2 posts tagged “politics”
As a young sailor, new to the Navy, fresh out of my home life in North Carolina, I found myself succumbing to the language of the sailors around me. At first of course, the guilt sat in the back of my mind (remembering my parents advice to me that filthy language was nothing more than a cover for ignorance). Eventually, as with any vice, the language became habitual.A few years later I married and a daughter was born to us. We were stationed in Spain at the time and my mother-in-law flew over to visit. We drove to the airport to pick up Mom and mere seconds after entering the car my daughter innocently blurted out a word she'd heard me say numberless times. The look my wife gave me spoke volumes; the hot flush in my face revealed my embarrassment. Hearing that language out of the mouth of my baby brought home to me the urgent need to break that habit. Where had this kind of language come from? Was it, as my parents said, a cover for my ignorance? Were these words used because I wasn't smart enough to know "real" words to use? Hardly, I was above average intelligence and could have found many words to replace the vulgar ones I used so commonly. No it wasn't that I was ignorant in the sense that I wasn't smart; it was that I was ignorant of what it really means to be respected. These were words I made myself learn to use because I wanted others around me to respect me as one of them. It wasn't until later that I found myself wondering how in heaven's name I could have expected respect for spewing such garbage out of my mouth!
So what's the point you say? I have refrained from commenting on the recent Edwards' "bloggers" for a couple of reasons - first, in the left and right, back and forth, mud slinging there were rarely seen any honest opinions or reporting; second, I had to consider whether I was actually offended more by the bloggers past history of postings or John Edwards' disingenous "apology"! For myself, I feel sorrow that anyone has the hardness of heart reflected in such words as those written by Ms. McEwan and especially Ms. Marcotte. After all, the posts which have caused such controversy were their personal opinions on their personal blogs - not the Edwards' campaign platform posted on the campaign blog. But I did have to ask myself -- who hired these women and were they aware of the hateful speech on their blogs? Does this kind of mentality lie just beneath the proper front put on by any political campaign? It would only be fair to ask the same question about every campaign. In the end the comments of these women are no less hateful and discriminatory than the language of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist congregation. Both are, IMHO, equivalent.
On the other hand did Bill Donohue speak out of turn? Did he actually (as some would have you believe) put the lives of these two bloggers in danger by his words? Just as the bloggers had expressed their beliefs Bill Donohue was expressing his. As President of the Catholic League he was doing what so many of us want to -- standing up for "the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination". Astoundingly the critics of Mr. Donohue are calling his language hateful and vile all the while sympathizing with the women who's language was truly hateful and vile. The language used by Marcotte is a hallmark of many who lead a homosexual lifestyle - not all - but certainly many. Intolerance can go both ways - no one can expect respect from anyone for whom they themselves have no respect.
In all of this one thing is clear to me; ignorance abounds. Ignorance of the true teachings of the Catholic Church (and Christianity in general) on the parts of both Christian and anti-Christian parties and an unwillingness to face the reality of the consequences of our actions, our words, our beliefs. Harden not your hearts for it is from your heart that your soul is reflected outwardly to others.
Well then the Democrats will not. Period.
Seems the Dems are very good at lots of things - whining, complaining, and opportunistic flip-flopping. (These appear to be attributes of any political party in the minority, so we've probably seen the Republicans behave the same way at some point, but I digress).
The President's speech wasn't bad at all. I hadn't planned on listening but said my rosary early and didn't have anything else to do so I listened. I've got to tell you that, despite assertions to the contrary, I believe the President has stuck to the same very general line regarding the "war on terror" all along. If we don't find the terrorists on their territory we'll be fighting them on ours (if you doubt that then take a look at the demographics for Muslim immigrant populations in the West - somewhere in those hundreds of thousands there have got to be like-minded Jihadists - it's inevitable). Diplomacy and political solutions may seem like attractive solutions here, but diplomacy and politics will turn out to be pawns in the hands of the terrorists that will be used against us. While we talk they'll be acting. It's happened before with so-called "civilized" countries.
The problem isn't the President, it's we, the "make love, not war" American people, swayed by every wind that blows, who can't decide what we want. Is Iraq like Vietnam? Well if it isn't it soon will be and not because the military can't do their part but because the political body and public will aren't in the game. Our military is hanging in with the mission but at some point the hoo-hah in the Congress and the media is going to get to them and when that happens morale will begin to plummet and Iraq will go to hell in a handbasket just as fast as Vietnam did. Then some weenie politician will start talking about "peace with honor" and before we know it we'll be evacuating U.S. citizens from the Green Zone with helicopters while "insurgents" try to blow 'em out of the sky.
Have the Dems always been against sending more troops to Iraq? Ha! Don't even believe it! The deal is this: if the President is for it, then the Dems are against it . . . or not . . . or vice versa . . . or whatever. They seem to have a difficult time deciding for themselves! As recently as last month leading Democrats voiced support for more troops in Iraq for precisely the reason the President stated in his speech that he was sending them. See "We Can’t Afford to Leave" and "Harry Reid: More Troops to Iraq!" and
here’s Nancy Pelosi in her pre-Speaker days on May 30, 2004, on Meet The Press:
MR. RUSSERT: Would you send more American troops in order to stabilize the situation?
REP. PELOSI: Yes.
To be fair, she was trying to say that we should get international troops to go, but Russert asked her (several times) that if they refused, should we send American troops, and her answer was a clear-cut “yes”. (Pelosi Was For A Surge Before She Was Against It)
'Nuff said. You can rant all day long about the Church's position on war but the fact is that the Church apparently isn't a player in the U.S. Congress' decisions. It would be great not to be fighting in Iraq but we are fighting in Iraq. What we need to do now is put our will into the war in Iraq, help the Iraqis take control of their country and their government and then move on to the next fight (which is certain to be looming well before Iraq's dust has begun to settle).
P.S. - I've been a registered Democrat my entire voting life so don't think, after reading this post, that I'm Republican etc. I view the Republicans as (barely) the lesser of two evils at present. The Democrats have embraced virtually every one of the cultural and social issues that are festerinig at the core of our society; the Republicans on the other hand are, as always, looking out for each other (i.e. Big Business at the cost of almost everything else). Both have demonstrated clearly that theirs is self-interest and little more. Efforts to reform our Congress to invigorate ethical and trustworthy behaviors have failed miserably -- neither party is truly interested in real reform, they just talk about it as though they are doing something but in fact never do anything meaningful. Disgusting and we will pay for this eventually.
