I am quite alarmed! I am not alarmed by the most recent ludicrous comments by Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reily, Rush Limbaugh, etc. I’m not even particularly alarmed by the actions (or inactions, if you prefer) made by John Boehner and his band of happy, hateful obstructionists. I am dismayed. I am angered. I am frightened. But, I am no longer alarmed by them. I’ll explain that in a moment. What alarms me is that every time somebody posts one of these comments or actions on FB or Twitter it is followed by a thread of long, angry tirades of statements which can only be described as HATE SPEECH. Most of them appear to be coming from people who would describe themselves as liberals. I find this extremely alarming. These comments are coming from people who should know better. They are coming from people who claim to bear the standard of compassion. I find this shocking and appalling. The people who go on television or radio or in the Halls of Government to spout fear and loathing; The Glenn Becks, Ted Cruzes, and Scott Walkers of the nation, are being paid to say and do these things. They are merely shills. . I’ve come to realize that they are merely earning their thirty pieces of silver. I do not say to in any way excuse their actions. I am simply explaining what kind of demon we are facing. This being the case, our actions and anger must be directed at those who are paying them; at the corporate powers distributing the money to purchase our government and our political discourse. Even at that we must tread carefully. We must never let our anger direct or possess our actions. In doing so we would make ourselves as hateful and bitter as the words and actions of those we would oppose. We must channel that energy into positive, compassionate action. We must redirect the anger into serious, grass-roots organizing; boycotts, letter writing campaigns, marches, etc. There is much of this already in progress. We need more. Further, we need more people to become a part of them. Join a boycott or petition campaign. Take to the streets to make our frustration and disgust known to all. Above all VOTE! The is the most important thing you can do to fight back the insanity is to vote for candidates who are in some manner tied to reality in the coming elections. The Right tends to do well in these off year elections because we, on the Left, have a very bad habit of sitting these elections out. We must not do so in this year’s elections. All I’m saying, here, is that we can achieve far more by taking that anger with the Neo-Cons and transforming it into positive action. Long threads of hate speech serve no one. You only hurt your own soul with such statements. In so doing you hurt the cause. In doing that you hurt us all.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 02:54:03 +0000