I just got an e-mail, from someone who loves me, depicting a local Letter to the Editor. The tag line went, "What Has America Become". It was drearily predictable right-wing screed, hardly deserving of a response, but that's never stopped me before. So I replied.
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Hey. I got your e-mail containing the hysterical rant about "what has America become", and just thought I'd take the time to refute some of this paranoid crap. To wit:
"If we lie to Congress it's a felony and if Congress lies to us it's politics."
Bank executives were less than forthcoming in Congressional inquiries about the ways in which they bankrupted our economy. Then they took bonuses straight from the taxpayer purse. BP's ability and willingness to dissemble has also been on recent display. But if we think our representatives are lying to us, we can easily un-elect them.
"If we dislike Blacks we're racist, but if Blacks dislike us it's their First Amendment right."
Blacks have historically not been merely disliked, but also enslaved, whipped and raped. Harry Truman desegregated the military in World War II; the South didn't follow suit until 20 years later, and only then under the gentle supervision of the National Guard. Blacks are routinely sentenced to longer terms of incarceration than Whites who commit identical crimes. By the way, Native Americans aren't so fond of us either, so maybe it isn't a Black thing after all.
"The government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals while doing nothing for victims."
Every single state has victim compensation laws, and has had them for decades. California's was enacted, for example, in 1965. We also have the highest incarceration rates, and recidivism rates, in the free world. Much of our prison system has been turned over to private-sector profiteers, who donate heavily to the GOP at election time.
"Schools can teach that homosexuality is OK, but they can't mention God in the process."
The Pledge of Allegiance is still recited in schools, and it still includes the phrase 'One nation, under God, indivisible'. The Declaration of Independence, also part of the curriculum, begins by saying that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. It does not say, 'unless they're gay'.
"You can kill an unborn child, but executing a mass murderer is wrong."
We are one of the only civilized nations that still executes people. For instance, Christian conservative Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City Bomber) killed a good many born children, and was executed shortly thereafter. Beyond that, the state of Illinois had to put a moratorium on the death penalty because of the shocking number of innocent people found on Death Row. Meanwhile, pharmacists are allowed to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control (because it offends their morality), resulting in obviously unwanted pregnancies.
"We don't burn books in America, but we re-write them."
Conservatives, actually, burned Dixie Chicks CDs when that group disagreed with the Bush administration's misguided and illegal invasion of Iraq. Meanwhile, in Texas, schoolbooks are being written by conservative school boards that do not mention the name Thomas Jefferson. Wonder why.
"We got rid of Communist and socialist threats by renaming them as progressives."
Our trade deficit with Communist China increased tenfold under the Bush administration, which granted them Most Favored Nation status. This was long after Mao Tse-Tung had rid his country of artists, teachers, scholars and the like. Stalin killed over 30 million of his own people, chiefly through starvation. He also turned Siberia into a prison-state. Progressives tend to build HUD homes, give health-care to people, stuff like that. See the difference?
"We can't close the border with Mexico, but we protect the 38th Parallel in Korea."
The Mexican-American War ended with the Treaty of Hidalgo, in which we awarded ourselves the states now known as Utah, Nevada and California. Nevertheless, Mexico remains one of our biggest and most important trade partners. The Korean War never ended, but resulted in an armistice. North Korea (which developed nuclear weapons in the Bush-43 era) routinely threatens the U.S. and its allies in the region, and in March torpedoed a South Korean battleship, killing 46 sailors.
"If you protest Obama's policies you're a terrorist, but if you burned a flag or George W. Bush in effigy it's your 1st Amendment right."
Again the disdain for the First Amendment... Anyway, no protestors of President Obama's policies have been charged, to date, with terrorism or anything like it. Bush protestors, however, were penned up miles away from his public appearances in what were laughably called 'Free Speech Zones'. Many were arrested, and some were shot in the face with rubber bullets.
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I could keep going, but reading this rote, redundant missive makes my forehead feel fat. Suffice it to say that he made absolutely not one single point, good or otherwise, but did reinforce the widely-accepted notion that conservatives are uninformed, backward, bigoted morons.
There's a lot to be said for the company you keep.
pH 7.24.1o
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