Letters to the Editor
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War on Christmas...
Wow, I could have written that about my own father and family gatherings. All the things he taught me growing up, about treating people with kindness, sticking up for the less fortunate, helping others etc... has now been replaced with Fox News talking points. Everything is now politicized in his worldview, and every opportunity is a chance to convert someone. The kind and peaceful man I grew up loving and admiring, now has a seething anger below the surface. Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh have stolen my father away from me...
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What about the war on an open mind?
I don't think there is a war on Christmas but I do think there is a war on an open mind. Ramakrishna the famous Hindu Saint celebrated Christmas as well as Ramadan and Hannukah. He believed the same God was the goal of all religions and that in some way every religion was trying to speak about this same God.
But that can't be heard amidst this right wing furor over America's Christian Heritage. And I think that's really why we're sitting here arguing about saying Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. The Puritans escaped religious persecution in England in coming to America. They helped form our nation in its earliest stages, but that doesn't mean their values are the values that have made America great. Take a second look and you'll see it was an open mind that makes you proud of America. That you might set aside your own ego and pride and listen to the argument of another, like Ramakrishna's, that makes you believe in this democratic culture which expresses itself as America.
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An Opposite Experience.
In the months after 9-11, I came to realize that my dad (he in his 70s, me in my 40s) was horrified by our gov't's reaction to the event. I had always thought of him as political conversative-- he had argued with me against voting for Dukasis.
In the run-up to the '04 election, he was shocked by how many of his peers (Jewish NYC retirees in FL) would be voting for Bush... he couldn't understand it.
Fred
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No MoJo
A couple of points:
1. We’re talking about the current media (Fox, CBS, et al) and their effect upon political discourse. Prior centuries and their politicians are not germane.
2. You equate Republican with the political right and conservative. That’s not an easy case to argue, but feel free to have a go. Certainly, Nixon was no conservative, neither is Bush père, nor Bush fils.
Thanks for your input. I appreciate your contribution to the discussion. Stay on topic.
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The Republican Party was born in the early 1850's
>>>the country has always been polarized; we just never used to hear the non-left point of view. >>>
whew, get a sense of history kid! You could not be more wrong! The right has a long long history in the US. Presidents during most of the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century were Republicans. Bush, Bush, Reagan, Ford, NIxon, Eisnehower, Truman, Hoover, Coolidge, Harding (skipping some) Lincoln. --those are the Presidents, I haven't listed Governors, Senators, Congressmen.
The Republican Party was born in the early 1850's, it's been around a long time. Believe you me, we've been hearing from conservatives for a long time. Geeze, I could go on and on and on, how misinformed.
-- cosmicmojo
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Reverse Generation Gap
My husband and I, 60-something Unitarians, no longer visit our children on Christmas...and they certainly have no desire to visit us! Although we raised them according to our own very liberal politics and theology, all three boys are now rabid Republicans and evangelical Christians. When we do get together, we don't talk politics or religion, only grandchildren. Our unmarried daughter retains some semblance of our influence, but she doesn't have any children. I can only hope that when the grandkids grow up, there will be another generation gap!
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duh
How long has Rush Limbaugh's show been on the air? decades?
sorry kid, but conservatism has had lots of exposure.
Jerry Fallwell, geeze, he's had his PTL show on tV for Decades too. He uses that for a rightist political pulpit.
I'll post as I like, I don't really need forjio's permission or guidance, thanks kid.
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Good ol' prison rape.
Wil:
"Violent criminals" do not "deserve" to be raped. Nobody deserves to be raped. In 2005, that may be a controversial position -- "Nobody? What about rapists/child molesters/serial killers/etc? Don't they deserve to be forcibly anally raped on a regular basis?" -- but it is still the moral position. Really, why should our government be in the business of raping people? That a rape may be accomplished by creating, and then deliberately ignoring, dangerous conditions doesn't make us, or the officials who serve us, any less culpable.
The anti-rape position is also the practical position; criminals (even the violent ones, who deserve to be raped), with only a few exceptions, are eventually released from prison. If they have spent years in a culture of relentless violence and sexual abuse, they are more likely to re-offend.
But what really irks me about your lazy remark is the way it ignores the realities of male prison rape. It is not the most violent and experienced criminals who are customarily the victims; they are the perpetrators. The victims are typically non-violent offenders, first-time offenders, and prisoners who are especially vulnerable for one reason or another -- because of their size, or because, for instance, they are gay. In other words, if you're taking solace in the fact that powerful gang leaders are being raped behind bars: don't.
One of the reasons it's so difficult to make any progress towards preventing prison rape is that it can only be discussed as a joke -- or (as you've done here) casually cited with approval as part of criminals' just punishment.
We shouldn't be castrating, raping, or torturing anyone -- not Tookie, not anyone. Nor should we speak so glibly about castration, rape, and torture -- especially when we are partly responsible, and are doing nothing to stop it.
If you're interested in reading more about this subject, Human Rights Watch has published an excellent, highly detailed report, available at this address: www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/