Re: Wishful thinking
Smorley
location: Boston, Mass.
listening to: Mindy Smith, Allison Moorer, Randall Bramblett, Bach Cantatas
registered: 2004.05.11
posts: 262
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Dear Kevin, I’m a lefty, post here and have no perch (or bass or trout, for that matter) to sit on high morally. That said, I do not believe in the least that the current administration and their corporate friends are out there trying to make the world a better place. Their movement into Iraq has not, nor will it ever, make the world a better place. Dishonesty and incompetence hardly ever win the day. The evidence of both are miles wide at this hour. It’s all there, if you care to read it. There have been plenty of times when this country has “extended” itself when the cause was right and times where we have turned a blind eye to the wholesale massacre of hundreds of thousands of people. Your man is doing precious little in the Sudan. Clinton did little for Rwanda. I know that these conflicts are horribly complex, but I defy you to read Samantha Power or a book like “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed Along With Our Families” without thinking, Jesus, couldn’t something have been done? This time, while many people suffered horribly under Saddam, it was a colossal blunder that will only serve to injure us and quite possibly these 46 million you mention—for decades. Saddam and his rape rooms are gone, replaced by a country teetering very close to civil war where terrorists now get on the job training. In addition, the same folks who brought you this war are not being too secretive as to not be able to find the info about their intentions with Iran and Syria. Tell me, please, what the end results of all of this will be. The current administration, many of whom are honest to god end times believers, certainly have mucked it up and they’re not without future designs of what to drag the world (not just the US) into. And I am pro-choice and I do not believe the Government has any place in reproductive rights. Sorry. I know many people quite well who are not pro-choice and I know that they feel strongly that the “unborn” are entitled to rights. I believe them to sincere and quite sane people. I do not subscribe to what they believe about when rights should be accorded, when life begins. This does not make me pro-abortion. This also does not make me “greedy.” Lastly, the current administration, along with the Congress, has gone out of its way to create an atmosphere of its my way or the highway. There is an intolerance of the beliefs of others that is disgusting to a great many people—including many, many Republicans I know who still remember a time before the GOP was nearly entirely high-jacked by Evangelicals. It embarrasses them. The Democratic Party frequently does things that I find are insulting. The Clinton/Gore Years are littered with policy takes that I thought were the mark of people who sought expediency rather than the high road (the sloppiest being the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 where they had a real chance for informed, compassionate change). I do think that there is an opportunity—a small one—to take the massively vicious tenor out of the discourse. But if and only if we change captains. I do not agree with every last little thing John Kerry has done in this campaign. But I do think that he could well have a calming effect on the overall discourse. There are serious, serious things going down in this world. A little thing called the environment, for one. I know it's naive to hope for a few national days of civility, but maybe a few hours? Not that I'm totally opposed to anger, mind you. Sorry for being so long-winded here. Could be that the caffeine's finally working.
S
Smorley
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Dear Kevin, I’m a lefty, post here and have no perch (or bass or trout, for that matter) to sit on high morally. That said, I do not believe in the least that the current administration and their corporate friends are out there trying to make the world a better place. Their movement into Iraq has not, nor will it ever, make the world a better place. Dishonesty and incompetence hardly ever win the day. The evidence of both are miles wide at this hour. It’s all there, if you care to read it. There have been plenty of times when this country has “extended” itself when the cause was right and times where we have turned a blind eye to the wholesale massacre of hundreds of thousands of people. Your man is doing precious little in the Sudan. Clinton did little for Rwanda. I know that these conflicts are horribly complex, but I defy you to read Samantha Power or a book like “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed Along With Our Families” without thinking, Jesus, couldn’t something have been done? This time, while many people suffered horribly under Saddam, it was a colossal blunder that will only serve to injure us and quite possibly these 46 million you mention—for decades. Saddam and his rape rooms are gone, replaced by a country teetering very close to civil war where terrorists now get on the job training. In addition, the same folks who brought you this war are not being too secretive as to not be able to find the info about their intentions with Iran and Syria. Tell me, please, what the end results of all of this will be. The current administration, many of whom are honest to god end times believers, certainly have mucked it up and they’re not without future designs of what to drag the world (not just the US) into. And I am pro-choice and I do not believe the Government has any place in reproductive rights. Sorry. I know many people quite well who are not pro-choice and I know that they feel strongly that the “unborn” are entitled to rights. I believe them to sincere and quite sane people. I do not subscribe to what they believe about when rights should be accorded, when life begins. This does not make me pro-abortion. This also does not make me “greedy.” Lastly, the current administration, along with the Congress, has gone out of its way to create an atmosphere of its my way or the highway. There is an intolerance of the beliefs of others that is disgusting to a great many people—including many, many Republicans I know who still remember a time before the GOP was nearly entirely high-jacked by Evangelicals. It embarrasses them. The Democratic Party frequently does things that I find are insulting. The Clinton/Gore Years are littered with policy takes that I thought were the mark of people who sought expediency rather than the high road (the sloppiest being the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 where they had a real chance for informed, compassionate change). I do think that there is an opportunity—a small one—to take the massively vicious tenor out of the discourse. But if and only if we change captains. I do not agree with every last little thing John Kerry has done in this campaign. But I do think that he could well have a calming effect on the overall discourse. There are serious, serious things going down in this world. A little thing called the environment, for one. I know it's naive to hope for a few national days of civility, but maybe a few hours? Not that I'm totally opposed to anger, mind you. Sorry for being so long-winded here. Could be that the caffeine's finally working.
