It's one thing to be political. I'm a progressive, generally speaking. I dislike President Bush and his administration most of the time. Take a random Republican and chances are, I'll disagree with him or her more often than not.
But as political as I am, I am not political every single living, breathing moment of my life. Sometimes, I'm just a human being. Yet some people, both in the blogsphere and in the real world, are pathologically unable to view anything in a non-political context, even the tsunami tragedy.
I don't know how many exchanges I've read that have involved some elements of this:
ABBer: It's the day after the tsunami and Bush hasn't jettted off to Sri Lanka.
BUSH SUPPORTER (B.S.): If he had, you would've complained about him doing just a photo op. He wants to actually do stuff, not just 'feel your pain' like some presidents who shall remain nameless.
ABB: He could've at least emerged from his cushy vacation to say "Wow that sucks!" Any person with a heart would be devastated by this, but obviously Bush doesn't qualify.
B.S. Kofi Annan hasn't said anything either but you liberals aren't whining about him.
ABB: Yea well it's two days after the tsunami and Bush has only donated a few million dollars.
[the next day, Bush kicks in a bit more money]
B.S.: See, Bush kicked in a lot more money. He just wanted to wait to see how bad things really were. Now you Bush- and America-haters should eat your words.
ABB: No, he only kicked in more money BECAUSE we embarassed him into doing it.
B.S.: And now the UN minions are pissed off that we're doing stuff on our own instead of through them, like they have a monopoly on virtue.
ABB: Maybe because they want to avoid duplication and because people in that part of the world trust the UN more than they trust Bush.
B.S. We should do this because it's the right thing to do but also because MUSLIM countries will see how wonderfully we treat MUSLIM people and then realize that we Americans are the most generous people on Earth and help everyone, be they Christian or MUSLIM... even though those Muslim scumbags celebrated when 9/11 happened. But mainly because it's the right thing to do... in those MUSLIM countries.
ABB: Tell them we're helping them only to buy their favor. Masters of subtlety, you are.
B.S.: Colin Powell just jetted off to Indonesia. Are you happy?
ABB: It's just a shameless photo op!
To people like this, I beg of you:
SHUT THE FUCK UP!.
I'm sorry to use profanity, but I find some people's politicization of the catastrophe to be a heck of a lot more obscene than Janet Jackson's breast or Dick Cheney's language.
There are at least 150,000 people dead. Countless villages destroyed, countless orphans. There are tens of millions of people who are homeless and have lost their livelihood. No human being with a soul should give a rat's behind about whether the reaction to the tsunami will help or hurt the president. None of the above conversation really has a bloody thing to do with the victims of this tragedy.
And that's what bugs me the most. None of these screamers care a whit about the tragedy or its victims. They're just crassly using the catastrophe as a proxy for their political agendas.
I remember when a local soldier was killed in Iraq and the paper ran a photo of his widow and son Christopher at the funeral. It was a very powerful photo, probably the most powerful one I've ever seen published in that paper. A number of letters to the paper followed along the lines of "I hope little Christopher appreciates the sacrifice of his father made toward our freedom" or "I hope one day, someone can explain to little Christopher why his dad was forced to die in that folly."
I was disgusted by these letters. None of these writers gave a damn about "little Christopher." They were only pretending to address him. The 9 year old boy was merely a prop used by these folks to advance their support the president or criticism of the war. People are doing the same thing in this tsunami.
If you want to be an apologist for the administration or to bash him mercilessly, use some other issue. There are plenty out there. To exploit the victims of this incredible catastrophe in such a callous manner is beneath contempt.
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