Letters to the Editor
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lo-gene
Hussein attacked his neighbors with our tacit permission, and our chemicals. He was our boy against the mean Ayahtollah. Reichsmarhall Rumsfailed personnally kissed his ass. Speaking of ass, Hitler mine. Saddam, like Osama, was a creature of our foreign policy lab that got out of control. Bushit is far closer to a goosestepping icon than any tinpot in the middle east has ever been.
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Mixed Feelings
That sums it up, reading the article and the letters.
To start, Ms. Burleigh summons deeply mixed feelings with her story. Although I am as much a "lefty" as she, I doubt I would be invited to her parties. Just as certainly as she would not be invited to mine. Why? Not due to any religious or political reason but because she is a whiny New Yorker. To Californians like myself these New Yorkers rank just above Texans. Barely. Ok, enough with the gratuitous stereotyping, on to the "serious" commentary.
I have lived in ten different states, in rural and urban areas, and have traveled to every state except Maine (no real reason why not, just a matter of time). I also spend a good amount of time in countries other than the US for extended periods. I choose to live in the Bay Area of California, because I like the climate and the culture. I am lucky enough to be able to make this choice because I can afford to make the choice. This choice was made before the RedState/BlueState divide that occurred six years ago. Interstate and regional rivalries are as American as [insert cliché of your choice], but now things are very different. When I travel to visit my family in their RedState stronghold, to where I used to live 30 years ago, I truly feel that I am traveling in a foreign and hostile territory. I am sure they feel the same way about me. Good thing I'm not gay, just liberal, or it would probably be worse.
In that regard, I somewhat sympathize with her "plight". Personally, I find the evangelical efforts of many fundamentalist Christians to be deeply repellent, as I stopped believing in the Jesus nonsense quite a long time ago. I have also learned, lo these many years, that they will also leave you alone if you just politely say "No thanks". Newsflash to Nina, the fundies own the heartland and what is generally referred to as "flyover country". It is the way this country is heading and I notice it more each time I return from Europe. By way of boring personal anecdote, even though I lost my faith nearly 40 years ago I will still occasionally attend Mass with my wife. I refuse to take Communion (and by their rules I don't qualify anyway) but I can still enjoy the comforting ritual that is a really good Mass. Some of the priests have been very good friends of mine and we drink and argue into the wee hours of the morning. The point is that I have stopped attending the occasional Mass in the US because it seems the church has taken a very hard veer to the right over the past five years (just like mur-ka).
As a veteran, I also have conflicted feelings about her story. I have never felt ashamed of my military service until Gee Dubya and his posse took over (I would call it a junta but that would be an insult to the real juntas around the world). However, a five or six year old child cannot understand the complexities of something like this. Neither can M. Burliegh, apparently. As others have said, if your story was true, then you should have applauded the Viet Nam vet. C'mon, it's not like the townspeople didn't know who you were. A missed opportunity for you to establish some real credentials, instead of being a whiny New Yorker (reference my gratuitous stereotyping, paragraph one).
With regards to some of the others responding to this article, yes it is stereotyping of the worst kind to depict flyover country as a gigantic trailer-park inhabited by inbred, mouth-breathing, banjo-playing christofacists. Amusing, yes, but not accurate. That said, it would not be possible for me to live in a "RedState" in the current political climate. The Know Nothings have returned.
On a personal note to "gene", the use of the term "moonbat" proves that you are a freeper and, by unpleasant experience, probably a chickenhawk to boot. I challenge you to prove otherwise.
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I feel bad for your little boy
I think it's terrific that your son got to attend a school that he obviously liked and taught him well. I think your explanation of the war was disingenuous, quite one-sided, and actually traumatic to him. Congratulations. You made your point. I'm sure the blame for the current situation there was laid squarely on Bush and America. Did you ever mention the bad man who oppressed and murdered his people or the little girls who could not go to school because it was against the law? Maybe he'll find out about it someday.
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"No Thank You" and a .357 Work Better
"I have also learned, lo these many years, that they will also leave you alone if you just politely say "No thanks".
Dear Conorcat, you have not met my beloved hillbillies back east. I have even done a reverse exorcism on one of them, trying to cast IN Satan. I've replied to the daily "Jesus emails" with venom mixed liberally with reason. Nothing happens. My dearest and closest cousin, who is like a sister to me, tells me she "worries" about me. Her daughter asks me, repeatedly, if I believe in God (I do, but not that portrait of Zeuss they got in their little pea brains). I love them dearly, but I have learned that "No thank you" only spurs them on to planning an intervention. Blessed are yew becuz you got sensible volk in your tree apparently. Mine, nope, there's just no stopping Tha Lawd.
I do love them. I even love the...what did you call them? The absurd Jesus stories? It was something like that. Listen, he may never have existed, I've certainly never met the gentleman, but he seems like a sympathetic character in the stories, at least, and one very ethical guy, not to mention a magus of some stature. It's not a bad story. You just had the wrong people reading it to you. They probably wanted your soul as well as your attention. Thank God you resisted! I guess that's the difference between the Bay area and Orange County. I'm surrounded by more refined versions of the same thing here, but it's so damned pretty I just can't bring myself to pull out. So I love my neighbor, forgive him his delusions (and he mine, just for the record) and it's all working out OK. Of course if I had to take on Rick Warren's whole swarm I'd probably go down in a hail of bullets and bibles, but I try to not make eye contact when I'm near the Saddleback mosque.
It's when I go back to the DC area and suburban redneck hell of Maryland and Virginia where all the unwashed yahoos dwell that I have to force myself to just kinda make lame, glib "amen"s or, failing at that, quote scripture back to them, ask them probing questions about the nature of their faith, and generally screw with their minds. The only way I'm gonna get them totally off the subject is with a .357, and like I said, I really love them, so jerking them around is the next best (and often interesting) option. If you can get away with "No thanks", well - your people have just plain given up on you, and that's actually kinda sad. I wouldn't want that to happen. I'd rather they just keep plaguing me with their crazy crap, because someday something I say will resonate with maybe one of the younger ones, and then the fire will be set. In the meantime, hell, it's all in the family. And that's worth something.