awareness of others. We don’t have to like each other but we sure need to respect each other’s views and ideas. I admit to be being a complete snob – I think most people are idiots, and unfortunately their behavior too often proves me right. But I defend their right to be stupid, moronic and useless if they choose as long as no one else – strangers, loved ones, innocent bystanders, children, parents, the elderly, whoever — suffers from their angry plight; I just do not/cannot condone any violence attendant to stupidity.
My friend Linda said, “Getting angry is ok. Getting violent is not.” Unfortunately too many people do not know the difference. We all need to count to 10 and take a deep breath. Amen.
Vendela Vents! 
Guns— glamorizing them and the ease of getting them are the problem here. An off balance, sick person who shouldn’t have been able to get a gun, created a solution to his problems with a gun, and we all pay the price for this. Not only the people in public office, but others are victims of gun violence every day. Yes anger is a big problem. Incivility, lack of empathy and lack of listening add to the stress levels of most of us, as does the ugly discourse of politicians, but if we continue to make the gun the ultimate arbiter of one sided fights, we will lose our decency and our freedom to move about in the world.
This is an elegant diatribe against guns, and while I would love to agree with you I can’t. There have always been weapons throughout history meant to control/inhibit and frighten the citizenry from both private and public sources. And some weapon or another will always exist…
It is the “Incivility, lack of empathy and lack of listening add[ing] to the stress levels of most of us, as does the ugly discourse of politicians” that incites people to/that misuse those weapons. We need to discover a new way to discurse to arrive at reasonable concensus. I am not a gun-lover, as you well know, and far from find them the answer but it’s like the death-penalty — we kill people for their crimes and tell people that killing is immoral/amoral. You cannot punish a child with aggression and expect that not to rub off.
We do this with war and I am afraid we may have already lost our sense of decency and freedom throughout the world because of this — Americans are disliked greatly throughout the world for our arrogances. And ow all of this is coming home to roost as the cliche goes…
Yes, anger is not the answer and we do need to count to maybe 20 before opening our mouth filled with fire. Our world is in a miserable mess out of control with greed, lies, mistrust and hate. A smile and a carring heart goes a long way. I am not saying it will fix the mental cases that go around shooting innocent people but it might help a little.
Great writting Wendy!