on what's it's about in ADDITION to what it's about...
Tuesday, I posted a cartoon…statue of liberty holding a stopsign and the caption read…sorry folks, country’s closed…those state governors out front shoulda told ya…a Facebook friend took exception and posted that this whole issue was NOT about compassion….I had this to offer him in reply...
it is, in fact, about compassion, it's just not ONLY about compassion...it's about a nation that wears it's history of righting the world's wrongs for two hundred plus years like and Olympic Gold Medal while giving instantly into fear, panic and hysteria generated by hundreds, if not thousands, of
sources of misinformation...it's about a nation that screams in outrage at the potential "outlawing" of their Christian values, while turning their backs on a group of people who represent a stunning opportunity to exhibit those very values for no other reason than the aforementioned fear, panic and hysteria...it's about state governors politically pandering to their constituents while trying to cloak that pandering in a red, white and blue cloth of courageousness (when, in fact, the real courage would be exhibited by standing up for the morality and risking pissing off the majority...if JFK were alive today to write Profiles In Courage, it would be a pamphlet, max)...it's about allowing the very fear that ISIS and its ilk are trying to grow in this country to actually take root via the aforementioned fear and panic...and it's about EVERY thing setting everyone off and/or at each other as irrefutable proof that we are not only hair trigger fearful and panicky but what soul saving sense of humor we once had is yet another casualty...even something as innocuous as a goofy cartoon that could, provided the stick came out of the ass long enough, be seen as a sardonic lament for all the craziness we're all having to deal with....on lowering the river instead of raising the bridge...
I get that people are concerned about their safety and the safety of their loved ones…any person with any sensibility at all gets THAT….. and while I’ve still got enough of John, Paul, George and Ringo singing all we need is love in my head to feel regret about it and I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, that’s not the world we live in anymore…so the warm and welcome embrace of those who are trying to come to America to escape persecution in other nations has become,
inevitably, a stiff arm saying “easy now, there, tired, poor huddled mass yearning to be breathe free, park’s closed….statue of liberty out there should have told ya”.
and all week long, I’ve been hearing and reading people talking, shouting, yelling, in a ratio of about 50 to 1 near as I can figure, that Hell NO, we should slam the door, lock it, dead bolt it and make damn sure that the Syrian refugees are not allowed anywhere near the US or A…..
and like I said, I get it……here’s something else I get, too…
the nagging knowledge that a large part of the ISIS game plan is to instill fear, suspicion, panic and hysteria among the people in our neighborhoods, turning the people in our neighborhoods against one another, playing on our emotions, flipping our fear switches, turning us against not only refugees, but anyone that even begins to sound or look like they might be from the Middle East….filling us with terror….that’s why it’s called terrorism….and when they are able to do that, which they are currently able to do with great success, judging from the amount of fear and suspicion and panic and hysteria showing up in broadcasts and print and, most prolifically, social media, they are much much closer to achieving their ultimate goal….and I didn’t say they were winning because regardless of what old habits we are dealing with and the automatic almost instinctive way we tend to go there, there is nothing to win here…it’s not a game or a contest or a competition and we’re not going to get ANYWHERE until we get it into our thick noggins that this isn’t a damn Ravens game with guns and missiles instead of footballs…..and… “we wont come back till its over over there” might well up the red white and blue tears and make Charlie Daniels proud of you, but it’s as outdated as the pony express, the eight track tape and really, sincerely good customer service….
cause what ISIS is doing isn’t warfare…it’s nilhism…look it up and read about it….you need to know what it is….here’s the dictionary definition: “ the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless…extreme skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence”….why do you think ALLAHU AKBAR is the rallying cry for so many of these attacks?
…it translates, literally, as GOD IS GREATER…and that means, to them, greater than man…greater than woman….greater than Jesus or Buddah or even Kanye…greater than any earthly religion or earthly morality…and, yes, most assuredly, greater than you or anyone you love…….they’re not screaming Heil Hitler in tribute to one lone psychopathic wannabe king of the world or Banzai! which means long life! or long live the king, but the king, in this case, being the earthly king, or emperor, of Japan…they’re screaming out the name of their God and pretty much saying, open up the gates, God, I’m headed your way and, oh, I’m bringing a hundred or a thousand or a million with me….here’s this week’s offering: 159 infidels from Paris, France….
...they don’t want our land, they don’t want our freedoms, they don’t want our money, they don’t want our possessions, they don’t want anything from us… they WANT the apocalypse… they are, in living color and very real life, exactly like the aliens in the movie Independence Day who, when asked what they want, reply very simply…we want you to die…
okay…when your enemy wants you to die…and that’s ALL your enemy wants, then your choices of response are pretty much laid out for you…they consist of one….they have to be destroyed…them or us…..
at the same time, it’s critical to understand that this threat is NOT like the Nazis or the Japanese or the North Vietnamese…ISIS is a rip tide and the more we struggle against it in conventional ways, the wearier we will get and the more likely it is that we will be overcome….we have to play it smart…redneck bomb droppin’ is all very ass kickin but, here’s a thought….next time you’re got in a rip current, try ass kickin’ by itself and see what happens
can’t speak for you…wouldn’t want to do that…or I’d get myself a show on Fox News or MSNBC…..what I can do is offer you this….
I get it…..I know what we have to do…..
it’s not the what that’s going to make the difference as to how we come out on the other side, though….
It’s the how...
on turning your back...without turning off your mind...
Selfish, scared, hysterical, entitled, spoiled, hypocritical bigotry contributes NOTHING ….not assistance, not comfort, not inspiration and MOST CERTAINLY, not victory…over ANYTHING….victory over this kind of evil will be found by thinking like the Americans that you think you are….the Americans that we used to be…the Americans we’re SUPPOSED TO BE---the Americans that when faced with seemingly impossible challenges, roll up sleeves, figure out how to rally able bodies and figure out HOW to get it done....like the GOOD guys….and not like leaders of the lynch mob who go around screaming we’re the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD while at the same time offering up NOTHING but the very un-American qualities of hatred and prejudice and panic and hysteria...and stupidity.
we’re NOT the greatest country in the world anymore….but we sure used to be…and we can be again….and NOT because somebody wears a ball cap that says so while what comes out of his mouth is how we should crate up all the people we don’t trust or maybe we just don’t like, ship them back to where they came from and then slam and lock the door….or that people of another religion should be registered like sex offenders and carry ID cards or that places of worship should be monitored….
If you're that dead-set on not allowing refugees, as I’ve said…I get it
on mongering and monsters and real life madness...
there's a particular episode of the TV series " The Twilight Zone" that focuses on fear and suspicion and prejudice and how those things can turn friends, even family, against each other---it's entitled The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street...more on that in a moment...
one of the primary goals of nihilistic terrorists is to instill fear and turn people against each other…evil is a mindset that feeds on fear…and you can’t defeat mindsets with fighter jets and battleships…you have to OUTSMART mindsets…which means you have to be smart and think smart and play it smart…we should turn OUR backs on the kind of message that some of the candidates are spewing, for example, Donald Trump with his Muslim citizen registry, Ben Carson with his rabid dogs, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush only Christian refugees should be allowed in…and forget about their obvious lack of humanity and pandering to the very worst in us, it’s enough that NONE of those approaches is the smart move …they’re not smart…they’re not a savvy and strategic plan for some brilliant moves on a world chessboard…they’re just fear mongering from the good guy side…. it actually makes it easier for those terrorists and not more difficult…I don’t think any of those people are bad guys and I’m not saying they’re on the side of the terrorists….but their approaches appeal ONLY because they make our challenges seem easy to fix…cage up the immigrants and send them home…blow the *** out of ISIS…make everyone say Merry Christmas...easy, right? well actually, plain and simple is more like it…but plain and simple ain’t necessarily easy what IS easy?.........it’s frighteningly easy to get too many people stirred up by playing to their insecurities and fears…vote
on how to be of assistance while not being an asshat...
YOU WANNA HELP? stop the spread of misinformation--- Newsflash people, the attackers in Paris were not refugees, they were from Belgium. Do your homework. if you don’t KNOW for a unimpeachable fact that something is true and can provide rock solid evidence, then shut up
YOU WANNA HELP stop the panic and fear that comes from hearing and believing information before you’ve proven it to be unimpeachably true…of the many “last things we really need right now” one of the main last things we really need right now is this fever pitch game of telegraph people get sucked into…if you don’t know for sure that something threatening is true, then calm down…stop yammering...listen more…seek correct information more…and, again, if you don’t KNOW for a fact that something is true ,then shut up
YOU WANNA HELP? reject bigotry that’s disguised as patriotism…pretend that every time you open your mouth about refugees or terrorists or government or politicians, you’re being over heard by a five year old…and why, for any reason, would you want to send a five year old the conflicting messages of “in America, people are considered innocent until proven guilty” and and America is a wonderful land filled with amazing opportunities for people of all races, creeds and colors and religions and, then, in the same breath “we gotta round up all them dark skinned, bearded, kitchen towel wearin’ murderers, oh, along with all those olive skinned, Spanish yammering wet back mother f==== and send em back to where they belong….or, even better yet, let’s send em all to Hell…” a flag pole or staff is meant to enable us to fly and display the Stars and Stripes…it’s not meant to be a club to beat people we don’t like or trust senseless….
every generation has had plenty of voices hating the president………and you know what? this country has survived for over 250 years in SPITE of those haters not BECAUSE of them----and all social media does is provide a brighter and broader spotlight to shine on the kind of morons that have been with us since the first bunch of them that Adam and Eve came across after getting evicted---
YOU WANNA HELP?....reject and ignore Christians who use Jesus as an excuse, not an example
turning our backs on another when that other is in need is a personal choice…and its our prerogative in a world in which our God has given us free will…turning our backs on another when that other is in need, though, while standing under a huge banner that reads Christianity spoken here is one of the primary reasons that so many people, myself included, refuse to swallow the message when the message is so saturated with the taste of hypocrisy…..
protecting the lives of your loved ones is your first priority and that is as it should be…but, Christians, please direct me to the exact Scripture that tells us we should crunch bones and/or spirits as we trample over people in the panic to get ourselves and our loved ones inside so we can slam and lock the door…..which “Thou Shalt Not” is that one, exactly? I can’t recall…help me out
on Charlie and Caitlyn and courage...oh, my...
courage is NOT---coming forward to talk about contracting HIV after having , for years, lived a lifestyle of drugs and reckless sex and pure hedonism
courage IS---doing EVERYTHING possible to set an example for young people to avoid that lifestyle….
courage is NOT---trying to overcome the brain damage caused by a cheating on a Kardashian, getting tossed out, moving into a whorehouse and drinking, drugging and screwing yourself INTO brain damage for five straight days
courage IS---owning the infidelity and dealing with the consequences…in a healthy way
courage is NOT---dressing up like a woman, presenting oneself as a symbol of the fight against gender bias while actually trivializing that fight by cashing the six figure checks from a reality show and ridiculously babbling in public about the overwhelming challenge of wardrobe choice…
courage IS…BECOMING a woman if that’s where the struggle takes you and doing it in a way that inspires…not a way that exploits----
AND COURAGE IS NOT….laying out a huge portion of hatred and prejudice and fear and hysteria, wrapping it in an American flag and calling it “patriotism”
courage IS…finding some way to keep you and yours safe ALONG WITH lending a helping hand NOT INSTEAD of…
on putting the blame in ALL the places where blame belongs...
all this past week, the phone calls to Dan and Susan and Jared have been plentiful and the Facebook pages have been filled with folks all over Delmarva voicing their opposition to the idea of the possibility of Syrian refugees coming to Delaware…as with any situation where the public at large has a say, the comments have run the gamut from insightful to intolerant, reasonable to ridiculous and erudite…to embarrassing...the embarrassing contributions come from people who are clearly either uneducated or uninformed or bigoted or even just deep down frightened and letting that fear cause them the kind of panic and hysteria that makes people think and say stupid things….one of the reasonable points a lot of people have made is their resentment that suddenly, with little or no hesitation, our government has, literally, a billion plus dollars to spend on lodging and food and other resources for foreign refugees while here in our own country, people are homeless, children go to bed hungry every night and huge numbers of those who have served and sacrificed for America in the armed forces are homeless AND hungry AND in need of medical attention and there NEVER seems to be enough money to provide those basic human needs….it’s a really hard pill to swallow to be asked, or told, actually, that we are going to do all we can for non- Americans when we can’t even do the least we SHOULD do for Americans….
no one can say that’s not a fair point….and absolutely true….
and from Facebook to Twitter to news comment sections to over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house, there is an insane amount of blame being doled out…let me run you a quick list of places and or people that have been getting whomped good with the blame stick….
governors who are willing to allow refugees to enter their state, pretty much assuring that entire neighborhoods will be blown up or beheaded or both…or so its thought…or suspected…or well, yeah, that’s what’ll happen, for sure…maybe---
politicians who have plenty of money to spend on foreigners but none to spend on our veterans and our civilian homeless—
Muslims, because if you believe most of what you read, it’s clear a lot of America believes that Muslims are all evil and need to be eliminated
ISIS because, well, that’s one undebatable one, isnt it” because they ARE evil and need to be eliminatedoh...and Barack Obama…because to those who just cant function without hating, he’s a Muslim, he’s the Anti Christ, he was on the grassy knoll in Dallas that day in 1963, he kidnapped the Lindbergh baby and, of course, he’s not really an American, what with being a Muslim from Kenya and all of that….oh, and as long as we’re honing our hating skills, let’s just stop dancing around it and call him what he is…black…..
okay, well, here’s one more that in fairness needs to be added to the list of those who should shoulder some of the blame…..
that would be us….
all of us….
and lemme tell you why….
we deserve some of the blame because: it’s a scary time….and it’s natural and more than acceptable that we should want to think first about protecting our loved ones from any possible dangers….but, you know what? it’s ALWAYS a scary time in this country, in this world, in this LIFE…in one way or another, it’s always BEEN a scary time in the country, in this world, in this LIFE and not so long ago when it came to scary times and the possible dangers lurking within them, those of us who enjoy proudly calling ourselves Americans, when faced with the dangers and fears of those scary times rallied to deal with those challenges….without hesitation, threats to our families, threats to our nation brought us together, brought us closer, brought out the BEST in us, as a nation, as a people, a s individual human beings….
we deserve some of the blame because…the hatred, the bigotry, the panic, the irrational, the hysterical, the selfish…the list, sadly and embarrassingly, goes on….and it’s not just because we’re letting fear wash over us and change us from a strong, united citizenry determined to protect our loved ones while still holding true to our traditional American values into an angry, and at the same time, scared lynch mob, slamming doors in the faces of those who might honestly need our help and bitterly fighting amongst ourselves like two panicky people squabbling over the last piece of bread in a war torn kitchen….our first instinct used to be tearing the bread in two and sharing it….and it’s not just that this latest threat to our nation’s security is not only NOT bringing out the best in us, but , prove me wrong, and I bet ten bucks you can’t, it’s bringing out the WORST in us instead….
and we deserve some of the blame because here’s what WILL and WONT happen in the coming days and weeks---
What WILL Happen is that angry, scared people by the millions will slam and lock THEIR doors and demand that both their state AND their nation slam and lock THOSE Doors
What WONT Happen is any concerted effort by those angry scared people to contribute in any way, shape or form to helping those in need in another way, or any way for that matter
What WILL happen is the Facebook profile pictures will pretty rapidly turn back to smiling human faces and/or adorable pet faces and those tri color “we stand with Paris” tint things will go into their Facebook photo archive along with “we stand with Ferguson” “we stand with Charlie Hebdo” “we stand with Kim Davis” and on a September morning not so long ago “we stand with New York”… and all the many and varied places that we have stood and stand from time to time
What WONT Happen is our taking time out of our busy lives to organize and attend rallies by thousands, literally standing together and letting it be known that terror and fear and hatred are not only not acceptable in this country, they’re NOT going to be tolerated anymore in this country…..
What WILL happen is that we’ll bitch and piss and moan about what a lousy, even criminal, job our elected officials are doing
What WONT happen is a change in the rate at which this country re-elects incumbents 96%
What WILL happen is we will gather together with family and friends on Thursday to eat ourselves into unconsciousness, snooze peacefully in front of the 60 inch flat screen for at least two of four quarters of the game and line up for the ready set go of mob rule as Black Friday sales prove to be yet one MORE thing that brings out the WORST in us…
What WONT happen is lining up in front of the local or national Veterans Administration office, the local or national Department of Housing and Urban Development, our local congressman’s office or house or even the White House itself by the hundreds of thousands and letting it be dynamically, but peacefully, known that WE AINT GOIN NOWHERE until our veterans are housed and fed, that our homeless are sheltered and fed, that our elderly have the medicines and care they need….
these kinds of challenges used to bring out the best in us….
but if the BEST of us was in sight here, wouldn’t that mean we would stop all this vicious, nasty, even violent arguing about whether we should protect our families OR help the homeless and our veterans and our seniors OR help those from other countries trying to escape evil and find a new life in America and, instead, be rolling up sleeves and rallying in large groups, NOT to protest or incite but to find the way to protect our families AND help our homeless and our veterans and our seniors AND help those from other countries trying to escape evil and find a new life in America?
can’t speak for you…won’t speak for you…I can only speak for me: I’ve read and heard way too many people on way too many TV news shows and radio talk shows and social media posts saying NOTHING that sounds like “we’re Americans, let’s get this done” and way too many that say nothing more than “that’s THEIR problem….we can’t even take care of ourselves and our own who are in need….we’ve got no room for THEM or THEIR kind”….
and, like I said at the very beginning of the show tonight, I get it….but this kind of “America first” isn’t anything to be proud of…cause it’s just fear and hatred and selfishness and laziness and arrogance…..
too bad we can’t talk about THAT…and how we’ll re-elect 96% of the people doing that terrible, terrible job of leading us….. as we gather together with family and friends on Thursday to eat ourselves into unconsciousness, snooze peacefully in front of the 60 inch flat screen for at least two of four quarters of the game and line up for the ready set go of mob rule as Black Friday sales prove to be yet one MORE thing that brings out the WORST in us…
so while we’re shoveling out and piling up the blame…..let’s not forget to be fair and include ourselves……
cause liberty and justice and fairness?....why, that’s what America is all about---isn't it?
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