Letters to the Editor
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Re: I hear ya, brother!
I feel so relieved and fearful after reading this piece. I, too, have parents who raised me with a different set of morals and values than the right-wing "morals" that have been fused into their brain through Rush and O'Reilly. I have watched in horror as my parents have turned into the same pod people you describe.
My parents were both raised in very poor, destitute conditions, and have always been the charitable kind of people, giving, literally, the coat off their back when someone else needed it. We have always taken people in under our roof or “loaned” money and never expected anything in return. Now, my mother is arguing against increasing the minimum wage because then things would cost a few cents more! WHAT? Who are you? This cannot be the same person who has stories about eating every other day because she couldn’t afford to eat everyday. I have trouble breathing at the thought that this woman, whom I call Mom, seems to think it’s okay for someone to eat every other day simply because they earn minimum wage.
During the Terry Schiavo case, my mom, who has always been a proponent for living wills, a person's right to die, and has always been against keeping someone alive on life support when there is no chance of recovery, went into a 20 minute rant about how the government should be able to stop a family member from cutting off life support, and she saw no problem with the midnight legislation from the government to interfere. I almost fell over. My heart shuddered. I could not believe my ears!
Another example is my dad. He always told me to question the government because his experience was the government couldn’t be trusted. He was a career military man and he always made it clear to me that the government lies for its own benefit, not the benefit of the people. Now, however, whenever I question the government, my dad freaks out (and is moved to tears) because the Bush administration was "the only one who helped veterans get concurrent payments for retirement and disability benefits". Arrgh! No, that’s not true! But you can’t convince him otherwise, no matter what you bring out to prove your point.
I am so afraid because this is what the hate mongering ideologues of the right-wing media have done, not just to my parents, but thousands of people across the country. I am so upset that there has been this brain-washing to the extent people don’t recognize it for what it is. The same crap running again and again and eventually people start believing it, without question, because it's easier and they can have someone to be angry at. It would be quite different if we disagreed and they could explain their point of view, but that's not what is happening. I swear, in my parent's house, by 3:00pm every day, you know the latest talking points of the right-wing media, because I can hear them being dropped every now and then. My tactic now, because I am stubborn and I am tired of letting it go, is to ask them why they believe something to be one way. "Well, why shouldn't gay people be allowed to get married? What is it going to do to your life if they do?" That usually shuts down their side of the argument because they don't know why. My dad has recently made a new policy that we can't discuss politics in the house (unless he brings it up, of course).
I was beginning to think that the reason he or my mother never listen when I dispute an item on their “news” was because they still see me as a child, not a 30 year-old college-educated person, but after reading this piece, it’s all very clear. It’s not me; it’s the crap they are being brain-washed with. My dad's greatest shame these days is that I am a liberal, but he always hugs me after an argument and he tells me all the time that he still loves me, "even if we don't agree."