Friday, March 26, 2010

REPUBLICANS VS NICKELODEON. and the winner is........

Well, this has been an interesting week. Health care reform passed, much to the chagrin of the right wing element in this country. Instead of the adult, mature response of "OK, we must work harder," or "let's see if we can make this bill even better for our constituents " we have threatening phone calls, coffins on a representative's lawn, bricks thrown though windows, gas lines cut, racial slurs, spitting on Congressmen, cars with Obama/Biden stickers run down on highways, and work stoppages (Republicans refuse to work past 2:00 to clog up the works of our governmental body.)

The news arm of the Republican party (FOX) of course did their bit to further enrage and justify such carryings-on by 24 hour coverage of Eric Cantor's office window shooting (later reported by VA police to have been a random "up-in-the-air shooting" similar to Lou Dobbs'. And it wasn't even his window...) Trying to distance themselves from the Tea Party that they shamelessly encouraged and supported for the last year, they reached out to their viewers to dismiss the behavior of some "crazies" and "nut cases" which furthermore, must have been left wing plants to disgrace honorable Republicans, anyway..... Glenn Beck gave some ill-conceived and rambling monologue on his show to that effect. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, or "blame the victim."

Then you have John Boehner, House Minority Leader of all things, saying a Congressman is a "dead man, and the Catholics will chase him out when he gets back home." Eric Cantor tells his tall tale of a shooting, and throws the blame on Democratic leadership for "fanning the flames of violence," just to divert attention . Members of the Republican caucus lined themselves up with signs saying "kill the bill"on the balcony in front of protesters in order to keep the agitation going. (I'm sure that all these "grassroots" throngs saw was the first word.) Sarah Palin wants everybody to "reload" on her website with the gun sites on a map. These people want their poor, misguided followers whipped into a frenzy, ( like the guy in Columbus who "got carried away" at a Tea Bag Rally against healthcare reform last week and was totally rude, arrogant, abusive, mean, and hateful to a man with Parkinson's sitting on the ground with a non offensive sign in favor of reform), and then step away to claim "don't blame us: we don't know where this came from."

I'm not against anybody speaking their mind: ask my family. Debate is good. But when others are allowed to say what they want, and I'm considered "threatening, abusive, liberal, anti-religious, un-American" simply because my views and values (and they're good ones, believe me: I have high standards.) are obliquely opposed to theirs, something is wrong. If I don't subscribe to the parochial-college educated, small town, white-bread-and mayonnaise, woman-submit-to-your-man dictums, I'm deleted from their Facebook pages. (oh, what disgrace!) They swear by FOX. I swear at it. I try to investigate both sides of a subject (OK, I still prefer mine...but I like to keep up on things.) I think the Texas educational system is a joke and the Conservative Bible Project is worse. Having done my stint in the Southern Baptist Church: Sunday school, church services, youth fellowship, revivals, choir practice, Bible brigade, and pot-luck dinners, I can quote scripture passages with the best of them,

But when you've lived as long as I have (well, not THAT long), you've seen a lot: raising four kids single-handedly, working two jobs at a time, battling cancer twice, watching your dad die of cancer, having your younger sister die, losing your life savings with a business in the wrong place at the wrong time, helping your mother live with blindness and Alzheimer's, getting ready to move out of state to start another business (in retirement, no less)--I'm insulted by all of this! All this crazy, hatefulness has to stop!

This is where NICKELODEON comes in: I watched KAI LAN today with a two-year-old
and a four-year-old. The little pet monkey was upset that he lost the game or wasn't picked or something, so he kicked his little playmate friends and went away to sulk and pout, generally making everyone miserable. The cartoon then went on to explain to its preschool watchers that this was inappropriate behavior in an entertaining way. My little two were enthralled. Hopefully, this will be reinforced by their parent's attitude and throughout their lives. One can only hope.....

These shows should be "required watching" for the right wing elements, and others, in our country today.

6 comments:

  1. Judi, in addition, that office of Cantor's is a not in his district, had no signs identifying it as such, and is not listed on his website. Nobody had any way to know to target it for a strike against him. He knew all this when he intentionally misled the media in an attempt to justify GOP behavior in stirring up violence.

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  2. Now TomCat, you know that's a MINOR detail....;-)

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  3. Bohzo (Hello)

    OMG you battled cancer twice and survived. Congratulations. I have lost so many family members to cancer.

    You raised four kids by yourself, WOW, I mean it. I have two grown kids with help and almost lost my mind.

    I always hated how violent our societies television shows are. We always say "protect the kids, protect the kids." They need the most protection from television and the radio.

    Glen Beck is a show I watch and I don't know why. I always end up yelling at the telivision set like he can hear me.

    Great blog. Happy Easter.

    Bodewadmi

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  4. I can't say I "protected" my kids from the violence. We just weren't great television watchers: too many other things to do. But they did learn right from wrong, sometimes the hard way. Sometimes I think the "little darlings" being raised today do not have a clue that the world does not revolve around THEM.... and they just can't cope, or share.

    Thanks for reading , and a Happy Easter to you and yours.

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