Ring side for the Battle of the Century...
In the Right corner, we have the awesomely powerful tag team of Christian Conservatives, Big Business, and Republican Party Elites. To your Left are the liberals and the leftists. Milling around the 'middle' is most of the country, a reluctant and disorganized group of...well...people who don't think of themselves as having anything in common. Therein lies the major problem facing our country. The Right is a symphony of rich powerful people who become richer and more powerful by exploiting everyone and everything else. Their music is beautiful, harmonic, and hypnotic. It speaks to us of heaven, wealth, and greatness.
Their score reads well to the ears of selfishness. It tells us that the poor deserve to be poor because the poverty is a personal failing. There is no reason to give to the poor, because it allows them to be lazy, weak, and dependent. Charity takes away money from those who earn it and gives it to the undeserving. "Welfare" is a dirty word in Right mouths because they have no interest in the welfare of others. They sing to the 'haves' and 'have mores' about pulling themselves up by their bootstraps while urging us to forget those with bare and bleeding feet. By their standards, the young, old, sick, and weak are undeserving of the government's charge to "protect the general welfare" of the American people.
Their melody is made up of pretty lies. Who could be against the "Clear Skies Initiative" or "The Healthy Forest Act"? Never mind that the "Clear Skies Initiative" actually clears the way for big polluters to recreate the problems that the original "Clean Air Act" addressed. Never mind that the axe of the administration has fallen on our national forests, felling the only thing standing in the way of America's lumber barons. Thanks to the president, they now have the ability to build logging roads into our national forests. All we have to do is think "healthy" as the Daniel Boone National Forest echoes with the hum of chainsaws instead of the songs of birds. We will have a nice healthy rape of the land, until no tree is left for our children or grandchildren to enjoy. It is only one national treasure, just a water shed for a few dozen counties. The Daniel Boone Forest only cleans the air for about half the state; maybe they will leave the Smokey Mountains one alone. What do you think?
They ask us to listen to the drumming thunder of the accusations of "Judicial Activism" and not see it as an attack on the independence of our judges. Who cares about a little thing like the Constitution, when Congress controls the purse strings for the courts? Maybe, nobody cares enough. What does it matter if the judge sitting on the bench in Kansas is or is not under the thumb of Christian Conservatives? He is only being asked to decide what children can be taught about the origin of life. Why should judges be more concerned with the law rather than their religious convictions when they decide any debated issue? Would that question be easier for you to answer if the judge were Hindu or Buddhist? If so, you already know the only answer. Our courts must remain independent and able to make unpopular decisions based upon their best interpretations of the law. They must be allowed to tell our legislators and our administrators when new laws conflict with the constitutional protections afforded in our nation. At times, it is the judicial branch of government that must step forward and protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.
This is the battle of the new century. The stakes are life, liberty, justice and the freedom to think and believe what we wish. We do not have to agree or embrace every idea and cause, but we do have to take a stand for those ideals we hold dear. If not, we have only ourselves to blame for the consequences of apathy when our country needs us most.
Their score reads well to the ears of selfishness. It tells us that the poor deserve to be poor because the poverty is a personal failing. There is no reason to give to the poor, because it allows them to be lazy, weak, and dependent. Charity takes away money from those who earn it and gives it to the undeserving. "Welfare" is a dirty word in Right mouths because they have no interest in the welfare of others. They sing to the 'haves' and 'have mores' about pulling themselves up by their bootstraps while urging us to forget those with bare and bleeding feet. By their standards, the young, old, sick, and weak are undeserving of the government's charge to "protect the general welfare" of the American people.
Their melody is made up of pretty lies. Who could be against the "Clear Skies Initiative" or "The Healthy Forest Act"? Never mind that the "Clear Skies Initiative" actually clears the way for big polluters to recreate the problems that the original "Clean Air Act" addressed. Never mind that the axe of the administration has fallen on our national forests, felling the only thing standing in the way of America's lumber barons. Thanks to the president, they now have the ability to build logging roads into our national forests. All we have to do is think "healthy" as the Daniel Boone National Forest echoes with the hum of chainsaws instead of the songs of birds. We will have a nice healthy rape of the land, until no tree is left for our children or grandchildren to enjoy. It is only one national treasure, just a water shed for a few dozen counties. The Daniel Boone Forest only cleans the air for about half the state; maybe they will leave the Smokey Mountains one alone. What do you think?
They ask us to listen to the drumming thunder of the accusations of "Judicial Activism" and not see it as an attack on the independence of our judges. Who cares about a little thing like the Constitution, when Congress controls the purse strings for the courts? Maybe, nobody cares enough. What does it matter if the judge sitting on the bench in Kansas is or is not under the thumb of Christian Conservatives? He is only being asked to decide what children can be taught about the origin of life. Why should judges be more concerned with the law rather than their religious convictions when they decide any debated issue? Would that question be easier for you to answer if the judge were Hindu or Buddhist? If so, you already know the only answer. Our courts must remain independent and able to make unpopular decisions based upon their best interpretations of the law. They must be allowed to tell our legislators and our administrators when new laws conflict with the constitutional protections afforded in our nation. At times, it is the judicial branch of government that must step forward and protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.
This is the battle of the new century. The stakes are life, liberty, justice and the freedom to think and believe what we wish. We do not have to agree or embrace every idea and cause, but we do have to take a stand for those ideals we hold dear. If not, we have only ourselves to blame for the consequences of apathy when our country needs us most.
posted by Gwen Mayo | 9:24 AM
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