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| What It Feels Like To Be A Leftist |
Posted on 12/05/2002 9:12:27 AM PST by damn proud liberal
Edited on 12/05/2002 9:23:34 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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| What It Feels Like To Be A Leftist |
During my 1980s peace activist days, my mom made the mistake of letting me say grace before one Thanksgiving meal. I’ve never been one to just mindlessly repeat some prayer drummed into my head in Sunday school class - that’s way too uncreative. So I thought hard and came up with something like this: "God, thank you for letting us live in a country where we have the freedom to sit around a dead bird trying to think of things we’re thankful for, as many people around us lose their jobs and homes and can’t carry out this dead-bird tradition."
That was the last time my mom called on me to say grace.
In recent Thanksgivings, my family has tried to put politics aside. The family meals with my mostly Republican relatives are usually civil because we attempt to avoid the "P" topic. The arguments simmer just below the surface, as we talk about sports, the weather, our kids, and similar topics. Sometimes we have genuine family moments by reliving some funny incident of our youth, mostly related to our long-dead dog, Boots, who was a canine Houdini who never met a harness or fence or other obstacle he couldn’t conquer. That dog taught me a lot about perseverance, of fighting for freedom. As much as it was a pain to constantly run around the neighborhood after him, sometimes for hours, I admired his spunk. Boots refused to be caged, to submit to the will of his "masters." No matter how dire the situation, he always found a way to protest, to stick his uncivil disobedience back in our faces, exposing our hypocrisies in the process. As we laughed at Boots ripping off a neighbor’s chicken from a grill, I understood the deeper messages behind that dog’s actions: He refused to be a slave.
So here I am, another Thanksgiving staring at me in the face, and I’m back sitting around a dead bird trying to think of what I’m thankful for. I mostly think of personal triumphs, as selfish as that seems. I’m thankful for the recent birth of our second child, a beautiful daughter. I’m thankful my young son continues to grow and learn and gain the strength he will need to survive in the coming decades. I’m thankful my wife and I are working more on our marriage and trying to find more family time. I’m thankful I continue to find enough free-lance, contract jobs to help pay the bills after being laid off from my reporting position with a major Texas newspaper last year. I’m thankful I am in good enough health to not have to see a physician in the past year, when I have been without health insurance for the first time since the late 1980s.
I look beyond myself and my family, and my list of what I’m not thankful for vastly overshadows my thankful list. I’m not thankful that Bush continues to push his far-right agenda, acting like he actually won the presidency in 2000. I’m not thankful that the Bush-Cheney oil cronies who control most of our country’s energy and war policies got their way with the United Nations and are pushing full speed ahead to take over Iraq’s lucrative oil business - the war has already started as we continue to bomb Iraq’s forces in the "no-fly" zones daily. I’m not thankful that we have no major political opposition to the Bush-Cheney forces of evil, as even new Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi has said she will not oppose Bush’s "war on terrorism" plans. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently was quoted saying that Democrats need to be stronger in their opposition. Meanwhile, she voted for major Bush policies, such as the terrorism legislation. I’m not thankful that many Democratic leaders talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. They end up sounding like Bush and other Republicans who issue empty rhetoric that is never backed up with action.
I’m not thankful that more than a year after the terrible terrorism tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, after which many people pledged to do more to help others, that we have more homeless people, more folks in poverty and need, and less funds going to help them. I’m not thankful that "compassionate conservative" is just another Orwellian phrase, along with "total information agency" and "waging war to keep the peace." I’m not thankful that Iran-Contra crook John Poindexter is now in charge of spying on all of us, especially those of us like yours truly who actually publicly voice dissent against the Bush administration.
I’m not thankful that more of my fellow Americans don’t rise up and join the numerous protests that have occurred against Bush’s Iraqi war and other policies, like the hundreds of thousands who turn out to protest Bush in Europe these days [OK, I’m thankful that some 200,000 people demonstrated in D.C. in late October, though the Republican-controlled mainstream media reported the numbers at less than 100,000]. I’m not thankful that the corporate media continues to mostly ignore people who oppose Bush and genuflect to the Bush money god, even as that god spits in the media’s face. I’m not thankful that we’re slip-sliding into totalitarianism, and most Americans won’t even rise from their couches to recognize it.
I’m not thankful that there has been no formal, independent investigation into how the Sept. 11 tragedy actually occurred – at least the white-wash Warren Commission provided a public paper trail record about the 1963 JFK assassination and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison led a public investigation in the 1960s. I’m not thankful that the U.S. continues to thumb its nose at the rest of the world, as seen in its recent pullout of a United Nations conference to finalize an international pollution agreement. I’m not thankful that the U.S. bullies and bribes other countries into supporting the Iraqi invasion, "war on terrorism," and other policies the Bush administration uses to keep Americans’ minds off the recession and other domestic issues. I’m not thankful that Republican apologists blame progressives like me for supposedly fomenting class warfare simply by pointing out the truth behind conservatives’ tax cuts for the wealthy and other measures that hurt the middle class and low-income people. I’m not thankful that I can be called unpatriotic and accused of treason for even mildly criticizing Bush, while conservatives could do and say whatever the hell they wanted against President Clinton in the 1990s without being called unpatriotic.
See, this list could go on a lot longer. Now I’ll give some more items from my thankful list.
I’m thankful that hundreds of U.S. high school students walked out of class recently as part of protests of Bush’s Iraqi invasion organized by Not in Our Name, even though some students were suspended. I’m thankful that the faces at the protests I attend are diverse, coming from all backgrounds and walks of life, and that many young people are concerned with such issues. I’m thankful there are organizations like Voices in the Wilderness and Fellowship of Reconciliation that have sent people to Iraq to risk their lives to try to stop that war.
I’m thankful that some people in government are taking stands against destructive Bush measures, such as a top EPA official who resigned in protest of that agency’s new bend-over-backwards policies towards big-business polluters. I’m thankful that we have the Internet and its many sites and newsgroups that keep us informed and connected during these dark times. I’m thankful that I continue to hear from many people who are concerned about our country’s direction, including those in the military who cannot directly voice their dissent. I’m thankful that some are looking into the suspicious crashes of Sen. Wellstone and other Democrats and don’t buy the standard "accident" claim. I’m thankful that our voices of dissent have yet to be crushed out entirely. I’m thankful that many of us, like my old dog, Boots, refuse to be slaves.
There are more things I’m thankful for and not thankful for, but I have to get back to sitting around that dead bird. I wonder what that turkey would say about the mess we’re in, if he or she could talk. Probably that we were the ones who created that mess, and it’s our responsibility to clean it up. And oh yeah, could we at least consider a moratorium on the dead-bird tradition?
". And oh yeah, could we at least consider a moratorium on the dead-bird tradition?
How about getting up from that table and form a "'Shoot and Release' Be Kind to Animals Society"?
ROFL!!! Hint to the ornithologically challenged: Turkey Buzzard != Turkey. They don't even look that much alike unless you're blind drunk and have a shoe-size IQ. And buzzard != bustard, either!
They have only hate.
You don't know what Freedom is and you can't even recognize clues. Your entire piece is a rant, completely full of slanderous lies, that trash other people that have refused to become your slaves. You're a propagandist for the left and complaining about other people that don't give you control, over the enterprise and wealth they've created, is all you can do.
Your enterprise is to collect emotionally gullible sheep and herd them to the D switch on election day and to the periodic riots you people invoke, when you don't get your own way. You are otherwise impotent, as in the note on your graphic. It's not just that you feel that way.
Keep your hands off my dinner.
I didn't have the patience to read the whole dreadful thing, so I will just have to be satisfied with picking apart your opening paragraph. My gag tolerance wouldn't allow me to read any further. I admire my fellow FReepers whose experience in dealing with people like you has built their tolerance up. I, however, am not of such vast expertise.
During my 1980s peace activist days
Since there wasn't really any American war going on then, I would have to say this is a vieled "When I was a lazy non-working puke"
, my mom made the mistake
You don't say !!
of letting me say grace before one Thanksgiving meal.
This is a misnomer, my friend. What you said certainly wasn't grace. More like anti-grace.
I’ve never been one to just mindlessly repeat some prayer drummed into my head in Sunday school class - that’s way too uncreative.
So what you are saying is that your parents forced your sorry butt to go to church, where you never learned the traits of gratefullness and appreciated for the care of others in your life. And your smart aleck response was a vain attempt to defer the twinge of guilt you felt at the time, although apparently your conscience and sense of thankfulness has long since died.
So I thought hard and came up with something like this: "God, thank you for letting us live in a country where we have the freedom to sit around a dead bird trying to think of things we’re thankful for, as many people around us lose their jobs and homes and can’t carry out this dead-bird tradition."
And you ought to be thankful that God didn't strike your sorry butt down at the time for such a high-handed demeanor. You fail to recognize, even now I bet, that you were talking to Almighty God at that time, and you will have to answer for it in the last day. My advice to you: Jesus said " I tell you, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish"
Sincerely, BSunday
Oh - wait - I just remembered your screen name. Never mind. You couldn't have a thought, let alone one that was original.
Best Regards,
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