Sarah Palin's contempt for human life

"When I give food to the poor, I'm called a saint. When I ask why they are poor, I'm called a communist." -Archbishop Dom Helder Camara.

Leaving aside the pomposity and shameless nationalist pandering of the Sarah Palin's other remarks, the conservative diva and Tea Party darling claimed, "I would hope that our leaders in Washington, D.C., understand we like to be a dominant superpower."

For a woman who equated geographic proximity to Russia to foreign policy knowledge, it should be to no one's surprise that she has no clue that geopolitics is an Xbox game.

The lives lost are those of real humans beings. The lives lost are those of the sons and daughters of real Americans... as well as many of Palin's loathed "fake Americans" from places like Vermont and California.

Oh yea, some humans from the countries who Palin is happy for us to aggress are slightly impacted by all this too.

For her to be so flippant and casual about human life should automatically disqualify from ever being near the White House.

Bush's fraud, America's shame

If you support a progressive agenda, then support a progressive candidate.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that President Bush's so-called Freedom Agenda has proven to be a massive fraud. It was pretty obvious even when it was being enunciated that it was nothing more than a smokescreen to launch our own wars of aggression (against Iraq, for example) and to support others (Ethiopia's against Somalia, for example). The only winner of these wars has been the military-industrial complex.

This piece in The New Republic shows how global authoritarianism has been skyrocketing the last several years despite, or more likely because, of the Bush administration's choices.

Even places that had been moving forward, like Lebanon, have now seen that progress disintegrate, if not worse. The Trotskyists in the White House said that once freedom bit Iraq, it would spread through the region like a plague. There's been a plague, to be sure, but it's been that of chaos and instability.

But some BushCheneyCo's actions have served as an inspiration for others.

The BBC reported on Africa's Guantanamo, located in Ethiopia. It's been reportedly used by the CIA to import kidnapees from all over and 'interrogate' them outside the jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court and those other pains in asses that demand, you know, things like legality and justice.

Just say the phrase: Africa's Guantanamo.

In past generations, when people wanted a shorthand for evil, they would use phrases like 'Auschwitz' or 'The Gulag.'

Now when they want an analogy for the unspeakable, they refer to something run in the name of those of us who claim to live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

This is the legacy St. John McCain wants to continue.

Of the many legal and moral crimes of the BushCheneyCo administration, their jihad against American values, their dismantling of everything we say we hold sacred, is perhaps the most damning of all.

Patriotism: something you say or something you do?

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When I posted my previous essay in another forum, a friend of mine left a note that read: one of the residents at her work, a Holocaust survivor, believes in the pledge of allegiance and I disagree with it.

I used to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I would omit the words 'to the flag' because I believe it's morally offensive to be asked to pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. I don't believe in cloth. I believe in values.

Americans, from the Founding Fathers to the GIs of World War II, did not sacrifice their lives for a piece of cloth. They did so for the values Americans claimed to hold dear.

But lately, I've stopped saying it. The main reason is that it's become something of no meaning to most Americans. Too many Americans intone it and claim to revere it but don't take its words seriously.

If one says one believes in one nation, then why do so many Americans treat other Americans like traitors because they disagree with them politically?

If one believes in a republic, then why do so many Americans support decisions that make us an empire?

If one believes in liberty and justice for all, then why do so many Americans support policies that deny their fellow Americans (and folks abroad) liberty and justice because they happen to have the 'wrong' skin color, political views, religion, ethnic background or socioeconomic status?

This is yet another example of how 'patriotism' has been twisted into empty gestures of cheap symbolism completely devoid of substance. Patriotism has become nothing more than closed-minded, insular nationalism. Patriotism has become something you say, not something you actually do.

Patriotism has become completely separated from civics. Saying you pledge allegiance to one nation, to America the republic and to liberty and justice for all means NOTHING unless you actually DO something to preserve and advance those values.

Talk is cheap. If you claim allegiance to these things, prove it. Put up or shut up.

Write letters to the newspaper. Organize or volunteer for a civic group. Attend a local government meeting. Run for office or help someone who is. Speak out. Expect things of your elected officials, because when you expect nothing, that's what you'll always get.

Is the Pledge of Allegiance something you truly believe in and want to put into action? Or is it just another ideological wedge in the petty culture wars? Is it something you just intone just because it's politically correct, because that's what everyone else does? Or does it express a set of values you're actually willing to put into action?

I think it's about time the silent majority takes back patriotism from those who've perverted it to ends contrary to commonly held American values. If you claim to be patriotic, then act like it.

When did decency become un-American?

Adirondack Musing had an interesting essay entitled America: the greatest country in the world. Here's my rant about it...

Around here, I've seen more than a few bumper stickers on pickup trucks that read 'The Power of Pride.' And it's spot on. Pride is a very powerful thing. Pride is necessary for healthy development. You can't do much good without a little self-belief. But pride also goeth before the fall. Excessive pride leads to downfall.

For the most part, the people most likely to brag loudly about the US being the best country in the world are the people least likely to have actually been to other parts of the world... and thus actually informed enough to make the comparison.

I have been to other parts of the world. And whether the US is the #1 or #2 or #7, it's certainly near the top. There are a few other countries I could see myself living in but not very many.

And one of the reasons it's near the top is because patriotic citizens are constantly trying to make it better, to fix its flaws. The real patriots, not the fakes who think that wearing a lapel pin or putting a flag on their porch absolves them from actually DOING SOMETHING to make their country better. Not the egomaniacs who think the country is perfect or that being great means standing pat. Not those who confuse empty symbolism with real patriotism.

Patriotism means love of country. In any love affair, symoblism is useful in small doses. People give their significant others flowers from time to time. But the key here is time to time. Any gesture is rendered meaningless if it's overdone. If it's too common, how can it be special? Don't you think something like the national anthem is demeaned by being played before things as ultimately trivial as boxing matches and rodeos? Isn't it a bit insulting to ask something as holy as 'God Bless America' in between loud, drunken tirades about how the Red Sox suck?

A love affair can not be solely based on these symbolic gestures. A fundamentally broken relationship will not be solved with a romantic dinner. Love affairs take hard work, not just fancy words and nice symbolism. Love of country is no different.

The Founding Fathers of this country knew that the US wasn't perfect and never would be. But they also knew that making and keeping it great required the constant commitment of people trying to make it better, of never being complacent. That's why the Constitution's preamble doesn't begin "in order to form a perfect union" but rather "...a MORE perfect union."

I love my country. I don't say it that often because to me, it seems implied. I am engaged in my community via socially useful (hopefully) volunteerism. I am engaged with it via politics.

But most tellingly, I think it's implied because I choose to live here. Although I think I could get an EU passport via my grandparents and could probably get a work visa for Canada, I choose to live in the United States. I choose to live here because it's my home. I choose to live here not by default, but because I want to live here.

I don't say I love my country that often because it seems braggart. It seems unnecessary. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves.

Some people are so insecure that they need everyone else in the world to shout how great America is. I don't. My belief in this country's potential is not going to be shattered because someone in Paris or Damascus says meanie things about the US of A.

The biggest reason for anti-Americanism is not because the US is a great country. They don't 'hate us because we're free,' as the self-delusional myth goes, no matter who 'they' is. They hate our government's policies... as do many Americans, of course. They hate our arrogance. They hate our meddling in other countries' affairs.

And that's not even getting into the massive hypocrisies involved in US foreign policy and the so-called war on terror. The anger at these hypocrisies illustrate that far from rejecting American values, many people around the world EMBRACE our values so much that they get angry when Americans and our government turn our backs on what we claim are our core values.

For far too many Americans, it's not good enough to think that we're the best country in the world. We're not content with that belief. We have to be universally canonized for that greatness. We have to rub people's noses in it. We have to break our arms patting ourselves on the back. Thanks is never good enough. We demand other people get on their knees and lavish regal praise on our benificence. And if they dare question a single policy decision made by our government, they are thrown in the trash bin with the other cheese eaters.

I don't know what it's like in sainted 'Middle America' but people here in upstate New York are not crude, brash, in your face, chest thumpers. I was taught to have pride in myself and my actions, but in a quiet, decent way. I was taught that I should let actions speak louder than words. I was taught that a good deed is its own reward. I was taught to be humble, not arrogant. I was taught that you treat people decently not because of some expectation of future, perpetual subservience but because it was the right thing to do. I was taught that you treat people decently because the whole functioning of society is dependent on civility.

When did these become un-American values?

"You would like nothing better than to hold grudges"

In my local paper, I caught a version of this article about the debate over casino gambling in Massachussetts. The piece talked about how religious folks that had previously been on opposite sides of the argument over gay marriage are now uniting to oppose casinos. It was supposed to make you feel warm and fuzzy about how ideologically different people can get along. And then I read this snipet:

"You would like nothing better than to hold grudges. But in government you can't do that," said Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a leading anti-gay marriage lobbying group whose mission statement says it's committed to affirming Judeo-Christian values.

Just think about that comment for a second: "You would like nothing better than to hold grudges."

This so-called Christian should be absolutely ashamed of herself.

This is exactly what's wrong with America. You have a group claiming to represent core Judeo-Christian values talking about the joy of holding grudges.

The only reason this "Judeo-Christian" group reluctantly chose to drop its grudge is only because it became politically expedient to do so.

I was raised a Catholic. The Catholicism I learned might be derided as "bleeding heart" or "cafeteria" in some quarters. But in contrast to Ms. Mineau, the version of Christianity I was raised with did not preach about how there is "nothing better" than holding grudges.

America is filled with so many people who are angry and nasty and who view those with differing political opinions as enemies, as dishonest, as evil. What America needs is more emphasis on honest dialogue and less emphasis on holding grudges.

Even if it doesn't fit some people's idea of Judeo-Christian values.