Dixie Chicked in the heartland (New York Times/Salon DOUBLE Schadenfreude Alert! MUST READ!)

Salon ^ | May 22, 2003 | Chris Hedges

[AnAmericanMother]

Amen.

You can't use Marquis of Queensberry rules in a street fight.

Liberals have absolutely no compunction in using the strongest language to trash beliefs they don't share, secure in the knowledge that conservatives are "too polite" to challenge them. They use it against us.

And, BTW, I think it's all too plain where this guy's loony anti-war stand came from. He is focussed completely on the past and his feelings about his father. He's not only fighting the last war, he still thinks it's 1968. And his dad sounds like he was a piece of work too.

[bert]

....though it has definitely been the subtext to a whole lot of liberal rhetoric for ages......

Most of the left wing thought the issue of war was settled. The street battles of the 60's forevermore provided the precedent for no war, never, at any price. Peace is an ongoing state of human affairs and we must daily relish the absence of war in our lives.

There is genuine shock and awe when realization dawns and solid evidence knocks them about... they are just plain wrong. Their interpretation of history is built on the sands sliding away as the tide of the wat on terror rises.

[glory]

So poignant friend, especially after I just let in on the babbling mother crew at a kinder registration after I had had enough. That administration person couldn't get me out of their quick enough(all of a sudden the children were done with their eye and hearing exams and the debate was over as soon as I finally spoke up). It was then and there that my decision to homeschool my children was firmed up.j
And I don't live in a liberal area, but when it comes to schools, people in even conservative areas seem to lock step with liberals and "big unions" on this one. Oh and we have so many New Yorkers moving in to Ohio trying to escape the taxation that it is moving decidedly more liberal in the growing cow towns, particularly in an affluent one like this. What chaps my hide is these parents bemoan about extracurriculars getting cut(I would too, but for different reasons having to do with the boards unwillingness to tackle the largest part of the budget--teachers and admin's salaries and bennies) and these are people who live in 250k-400k homes IN CENTRAL OHIO! These are affluent folks who can afford their children's OWN extracurriculars, yet they want to spread the burden around.
argh--sorry to go off topic!

[7thson]

I will not attempt to deconstruct this commencement speech, as it is too long and some of you have done so already. There is ignorance of history, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism throughout. A friend sent me the audio of this speech and to listen to this is jaw dropping. The arrogance comes through immediately – listen to what I have to say you rabble – and it is a lecture, not a speech. What is interesting, at the conclusion, while the microphone is still on, you hear Hedges berating the college president. You have to turn up your speaker to hear this but you can hear it.

What I want to discuss is his last statement, which is –

Think finally of what it means to die for a friend. It is deliberate and painful; there is no ecstasy. For friends, dying is hard and bitter. The dialogue they have and cherish will perhaps never be re-created. Friends do not, the way comrades do, love death and sacrifice. To friends, the prospect of death is frightening. And this is why friendship -- or, let me say, love -- is the most potent enemy of war. Thank you.

Now, contrast his belief with this –

12"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14You are My friends if you do what I command you.” – John 15:12-14.

His last statement turns the word of Jesus on its head. For a divinity student, he seems not to understand Gods word. Perhaps he spent too much time reading Communist propaganda and not enough time learning the word of God.

To the poster stating we should politely listen to people we disagree with. Let me see – this guy Hedges trashed America, the current administration, the Jewish people of Israel, the American military, the military personnel, and concludes by contradicting God. I should stand quietly by and listen to all of this?! I agree with the other poster who said no more! What is it that posters on FR always say – never bring a knife to a gunfight! When you attempt to argue or fight with two sets of rules, if you continue to stick to your rules and expect your opponent to do the same, you will always lose. If someone is in the gutter throwing muck at you, you cannot stop that person unless you get in the gutter. You can always come back up from the gutter but those types of people never can rise above their allotted station in life.

[putupon]

"The Chicks" are scheduled at Madison Square Garden...

Looks like a challenge to the NYC area FReepers to me. If anyone ever deserved a Bronx cheer....

[wayoverontheright]

Because we no longer understand war, we no longer understand that it can all go horribly wrong. We no longer understand that war begins by calling for the annihilation of others but ends if we do not know when to make or maintain peace with self-annihilation. We flirt, given the potency of modern weapons, with our own destruction.

These are precisely the words Osama could use when he finally capitulates.

[ChemistCat]

I see your point and agree. In this context, you've changed my mind. HOWEVER, more coordinated resistance to the speaker would have been far more effective. It's a pity they couldn't have planned to sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or something after the speaker's rudeness began to show. Behaving like an unruly mob doesn't help the cause.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

I was at this dinner with a bunch of scientists. Real intellectual bunch.

One was a lefty, complete with jacket with patches on the elbows, that started up about Iraq (this was before we opened the can of whoop-ass). I launched into him cutting his ideas to shreads. My wife also dissected his sick worldview like few can. Did I mention I got a cool wife? :)

It was a little tense, but I loved it. I was very gratified to make the guy feel like a criminal and moral outcast. Made my freakin' night!

[mabelkitty]

There's a cool wind blowing across college campuses across this great nation of ours....

snicker snicker