On Nov 12, 2008, at 7:40 PM, Nick Arnett wrote: > I'm hoping to engage in civilized discourse with no strings > attached. I > keep hoping I can be that way no matter how other people may behave.
It's really rather shocking and more than a little depressing to see how badly discourse in general has disintegrated over the last half decade or so. Now, more than ever before, all I seem to see is shrill, shrieking, humorless voices talking *at* one another with damned little consideration of the humanity or validity of the other's point of view. Today a protest was staged outside the county courthouse here. Several groups, including a local faction of the Minutemen*, were gathered to lend voice to the idea that Barack Obama's US citizenship is illegitimate or, at best, questionable. I do not recall similar protests after W's victory in 2004, though there were certainly demonstrations -- but they, IIRC, had more to do with his continued press of attack in Iraq and the constant drumbeat led by the "liberal media" that he hand a "mandate" to promulgate four more years of his previous policies and doctrines on the world. One thing many of those who scream the loudest against recent events seem to forget is that we were all, once, united on the same front. On 12 September 2001. But some of us -- possibly a decent majority now -- saw ourselves betrayed, saw our nation betrayed, saw our ideals laid waste. And those of us who see it that way don't care much for labels such as "unpatriotic". There's been far too much polarization, and the part that saddens me the most is that the sore winners of 2004 are now, apparently, the sore losers of 2008. It saddens me, but it doesn't surprise me. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ==== * The Minutemen are civilian militias who go out, armed, seeking illegal Mexican immigrants to detain. They reached a level of gross infamy a year or so ago after one faction posted a video on YouTube apparently showing a Minuteman shooting and killing a Mexican national as he crossed the border. The video was later proved a hoax, but the implications were and are more than a little disturbing. To my mind they're just this side of Klannish, and not at all too damned far from being Brownshirts. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
