Vince asks:
<< Bob, have you ever had a political post before? I can't remember one
going back to 1999. >>
Yes, Vince, I did post some political stuff way back when, but it was mainly
in response to some of Marcel's more outrageous daily posts. (For the record,
I still don't believe the Clintons had Vincent Foster whacked.)
The fact is, I have learned in my dotage that I prefer to think that my
friends believe as I do about the political issues that I care most about.
Naive, yes, but I don't see that political debate between friends -- even
discussion list friends -- does much to change anyone's mind. If anything,
the debates here about what people and the media are calling "the upcoming
war with Iraq" have only made me more firmly antiwar than ever.
When people ask about my political affiliations, I always answer that I am a
"genetic Democrat." I am the great-grandchild and grandchild of immigrants
who escaped horrible conditions in Ireland for a better life in the US. When
I was seven years old, John Kennedy -- another Irish Catholic boy from
Massachusetts -- was elected president and the world seemed to hold nothing
but promises of better times ahead. As Joni says:
We really thought we had a purpose
We were so anxious to achieve
We had hope
The world had promise
For a slave to liberty
(Also, the song "Happy Days Are Here Again" -- the Democrat's traditional
theme song before Clinton glommed onto "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow"
-- has always seemed appropriate to me. Is it a coincidence that my life has
always been better when Democrats occupied the White House?) I have been a
"Massachusetts-style Democrat" since I was a little boy, and I don't think
anything's going to change that. Certainly not an Internet discussion list.
I can look back now and see what happened to the glorious hope America once
had. JFK was murdered. Then came the assassinations of Martin Luther King,
Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The horror of Vietnam broadcast into our living
rooms, boys from our neighborhoods dead for no good reason. Of course there
were flashes of hope along the way: the peace movement and Lyndon Johnson's
support for civil rights come to mind. But America's great big heart seems to
have grown colder as the years have passed, doesn't it? Nixon, Reagan, and
George H. W. Bush all contributed to this, in my opinion. The lies. Dirty
tricks. Money laundering. Secret wars. The destruction of the environment.
The rise of corporate power and greed. More and more prisons built, more and
more mental hospitals emptied. The heart-wrenching sight of homeless, insane
human beings thrown onto the streets to fend for themselves. The list goes on
and on and, of course, includes the misdeeds of Democrats too, but . . .
well, I guess you understand why I'll never be a Republican.
And as America's heart has grown cold, its brain has gone stupid, stupid,
stupid. We have squandered the good will the world had for us after 9/11. Do
you think the victims of slaughter on the planes and in the towers and in the
Pentagon would want revenge or World War III to be their legacy? Or do you
think they would want a peaceful world for the precious loved ones they left
behind?
I am afraid for us all. I am disheartened that we are being called to war by
a born-again Christian former cheerleader. I wouldn't be surprised if he
feels that it's his calling to cheer-lead us all to Armageddon. Say what you
want about Clinton, but he was smart -- a Rhodes scholar -- and he seemed to
have a lust for life and warm (even hot!) blood running through his veins. To
me, President Bush is downright reptilian, calculating and soulless -- the
epitome of everything I have disliked and feared of his Republican ilk.
So -- now that you all know where I stand politically, I really feel that I
need never participate in political discussions here again. I am not going to
tell anyone what he or she can or cannot post, but I choose not to talk about
politics or defend my views, so carry on!
But next time someone asks you to participate in this demonization of "the
enemy," please recognize that this trick has been played on good people since
war was invented. Resist! Imagine the face of a loved one on "the enemy" and
maybe the futility, stupidity and insanity of war will finally hit home.
Peace,
--Bob
NPIMH: "Small World," by Ethel
