Sunday, September 6, 2009

Sunday Sermon

I haven't told you, but I got into a bit of a blog snafu the other day (who ME? A snafu?). I read, regularly, the blog of a person who writes well and passionately about causes that she really believes in. Her opinions are usually very well thought out and I enjoy reading them because they are the polar oppposite to my own, politically. Last Friday she wrote a bit about this education debate and the address that Obama is going to give this Tuesday to public school children. In her comment section (and I'm not giving the link because I know my own readers and most would find it incendiary!), though, were several remarks that I personally found ignorant and outrageous, the sort of stuff you hear on prime-time cable news -- you know the stuff that Rush and Glen and all the other buffoons espouse and then fan into hysteria -- anyway, I opened my very big mouth and quicker typing fingers and shot off a comment of my own that then engendered what I wouldn't call a discussion but a defense of what this blogger said. And in one of those comments the word racist was flung, the insinuation being that since I'd made a sarcastic remark about Texas being the source of all this bullshit about the Obama speech and how I was glad that I didn't live in Texas, well, I was a racist.

And that made me MAD AS HELL. But  the person who called me a racist was actually, really ignorant about what a racist is and what it actually meant. And when the dust settled and she had apologized quite gracefully and I had compromised by admitting to some prejudices, all seemed well.

And I walked around most of the weekend, thinking about the exchange and at turns feeling sickened by not so much it, the "debate" in the comment section of a blog, but by the significance of The Thing. By my certainty that what is happening in this country around Obama is something unprecedented, something almost unclean and deeply, deeply serious. And it makes me nervous and anxious and almost ready to get the hell out of Dodge and move to another country. I don't want to make peace with people who listen to Rush and Glen Beck and wear guns at town hall meetings because they can. I don't want to come to some sort of compromise with people who keep asking whether Obama has certified that he was born in this country. I don't want to be friends with people who think their children are going to be brainwashed by socialism if they listen to the President give a twenty minute speech in their public school classroom. I don't want to be compassionate toward those who throw around the terms "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and "liberty" in the same sentence while they advocate torture and innocent slaughter of tens of thousands of people in countries tens of thousands of miles away.  Perhaps I'm growing more and more intolerant, but I'm just weary of trying to be tolerant of the intolerant. Because the truth is that I don't care if my children are educated about socialism, and I don't care whether the phrase "under God" is in the Pledge of Allegiance or not. I don't care what public official has had what kind of affair with whomever, as long as it's not interfering with his duties as a public servant. I really don't care.

I could rant and rant forever, I suppose, but I won't. I'm tired.

And now I'll direct you to the most kick-ass Sunday Sermon I've read in a long time, from my friend Ms. Moon at Bless Our Hearts. Go read it by clicking HERE.
(and now do I say, God Bless America?)!!!!!

13 comments:

  1. Dear God, Elizabeth. You and I are sisters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can I be a sister too?

    Because I love you ladies.

    Agree. Agree. Etc, endlessly, agree.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just posted for the first time in Ms Moon's blog. I read her often but seldom feel that I have anything of value to contribute.
    But today she touched on what I believe, and told you the other day here: this has nothing to do with socialism but with some other form of "ism" that has been the badge of shame in our country to those who believe in decency and truth.

    The dirty little secret of racism.
    Time to stop ignoring the ignorants because we believe we are intellectually superior to them and we still believe that the truth will shine forth. It won't unless we give it a push right in their faces. I realize that no one wants to enter into a wrestling match in the mud with a pig.

    But in extreme times one must remember that those who tamper with the road signs are evil. They are ignorant indeed, but most of all, they are evil.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can I tell you, with all due respect, that from up here in Canada, it looks scary. I am scared for you guys.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am nodding vigorously with Claire. Please consider moving up here to Canada if it comes to that.

    (Praying it doesn't.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What cheers me up is being around young people. They aren't as burnt out and cynical as we are: they still believe in reason and rationality and possibility. Maybe it's naivete, but the energy is inspiring and even comforting. It's a cliche I suppose, but they can carry the banner forward. I try to follow Obama's example, at least as it appears on the surface: calm, steady, always moving forward, don't let the bastards get you down, keep to the higher ground. People are operating out of fear that a way of life is being lost. It's a real fear, even if a misguided (to say the least) fear. But truth and kindness will prevail.

    At my daughter's college convocation, the president of the university played a snippet from The Times They Are A'Changing. Many of the parents had tears in their eyes, crying for lost dreams and wanting to believe, or so it seemed to me; not to mention the fact that our lives as we left our kids there, were about to drastically change on a personal level. The kids? They just looked psyched! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. One word: AMEN! Thanks for writing this.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What are people so afraid of? Maybe we never grew out of the commie under every bed phase of our national psyche. I think they're afraid of REAL freedom and liberty. Their imposed, pseudo-freedom is really really messed up stuff.

    As a family we always listen to the president speak - no matter who he is - it's our right to listen - and then to agree or disagree. No brainwashing goes on. Just thoughtful and careful listening.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Elizabeth this is a fantastic post. I am not American but I still know how I feel and I feel just like you.

    First off, maybe you were a state'ist and not a racist. Is that an acceptable 'ist?

    And of course I know you are not that either state'ist.

    I think maybe it is time that we be intolerant of the intolerant. Maybe it is time that more people state their opinion on a retarded opinion.

    Okay goddess I am backing off.

    Love Renee a.k.a. intolerant of the intolerant.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A Fine Rant. We found out recently that Roger (my husband) is able to claim Canadian citizenship, due to a recent change in Canadian law. His mom was a Canadian citizen when she married his dad (an American), and because Roger and his older brother were born before she completed her American citizenship, they are considered Canadian citizens, should they choose to make the claim. And the three of us, me, Robert, and Edith, would get residency status. It's tempting. I grew up an hour south of Montreal and my grandmother's people were quebecois.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh thank you thank you THANK YOU! I was part of an ugly exchange about the speech to schoolchildren this weekend and I have been so very upset by it -- not by the comments my mother made as much as that it is even an issue. I am so upset, thinking that this man is President of the freaking United States and it still isn't enough. It will never be enough. I daresay I am heartbroken over this.

    Anyway, I feel a bit better having run across someone else who feels as I do. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Go ahead and say God bless America. American needs it. I get the feeling that the news media have given President Obama the shortest honeymoon in history, and in some bizarre concept of fairness, they are giving equal time to the right-wing wackos. NPR--yes, my trusted news source--is bringing Newt Gingrich out from under his rock. And all those who "ditto" Limbaugh's hope that Obama fails have been given the status of the loyal opposition.

    While I enjoyed reading Ms. Moon's Sunday sermon, I'm pretty certain that the righties would be savaging a President Clinton, Kerry, Dodd, Dean or Biden. And the news folks would treat them just as seriously

    ReplyDelete
  13. YES!!!!!!! I've had long, drawn out posts typed up about my bias against conservatives, but never hit publish. It would offend so many and that's really not my intention. But I'm getting tired of, like you say, being tolerant of the intolerant. I'm sorry, but as soon as I learn someone is Conservative/Republican/a card carrying member of the Southern Baptist Association, I judge. I already know what they stand for and how they think, and I don't want any part of it. I can admit that my judging is wrong..on many levels. But from my vantage point, their beliefs and values are inherently evil, and I want no part of that! (You can imagine the joy I have, living in Georgia!).

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...