In My Humble Opinion
Do you remember some jackass back in the 70’s called Earl Butz? He said, out loud, in public, the following: “I’ll tell you what the coloreds want. It’s three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit.” (note: I believe, if you actually took a poll, it would turn out that these are things everyone wants; but that no one is stupid enough to even put on the list over homes, jobs, and decent food.)
How about that clown in the 80’s (my Governor, if I’m not mistaken) who referred to mothers receiving AFDC (now called TANF) as “sitting on the couch eating bonbons and watching the soaps”; when announcing yet another cut to AFDC benefits, he said it was “one less six-pack a week“!
And then there was Ronald Reagan, for instance on abortion:
“You may remember that when abortion on demand began, many, and indeed, I’m sure many of you, warned that the practice would lead to a decline in respect for human life, that the philosophical premises used to justify abortion on demand would ultimately be used to justify other attacks on the sacredness of human life – infanticide or mercy killing.”
And Ronald Reagan on “human freedom” (from the standpoint of the obscenely rich):
“I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last – last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph…”
George Bush..well, just about everything that comes out of his mouth pisses me off. Like:
“Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
“Senator Kerry assures us that he’s the one to win a war he calls a mistake, an error, and a diversion. But you can’t win a war if you don’t believe in fighting.”
“We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.”
“There ought to be limits to freedom.”
Yes, I have opinions. Strong opinions. And, my friends, my brothers and sisters, I hope YOU have strong opinions too.
We are born with a pretty good bullshit detector built in. I’m not saying it’s infallible – if it were, probably no one would ever get a date. But what you do is, if it sounds like bullshit: find out what they really said. Not just what people say they said, because you know how that goes. And if what they really said sounds to you like bullshit – it probably is. It seems like it has become acceptible for our “elected” leaders to say just anything at all. Anything, and if it’s offensive, they put the spin doctors on it, and claim it’s not what they meant. If it’s a lie, and somebody tries to publicly call them on it, they attack the credibility of the questioner, or make some flip little quip, some disarming one-liner that makes everyone at the press conference chuckle, and then they’re out of hot water. Reagan did it for eight years, Bush will do it for eight years; and I’m sorry, but it is NOT OKAY, not anymore, actually not ever.
People who ask the President about why he lied about WMD to make it okay to invade Iraq are not simply wily players for the “liberal media” who are trying to make him slip up to embarrass him for a three-point score on some dumb political chessboard. They are asking because REAL three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood little kids were blown to bits by the bombs in question; peoples’ babies, peoples’ beloved wives with a little dimple when they smile, peoples’ husbands who promised to always look after them, peoples’ daddies who taught them how to fish or carve wood or break a horse, peoples’ mommies who sang to them at night so they could go to sleep…we are asking because it is not just “terrorists” who bled out their lives in the “shock and awe” bombing, it was PEOPLE. And I just don’t find that funny.
I am blessed to live in the district of Representative Barbara Lee. She has strong opinions, too. When voting whether to okay the invasion of Iraq, she was THE ONLY ONE who voted against it – and all she said was that we needed to know more before we just went and slaughtered people. She had to get extra personal protection for awhile behind that vote, because of threats to her life. And you all know the end of this story – to all appearances, she was RIGHT!
So okay, it is perfectly true that I am opinionated. I hope you will all join me in having strong and firm and loud opinions. I hope if your opinion is that you HAVE no opinion, that at least you are emphatic about THAT! This is not the time or the place to try and be polite in the political arena. Be kind to each other. Please do your best to be polite to the folks around you. But if somebody is in charge of your life, your money, your personal freedom, your job options, your economic potential, your children’s lives overseas, your children’s lives here at home where polluting poor folks is A-OK again – if somebody has this control over you, and they are not behaving ethically, you do not have to be polite. Don’t accept bullshit. You don’t want your kids lying to you. You don’t want your Significant Other to lie to you. So when somebody wants to talk about some Emperor’s fine new attire, you be sure and call him a lying, naked so-and-so. Er – in my opinion, that is.
