Ed and I have been having one hell of a time debating politics on facebook. As part of my pledge to not spill my political seed (as it were) on the dusty ground of facebook, I report here parts of an exchange (with edits) that held my attention for far too many hours this week:
Ed writes:
The US government is a lethargic, cancerous growth that continues to sap the vitality out of the country via taxes and is one of the most inefficient allocator [sic] of resources that exists.
To which the GTL replies:
If our government is a cancer, then the Constitution is the original mutated cell itself. I reject this, in the strongest possible terms. I believe, as the Preamble instructs us both, that the purpose of our government is to always strive toward a more perfect union, without corruption, which protects the welfare of all, and in which any one individual is equal in the eyes of the law to any other.
There is nothing cancerous about the Constitution.
If you think the government is a cancer, then you obviously must not agree that our nation has an exceptional destiny in the world. Remember, the United States of America is not a piece of land (the land was here first). It is not the people (there is no special American "race" or "gene"). The one and only thing that makes our nation great is the government for which the founding fathers devised the blueprint, with its emphasis on individual rights and the rule of law, the system of checks and balances, and the guarantee of equality.
With all due respect, and I mean that sincerely Ed, that kind of inflammatory rhetoric will only convince impressionable types that government cannot be fixed or improved, or worse, that it shouldn't be improved as a matter of principle. Once again, I reject this view, principally because the Constitution itself, in its Mission Statement - The Preamble -- seems likewise to reject it.
The cancer is greed, not government. Your favorite book does not say, "inefficient, bureaucratic government, with its expensive entitlement programs that discourage free markets and individual initiative, is the root of all evil." No. The Bible quite presciently (given how small an amount of money actually existed in ancient times) identifies the love of money as the root of all evil.
And so we know what evil looks like. And no one loves money more than those who choose to make the pursuit of tremendous loads of it their life's work. And the Mecca of those who put money first is Wall Street.
I KNOW you meet lots of people in your line of work about whom you must have serious moral and ethical concerns. I, on the other hand, know only a handful of investment bankers, venture capitalists, insurance executives, etc. Nevertheless, though the sample is small, they all say the same thing, with only slight variations:
Fuck the government.
Fuck the poor.
If I don't want to share I don't have to.
They acknowledge the failure of supply-side "Voodoo" Reaganomics, but want it to continue because it benefits them and their class.
And they all vote Republican.
Are you in, or are you out? With the Rich, or with the rest? Jesus chose his side. What side will YOU choose?
Friday, September 03, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
My Friend Ed And I Disagree (and it's ok).
Ed and I are New Yorkers by birth and met in college. Earlier today he wrote the following about the plans for a Muslim cultural center a few blocks out of eyesight range of the Twin Towers site:
"this cultural [center] does not need to be so close to ground zero. It is not about religious freedom but rather about being sensitive to those who lost loved ones on 9-11."
Here's my reply:
There is no mosque planned for ground zero. None at all. No minarets over downtown, no muezzin calling believers to prayer over loudspeakers... and no line of sight between the twin towers site and Park 51. Also, the people building the cultural center are 100% American, like you, and me. If you don't like the idea of a Muslim outreach and community center-- don't join. When they come for my neighbor, they are coming for me. My Muslim neighbors' freedom is tantamount to my own. Be an American and stand up for the rights of your neighbors.
BTW, loved hanging with you and meeting your beautiful family. Go Bearcats! Go Tau!
Lest one mistakenly conclude that Liberals don't care about what's right, or that Conservatives are the sole custodians of morality in America:
Ted Olsen, Republican legal genius extraordinaire, whose wife died in the 9/11 attack, strongly rejects the idea that banning the cultural center is the proper way to show respect to the memory of our lost loved ones. In fact, we can show the dead our respect by NOT succumbing to racism and religious intolerance. Allowing bigots of any stripe to prevail would be the ultimate disrespect of their sacrifice.
"this cultural [center] does not need to be so close to ground zero. It is not about religious freedom but rather about being sensitive to those who lost loved ones on 9-11."
Here's my reply:
There is no mosque planned for ground zero. None at all. No minarets over downtown, no muezzin calling believers to prayer over loudspeakers... and no line of sight between the twin towers site and Park 51. Also, the people building the cultural center are 100% American, like you, and me. If you don't like the idea of a Muslim outreach and community center-- don't join. When they come for my neighbor, they are coming for me. My Muslim neighbors' freedom is tantamount to my own. Be an American and stand up for the rights of your neighbors.
BTW, loved hanging with you and meeting your beautiful family. Go Bearcats! Go Tau!
Lest one mistakenly conclude that Liberals don't care about what's right, or that Conservatives are the sole custodians of morality in America:
Ted Olsen, Republican legal genius extraordinaire, whose wife died in the 9/11 attack, strongly rejects the idea that banning the cultural center is the proper way to show respect to the memory of our lost loved ones. In fact, we can show the dead our respect by NOT succumbing to racism and religious intolerance. Allowing bigots of any stripe to prevail would be the ultimate disrespect of their sacrifice.
Obama: Christian Racist or Muslim Extremist? The GOP Can't Decide.
Is ANYBODY in the Mainstream Media fact-checking the paranoid extremists at all anymore?
Remember when the controversy over the President's religion centered on his twenty-five year relationship with the incendiary black preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright?
I seem to recall the deep "concern" on the part of his GOP adversaries that Obama's membership in Rev. Wright's Christian congregation -- and the pastor's speeches daring to call attention to America's racist past and present -- were proof of Mr. Obama's deep-seated fear and hatred of whites.
The question is almost too obvious to ask (which means of course that no one in the mainstream media has asked it). Nevertheless, here we go:
How can a person with a demonstrated twenty-five year history of Christian church attendance and a close relationship with a Christian minister suddenly become a radical Muslim?
If you're like me, the answer is obvious: He can't. He isn't.
Shame on every media hairdo who lacks the brainpower and guts to cut through the distractions, the flim-flam and lies, and do the sacred job of telling truth to power, and providing the people with the facts they need to fight against the lies of the Powerful.
Remember when the controversy over the President's religion centered on his twenty-five year relationship with the incendiary black preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright?
I seem to recall the deep "concern" on the part of his GOP adversaries that Obama's membership in Rev. Wright's Christian congregation -- and the pastor's speeches daring to call attention to America's racist past and present -- were proof of Mr. Obama's deep-seated fear and hatred of whites.
The question is almost too obvious to ask (which means of course that no one in the mainstream media has asked it). Nevertheless, here we go:
How can a person with a demonstrated twenty-five year history of Christian church attendance and a close relationship with a Christian minister suddenly become a radical Muslim?
If you're like me, the answer is obvious: He can't. He isn't.
Shame on every media hairdo who lacks the brainpower and guts to cut through the distractions, the flim-flam and lies, and do the sacred job of telling truth to power, and providing the people with the facts they need to fight against the lies of the Powerful.
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