Posted on 08/28/2005 11:21:11 AM PDT by 50sDad
Dear Garrison:
I almost cried today while listening to The Show.
Wait…don’t get lost. There’s a reason.
In the first Indy movie, the forces of darkness were in high fever all over the globe, looking for weapons…magic weapons. They knew that there was the chance that their glorious Cause could fail, and to make sure that they would win, they were trying to track down any magic talisman that could tip the scales in their favor. And so, they sought the Arc of the Covenant.
Now here in the real 21st Century, it does seem a little silly. The Arc was the Holy of Holies that the Jews used to carry the presence of God, Jehovah, along with them. It sheltered them, protected them, and they revered it. Why in the world would Nazi’s, who sought to eradicate the Jews (“God’s Chosen”), think that they could tap into it’s power and use it to take over the world?
It is because to those arrogant warriors, the Arc was nothing more than a tool, like a hammer or a machine gun. They didn’t revere it in any way. For them, they thought they would invoke this incredible power, and it would simple do as it was told, and help them do what they knew they were bred to do…run the world.
Today, in Chicago, you called up God and told him to dance for you.
These great men, these powerful orators of the past, they knew who God was. They were raised with Him in their homes. They went to church and were told of him. They believed in Him. William Jennings Bryan argued in favor of Creationism as the sole thing to be taught in public schools for heaven’s sake. But when you thought he could score points on Bush and the Right, you trotted him out, full of God and fire and brimstone. (With a wink to your fellows, well, we all knew who you were really talking about.) Teddy Roosevelt ran in the Bull Moose party, but of course, you had to point out he ran as a “progressive.” Today, a Liberal who knows he can’t get elected just calls himself a Progressive. (Well, they did until the Internet.) War-like, empire-building Teddy Roosevelt, to you became a magic talisman to beat the Right.
Has it come to this? Liberals have been completely discredited to the point they are afraid to call themselves Liberals. When my grandad was alive, the Democratic party was the party of the “little man”, and was going to save them from powerful men. Great big stockbrokers, robber barons, and rich industrialists were terrible men, and there was no way the little guy could stand against them…they needed the big brave Democrats to protect them from the abuse of power. Today, you are lost in the shadows of those men. Today, you defend a serial rapist, and perjurer, and wonder why you’re not in power anymore. You backed Bill Clinton even though he most likely raped and abused women, he made a mockery of marriage, he lied to a Grand Jury…and your side stood with him, in a show of denial that would make Nixon blush at the lies. (Nixon at least resigned when he got caught.) You lost the House, the Senate, the Presidency, most Governorships, and now the Supreme Court because people reject what you stand for. They have seen your brand of beans, and they have been judged as a bad buy.
Your judges invented the “Wall of Separation” that you wanted between church and state. Clinton’s Gorlick put another wall of separation between our intelligence units that helped us miss the foreshadowing of 911. You tossed God out of the schools, you persecute nativity scenes, you help kill the unborn, you defend the undefendable, and finally when America wakes up and tosses you out, like Belloch and his jack-booted sidekicks, you begin to evoke the name of the Most High as some kind of magic talisman to get you back into power?
God is not mocked, Gary.
Please, be careful when crack open the Arc, and trot God out to be used only as a tool for your pleasure. Because I have read God’s views on man and his sins. And based on what your side has been pushing for the last sixty years, I can’t imagine He’s going to be happy to see you.
I used to enjoy his program very much. The bad politics were not overwhelming, and the stories and the music were excellent. But now, as you say, Keilor has allowed his dishonest politics to overwhelm everything else in the show.
It is sad to see people who have fine talent in such areas as entertainment, confuse that skill and the income from it with possessing any marginally competent skill in political and judicial philosophy. You are right. He is a fool. Sad.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column: "NY Post: Better a Bad Story than None as All (Able Danger)"
There are plenty of billionaire "robber barons" and monopolyists in the Democrat Party of today. Sometimes lining their pockets off the public dollar.
I have watched him go from lovable "Old Uncle Gary", a minor Mark Twain, into an embitterd old Lefty, fit only to stand on the street corner, mutter to himself, and hand out mimeo'd newsletters on what a wonderful idea the IWW was. In the old days, the Lake Wobegone story was the highpoint of every week, told lovingly and with great care. Now, I can't go five minutes without having some snide remark made about W, or that nannering whiner they have playing him as an idiot. (Wake up call, guys...that idiot tossed all of you out and handed you your political butts on a platter. Who'se the idiot now?)
By the way, that was very well written.
well said...thank you
Well said, indeed.
I've been listening to Garrison since I was a teen (which is a looooooong time now!) and I still love his news from Lake Woebegon. But when he gets off on one of his political rants now, I just turn off my ears. It does make me sad to realize that such a clever and inventive talent can be so blind and stubborn when it comes to politics.
Yes. Keillor has changed. Ten years ago his program was totally apolitical and fun to listen to. Now he sees how many shots he can get in against the Republicans in two hours. The answer is, many. I noticed that about 5 years ago he started promoting abortion rights as a regular thing, he's become anti-religious, and pro-Castro. I don't listen anymore and I no longer contribute to my NPR station. They get my tax dollars anyway to run their leftwing propaganda.
Nice letter, but I decided long ago to not take Garrison Keillor seriously, just enjoy the music and the rest of the show.
That...Is Good!
For the most part his show is a good one and has done more to keep the old time radio tradition and the old small town America tradition alive.
His show IS worth listening to despite the occasional political annoyances.
Amen! It is such a shmae that his incredibly beautiful voice is now being wasted on the words he is choosing.
Agreed, but the changes started long before 10 years ago--when he moved to Denmark/New York (when was that--late 1980s?) and the program came out of hiatus the first time, it was already different--he was raunchier, more _obsessed_ with sex. He was probably always a bit sex-obsesssed even before New York--having an affair with his producer then abandoning her for the Danish exchange student from his high school years. But he was careful about letting it intrude into the broadcast. I noticed a ratecheting-up of the raunchiness on the program when he reintroduced it under a different name (which I've forgotten), based in New York. It was masked to some degree--was not in-your-face, but more frequent and to me, unmistakeable evidence that his mind was becoming obsessed.
It was downhill from there. I agree that the slide has become more precipitous, esp. since the late 1980s.
Carolyn
Carolyn
One more thing, I don't think he ever was an avuncular, Old Uncle Gary. Someone years ago already pointed out that Keillor was subtly relentlessly mocking the Lake Woebegoners. If you didn't pay close attention, you'd think he was celebrating them. But there was always an undertone of mockery and superiority. In my view, Keillor was a deeply alienated person from high school or college onward. Alienation can fuel an artist's creative talent but can also lead to the kind of mocking, jaundiced animosity toward convention. Part of Keillor's genius was that he could interweave subtle mockery with celebration and people heard one or the other accented depending on their own orientation. Someone as skilled as he is can readily get you to overlook the little twinges of doubt that may briefly register as you listen to his chatter.
I do think he is a very talented artist, with a very inventive mind--really of the stature of Mark Twain. But he's also a deeply alienated, angry man, much like many of the leftists. The difference is that most of them have almost no sense of humor or rhetorical genius. Keillor has both, in spades.
Keillor is of the "down-home" "yall come back now" commie ilk.
Lots of southern Indiana commies are like that, they are kind of freeze-dried leftovers from the WPA and the New Deal. This dude's show is like a wannabe WPA project.
Minnesota (midwestern) commies are for real. They are a problem. If the commies in WI and MN would just pull their heads out and vote right, Republican victories would be assured forevermore. Most midwestern commies I know think that being a rat or a leftist or a progressive makes them really superior intellectually. And you can see that in Keillor's show... he is really just a snotty, condescending punk.
His hostility is related to the fact that he is watching everything he believed in from the time he was a commie pup turn out to be a bunch of BS. Hahahahahahahahaha....
Oh, yeah, he is not funny either.
You are quite right, although some people can't discern either. I always felt (when I listened to him years ago) who was disdainful with a flair to the people of "Lake Woebegone" and all of his growing up in the area.
His hiatus to NYC and then overseas just reinforces my belief.
FMCDH(BITS)
I have a audio cassette collection that a friend gave me of (I think) Keillor's most recent book. It was entertaining, mostly. But this current set of Lake Woebegone tales smacked of Playboys hidden in the corn crib, of dirty jokes told by adolescent boys when nobody else was around. It amused me, and left me feeling unclean afterwards, and I haven't listened to them again, unlike some of his early written work that I reread often. But like Heinlein, it stopped being about writing what his readers wanted to read, and became more and more about using his celebrity to get people to read what he wanted to write.
I fondly remember "The Golden Age" of The Show. There was a time when it literally felt like you were listening to some kind of "Midwestern Hayride" broadcast on your own little 5000 Watt station, someplace local. All the people were old friends. You didn't expect perfection, just a good time, because they were old friends...the thing you did Saturday night. But with success came power, and we know what power does. Before long, The Show came from an endless series of On The Road venues, as they sought to burn the money that was being generated for a "public radio" show. And gradually, I began to see that the Emperor had no clothes...or at least, feet of clay.
Age will make fine wine at first merely odd, later unpleasant, and finally no more than vinegar. I enjoy a little vinegar in foods sometimes, but not when I thought I was ordering fine wine.
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