Letters to the Editor
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To illustrate but one straw man...
Now you may believe that so-called Progressives can't do it this way; it would be wrong and all that. What the Busheviks have done is wrong. We don't want to be like them. Etc. What we want to do is build a movement and make imperceptible incremental changes over say a generation or two or maybe longer, but we don't want to do anything precipitous...
BS. I and others here have not proposed DELIBERATELY going for slow and incremental change, and you're just making stuff up here. Please show me what I and others have proposed this if you're going to claim this.
What we HAVE actually said is that we should absolutely be as aggressive as possible in trying to stand up to and reverse Bush's crimes against the republic, but that no matter how hard we push, things can only turn around so quickly--by design. That is an entirely different assertion than the one that you dishonestly claim that we made, that we actually never made.
I really can't stand it when someone distorts the other "side's" argument and turns it into a straw man that they can then easily knock down. And this is precisely what you've done here. It's dishonest, annoying, and a major waste of everyone's time.
And before you go and counter this by repeating your claim that there are no "I want relief NOW" types here, and that this is a straw man that I have set up, well, what is your urging that we take (unspecified) drastic actions NOW (before it's too late!!!), but this very reasoning? I admit to taking slight rhetorical license here, as no one really, literally expects relief right NOW, and I assumed that this would be implicitely understood by all and an intentional exaggeration in order to make a point. But you ARE urging for a sort of relief that is quite close to NOW, as I see it--without, I will add one more time, providing any details as to how we might do this.
Finally, what is perhaps most curious is that, even if you won't acknowledge it, we're both urging for aggressive action NOW--just about everyone here is, from what I can tell, who is not a troll or wingnut--so the real difference between us (as I see it) is that you seem to expect relief NOW (or SOON), while I expect it to take somewhat longer, at the very least months, but more realistically years, and for fundamental and lasting improvement, probably decades. I don't WANT it to take this long, but simply do not see how it CAN happen any faster. If I seem to be taking a more stoic and prosaic view of all this, it's because I am. One can--and certainly should--do all that one can to fix things, and I NEVER proposed otherwise. But beyond that, there is literally nothing more than one can do, and it seems to me that patience is called for, not panic.
And yes, not enough IS being done to fix things, which is why those of us on the outside of the political system are being as aggressive as we can be in pushing those on the inside to be more aggressive in actually fixing things (while doing all that we can outside the system to help this along as well). But, again, one can only push things along so hard, before real-world limits are reached, and there's literally nothing more that can be done beyond this. And my argument is and always has been that we should push until we reach these limits, but also realize that there are limits, and that one has to acknowledge, respect and work with them, not against them. And to do otherwise--which is what you seem to be doing--literally makes no sense.
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Oh my,
I was pushing for some Now/Soon answers (pushing more to now). Didn't mean to cause a storm. Kovie, Gordon, and others have given their view/answers and all is appreciated...
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It takes courage
to go forward without knowing the the outcome.
The clamor against the current pace of resistance is born of... fear?
fear that I can't hack it, fear that I will fail the cause, fear that the cause will fail, fear that I will get my head bashed in, fear that my loved one will die, fear that I will die before seeing victory, fear that things will get messy, fear that it will cost more than I am willing to give....
These are scary times.
Most times in the past have been scary.
Some good films to view for girding oneself for the struggle ahead:
Children of Men
V for Vendetta
Black Book
Pan's LabyrinthYou could die.
But we all will die.
-- a medititiation apropos of nothing really