A Quick Look at the News of the Day. Perhaps a fast rant or two...if I have time during coffee...
Or sometimes
We just skip the news and talk about feelings and crap.
I never served my country in the armed forces. So not only am I in debt to those who have for my freedom, but I also hold them in awe.
It bothers me when they are used to score political points. Perhaps I am playing politics by responding, but I'd rather think that I am trying to keep their memory sacred by not allowing others to drag them down into the mud of partisan bickering.
I managed to get myself on the mailing list of the local Tea Party. Today, I received this message from them:
Remind those of our sacrifice and don't confuse arrogance with leadership.
The American Cemetery at Aisne-Marne France .. A total of 2,289 The American Cemetery at Ardennes,Belgium A total of 5,329 The American Cemetery at Brittany,France A total of 4,410 Brookwood, England at American Cemetery. A total of 468 Cambridge, England ..3,812 Epinal, France American Cemetery.. A total of 5,525 Flanders Field, Belgium .. A total of 368 Florence, Italy.. A total of 4,402 Henri Chapelle, Belgium, .. A total of 7,992 Lorraine, France .. A total of 10,489 Luxembourg, Luxembourg .. A total of 5,076 Meuse-Argonne .. A total of 14,246 Netherlands, Netherlands .. A total of 8,301 Normandy, France .. A total of 9,387 Oise-Aisne, France .. A total of 6,012 Rhone , France .. A total of 861 Sicily, Italy .. A total of 7,861 Somme, France .. A total of 1,844 St. Mihiel, France .. A total of 4,153 Suresnes, France .. A total of 1,541
The count is 104,366 dead brave Americans.
And we have to watch an American elected leader who apologizes to Europe and the Middle East that our country is "arrogant".
HOW MANY FRENCH, DUTCH, ITALIANS, BELGIANS AND BRITS ARE BURIED ON OUR SOIL, DEFENDING US AGAINST OUR ENEMIES?
To honor those who fell in Europe helping to fend off, first German Imperialism enforced through a policy of "frightfullness" and then, later to face Nazism and defeat is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
But the radical right go further, as they always seem to do. They use this solemn American Day to try and an paint the president as unpatriotic, AND they accuse the French, Dutch and British of being cowards, of not having fought for "us".
Perhaps it is worth considering, as these radicals try to appropriate Memorial Day to their own ends, that it was right-wing groups in the 1930s, namely the German-American Bund and the America First Movement, who ensured that, while Great Britain began her fight against Hitler in 1939, America did not enter the war against evil until December 1941- over two years later.
So, Tea Partiers, while you are correct to honor Americans who fell on foreign fields, you are wrong, very wrong ...and arrogant...to insult our allies.
The Dutch, the French, and the British DIED where they stood to defend AMERICAN freedom to oppose the fight against fascism. While right-wingers in America had the freedom to criticize FDR for his sympathy for the struggle of England, France, Denmark, Holland and Belgium in their fight against the dark powers, our European cousins lost their homes, cities, families and lives...sacrificing ALL to buy us time to decide to do the right thing. Just as you do today, these other American right-wingers of days gone by complained about "European Arrogance".
Just as you owe the American Solider a debt today, you owe an equal debt to those from other lands who fell in their own countries to keep you safe.
So, you've said you're piece, I've answered with mine. I suggest now that EVERYBODY shut up and pay some respect to those to whom we owe everything.
The AP is reporting that the Carter Presidential Museum is set to reopen on the former president's 85 birthday. The museum, says the article, devotes "more space than any other presidential library to a commander-in-chief's time spent after the White House."
It's fitting. The story of most American Presidents seem to end when they leave office. Two of the three greatest American Presidents, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, never left office at all. And while Harry S. Truman certainly stands as one of the outstanding Presidents of American History, he leaves the stage of history in 1952-- it almost comes as a shock to learn that he lived until 1972.
Other former Presidents seem to fade into obscurity after their time in office. Two who did not, Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, spent the remainder of their lives burnishing (or in the case of Nixon, rehabilitating) their reputations.
Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, has devoted his life after the White House to the service of others- building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and, of course, searching and working for peace.
The Carter presidency may have proved conclusively that a good man does not make the best President (most of our best leaders have had a touch of the scoundrel about them)-- but his EX-presidency is an outstanding tribute to the value of a life well lived.
I guess the implication is supposed to be: "See? Barack HUSSEIN Obama has only been in office for a few days and LOOK! He's turning all of his brother terrorists loose..." or something like that.
I have to say, however, that the article prompted me to think a little bit about what it means to be an American. Here's part of my email back:
I don't deny that most of these folks are VERY BAD MEN...
What bothers me about Gitmo is that a Free Country, like the United States, can lock up people who are NEITHER Prisoners of War- and thus protected by the Geneva Conventions, or CRIMINALS- thus protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Why is "protection" important? Do I really care about a bunch of grease-ball desert dwelling killers?
The answer is no, I don't give a damn.....If I just left it up to my personal feelings I would love to see them all fry in hell.
I could allow myself to say all the foulest things I sometimes feel about them...
But there are two good reasons why I try NOT to give into the hatred I often feel.
THE SELFISH REASON:
The first is, I admit, selfish: I know that if certain people on the far left came to power, they'd toss the likes of you, my conservative friend, in jail so fast it would make your head spin...
...I also know that that, if certain people on the FAR RIGHT came to power, I would wind up in an internment camp before I could say "My Country 'tis Of Thee".
The Men who wrote the Constitution knew this, as well; on almost every page of the Federalist Papers, they warn that human nature can be a wicked thing- and that our only hope of escaping the evil side of human nature is to bind it up in rules and regulations- to keep us from acting like the animals we are.
Because I would not want to be subject to the whims of others, with a right to due process of law, so too, I would extend that right to others...
Notice, I didn't say I would let them off the hook- what I said was I would FOLLOW THE RULES - before throwing them into prison...because I know that, in the long run, those RULES are there to protect ME not THEM.
THE OTHER REASON:
As I said before, if it were just up to me and my emotions, I'd love to see these people fry in hell. I am not a nice, or civilized guy at heart...If I didn't TRY really hard, I personally could find hatred in my heart for these people. If I gave into the emotions I felt on 9-11, I could easily vote to "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
But while that is sometimes who I am, it's really not who I WANT to be.
And that is also my wish for my country... OTHER Nations can lock prisoners up without trial, because it's the easiest, and often the SAFEST way to do business....
but America needs to stand for something MORE than just safety and simplicity- don't you agree?
Ever since the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, we have aspired to be the "Shining City on the Hill"- first articulated by John Winthrop and alluded to by Americans as different as John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
If we wish to stay faithful to that dream, then we must hold ourselves to a HIGHER standard than the rest of the world. For other countries, their thinking can be limited to "self-interest"...but for the United States...we can only START at self interest....if we are to fulfill the dream to become a shining city on a hill, a place where Justice always Triumphs, where Hard Work is always rewarded, and where we are free to worship as we wish, study as we wish, think as we wish...then we must be better than average....
We've got to Catch the Bad Guys...AND we have to catch 'em fair and square.
I'm not sure that Gitmo has lived up to that standard. In some ways, I think this was one of George W. Bush's big mistakes...to treat these people, not as criminals, but as something like prisoners of war.
Because they are prisoners of war, and because the world EXPECTS more of us...because we ARE America...we have to live up to the Geneva Convention, etc.
IF we had treated these guys as common criminals, I think we could have brought them into our justice system, given them a fair trial and then, when the crime warranted, sent them to the gas chamber.
To me, that's part of the tragedy of Dick Cheney and co. The man got so frightened after 9/11 that he forgot that our country, and our freedom are greater and stronger than any scraggly band of thugs from the desert....
...in his panic, he chose to throw away the rules...which he should have HELD all the more tightly- for that is our best protection as Americans.
I know it's a case of "coulda, shoulda, woulda" but I have to wonder if, had we followed our own rules, and sent this creep to trail, would we be reading about his death by lethal injection today, rather than the fact that he is free to kill again.
Everyday that goes by brings us closer to the end of eight LONG years of the George W. Bush Presidency. Rip-and-Read couldn't be happier as we look forward to Mr. Bush's farewell address.
Today, I happened to stumble across another Presidential farewell on You-Tube. Ronald Reagan is definitely NOT one of Rip-and-Read's favorite Presidents. In my opinion, Mr. Reagan is the DIRECT political ancestor of George W. Bush, and their family tree stretches back to include the lassiez-faire capitalism which contributed to the great depression.
Following both the Reagan and G.W.Bush administrations, the nation has been left more deeply in debt, and struggling under a financial crisis and a massive burden on back of the middle class taxpayer to bailout those at the top of the economic heap. {For Reagan, it was the $105 billion dollar cost to fix the Savings & Loan Industry- while, for the source of America's current economic woes, visit any paper of your choice.)
Also, both men encouraged a spirit of jingoism in this country- often playing to the darker devils of our spirits than to the better angels of our nature.
Still, no one can deny that Reagan had style and a real mastery of communication. The fact that the spirit of his deeds did not always match the spirit of his words does not obscure the fact that the words were often pretty good.
And so, I found myself listening to Reagan's farewell speech. My vision of what capitalism is, and how it should be managed by the American people is different that his - but with his most basic, bedrock vision of what America should be, I couldn't agree more...and in his exhortation to teach our children not only what is wrong with America, but, more importantly, what is RIGHT in America- I wholeheartedly concur.
Because, in the end, if you don't firmly believe that your nation is, at it's best, a shining city on a hill, then you have no reason to keep fighting to make her all she should be.
Election Day 2008 is history, and WOW! What History it is! An awe-inspiring milestone for our country. Throughout this election, I haven't given too much thought about the role of race except when it became a campaign issue. Personally, I would have voted for Barack Obama if he had been purple with bright yellow spots....he was the right person at the right time.
But as I sit here this morning, still trying to take it all in- I am amazed to think that the day has come when part of Martin Luther King's Dream has come true. Yesterday, the nation as a whole overwhelmingly judged a man based on the content of his character, rather than the color of his skin.
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH
It was back to DFL Volunteer Headquarters yesterday for one last day of door knocking. Minnesota has same-day registration so there is a potential set of would be voters who may not have made up their minds even yet to vote. The Olmsted County Democratic-Farmer-Labor party was out in force yesterday to persuade them.
In the mid-afternoon, I found myself in Stewartville...about nine miles outside of Rochester. This little town is evocative of hundreds of small towns across the nation...in some ways, it seemed there was no more appropriate place to be yesterday than right in the heartland of the country.
My partner for the day, Diane and I kept working on into the evening. The polls didn't close until 8pm- so if there was a chance we could get one more person out to vote for Obama, Franken, and Walz- it was worth knocking.
And there were a few great moments. In Stewartville, I met a woman coming toward me talking on her cell phone: "Sir?" She said to me, "who are you campaigning for?"
"I'm out for Obama, Al Franken, and Tim Walz- DFL!" I said.
She spoke back into her phone: "Yeah, that's what he said. Walz and Franken. Yeah...I thought I was seeing double. No. No. He's out here right now."
She put the phone to her palm and spoke to me again: "My girl-friend is a Republican. They quit yesterday." She seemed hurt. Almost as if I were cheating or something. I have to admit, I hadn't had a chance to speak with any undecided voters, but it felt good just to be out- keeping the pressure on.
"Well, it ain't over till it's over. So, we're still out today. Good Luck!"
I also met a woman who had voted already. She took great pleasure in telling me about her brother-in-law. A life long Republican, he finally soured on George W. Bush and told his sister-in-law that he had become a "Gopher" (spelled: GOPer)- meaning, a FORMER Republican. I met quite a few voters who had changed party's (at least this once) because of George W. Bush.
In the end, every single person I talked to HAD voted...and Minnesota seems to have kept it's title as the state with the highest voter turnout in the nation. Reports are that 3 million of 3.7 million eligible voters went to the polls yesterday.
When we returned to volunteer headquarters...the place had been cleaned up top to bottom-- it was amazing to think that, a few hours ago, this room had been full of food, coffee, fellowship, energy and a drive to work for this country. Now, the remaining staff and volunteers were sitting in a tired circle...allowing their batteries to recharge a bit before heading over to the Marriott and what we all hoped would be a victory party.
Endgame
And in the end...well...you know how it ended. What an amazing day for the United States of America and for our friends and allies around the world. I met so many people in England who had great regard and affection for America, but who had wondered for the last eight years what had happened to their old friends and who passionately pinned their hopes on this race. One young British lady said she literally wept for joy this morning.
This may not be a popular sentiment among all Democrats, but John McCain's speech last night was, as one person wrote on a friend's facebook page: a class act. He reached out and found what was best in America and her people. His speech reminds us that this man has been an amazing public servant and who has given so much to his country. One of the benefits of our Democratic Victory will be a chance re-express our admiration for this great American.
The hard work will begin today. We, as American's have just completed a tough and often bitter contest. I am reminded of Winston Churchill's guidelines for waging war and peace. He said: "In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, good will."
In the past, when an election has ended we have not always found ways to achieve both Magnanimity and Good Will- for the sake of our country, I profoundly hope we can do it now.
Here in Minnesota, we've had some mixed results. Al Franken was trailing Norm Coleman by a mere 800 Votes as of this morning out of 3,000,000 votes cast, that is a razor thin margin. And there will be a recount.
In the sixth district, Michele Bachmann, who first drew fire by pawing George W. Bush during his State of the Union Address in 2007, and who again insulted all of America by declaring that people who didn't agree with her radical right views were somehow UnAmerican, managed to hang on to her seat despite heroic efforts on the part of the DFL to do the nation a great service and send her into political exile.
But here in Minnesota's first district, Tim Walz won handily and will return to Congress. I spoke with fellow blogger Jennifer who remembers that, when she first volunteered for the Olmsted County DFL, their offices were in an empty garage...and a grant from the state headquarters of $75 for a phone line was a huge deal. Tonight, as we gathered in the big beautiful ballroom of the Marriott, I could only take my hat off in respect to these people who have fought so hard and who have made a huge difference to their community.
As for President-Elect Obama- words all but fail me. Comments from friends have been pouring in and popping like celebratory fireworks...I'm tired, amazed, relieved, and happy. And I am so proud of the United States today.
First came the news that North Carolina, once a solid "McCain" state, is in play. This will force the Republicans to send Sarah Baracuda South, taking time away from the battle in other states.
But today, I saw an even neater website: Rednecks for Obama. Their Tag Line is: "We Hunt, Fish, Drink Beer and Support Barack Obama"---Right on!
Just read a interesting opinion piece in the The New Republic. Written by Paul Berman, The Death of 1989 postulates the consequences of a Russia acting out of paranoia and makes a convincing case that the world has become a more uncertain place following the Kremlin's push against Georgia.
The entire piece is well worth reading, but, in the end the issue comes down to Oil plain and simple. Oil is the lifeblood on which almost all persons in the world subsist. It brings us our food, it heats our homes, earns us our living, it is as important to modern life as water in a desert, or food in a famine. It is something that people will kill for.
And yet, of course, unlike food and water, Oil is an artificial staple. Our dependence on it is real, the economic laws and realities of the world revolve around it. But this need not be so.
Berman writes in his piece: We will have to recognize that, for the moment, questions of democratic principle, national security, and the energy crisis have decisively merged. We will need a newly combined policy, then--a reaffirmation of the principles of democratic solidarity, together with an urgent, national-priority effort to develop alternative-energy industries in order to weaken the Putin dictatorship and a series of other petro-enemies of democracy. Now, yes, after the invasion of Georgia, we will end up confirming one aspect of the Russian paranoia. Our goal should be to undo, on environmentalist grounds, the central element of Russia's rather primitive prosperity. An alternative energy program will require a turning away from free-market dogma--one more way in which a new policy cannot be traditionally conservative. The lurch will have to be leftward.
Under normal marketplace conditions, the advantages of Oil now accrue to Russia, and the Middle East. Following its present course, the United States will continue to fight wars to secure Oil, even as the sources of Oil move further from our reach...inside Russia's boarders, or under an Iranian Nuclear Umbrella.
It is as if the whole business were a giant ball game. As Americans, we are good at the game, but at the moment, the field we play on is not favorable to us.
Through a concerted effort, the United States could engage the massive economic engine of its government to change our society's relationship with the natural laws of the market place (just as an airplane engines changes our traditional relationship to the laws of gravity).
By providing artificial stimulus to the "Anti-Oil" energy business- the Government could literally "move the playing field"- the laws of the marketplace, or the rules of the game, would be the same...but the field on which we were playing would be OURS and not theirs.
An entire new industry would be born, one in which we, as a nation, took the lead. Our people would work, our coffers would be full, and, as an added bonus, the world would be cleaner.
I do not agree with Berman that this is a "leftward" idea at all. A true leftest would instead plead that we search for ways to abandon the "Zero-Sum game" of capitalism, and seek instead a cooperative, inclusive approach. While I applaud the sentiment, I can not agree that the human spirit has reached a plateau of maturity that would allow us to take the high road.
It has, after all, worked for us before. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal began it, but the full mobilization of our Government in the cause of World War Two lead our nation back to near full employment, a leading position in manufacturing, science and technology, and the living standards that went with it.
As we look at the present world situation, which shows us ever loosing to those who have the Oil, it's time to hearken back to Roosevelt's words: "For us, this is an emergency, as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, with the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war."
In a recent interview with Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland, the National Review ( founded by the late ueber-conservative, William F. Buckley) noted that: the notion that is still prevalent among the left is that somehow Reagan and the religious right sprung from the skull of Athena fully formed in 1980 and there wasn’t a lot of movement conservatism preceding that.
Nixonland tells a different story. Barry Goldwater may have been the first to tap into it, and Governor Reagan of California may have refined it, but it was Richard M. Nixon who exploited the fear of the "great silent majority" of Americans who watched in rising panic as cities exploded in flames, crime rates rose, and the values that they had lived by, hard work, faith in God, trust in their Government were eroded.
Perlstein tells the story of an "American proletariat" who had become "middle class" and would, in the words of Stewart Alsop, "defend their property 'as ferociously as the classic capitalists of Karl Marx's day.' "
Hisotrical change had favored them, lifting them from the inner-city (or rural) poverty of their youth and into the paradise of suburbia. Average voters not only had no desire to go back, but they were terrified that the haunted inner city they had left behind would follow them into their new suburban safe havens- traveling on forced busing, in forcefully integrated neighborhoods, bringing crime and fear.
A rightward shift began, of which we are still feeling the effects today, some 40 years after Nixon's presidential victory in 1968.
As we stand looking back at the results of 40 years of Republican Rule, we note that our nation has gone from being a creditor to a debtor nation, that we have managed to loose the respect of the world, and that, perhaps most importantly, that middle class of Americans who OWNED in the 1960s is again shrinking back into the working poor.
To many of us, it seems self-evident that Democrats MUST win this election- for the health of the nation and for the health of the middle class. All things being equal, they probably would.
But the Right still has it's most powerful weapon ready to hand: FEAR.
And, in today's New York Times, and in the July/August edition of the Atlantic Monthly are to articles which describe a rising trend in America- a trend which will breed fear, and more fear...
The "Mystery" referred to in Atlantic's title is this: Why is it that, as crime rates fall or hold steady in America's inner cities, crime rates in America's smaller cities and in suburbia are going UP?
There is a growing suspicion that this is because the Federal Government, through its Section 8 housing program that allows inner-city poor to rent in the suburbs, is exporting the drug, crime and gang problems of the inner city into the more quiet neighborhoods of suburbia.
While the causes may be debatable, the problem is not. Crime rates are rising, and they are beginning to affect, once again, that "Great Silent Majority of Americans" - perhaps even more directly than they did in the 1960s when Newark burned.
Democrats are going to need to get out ahead of this problem, and FAST- before the Right Wing forces of Fear begin to own it and make it their own.
If the early suspicions are correct, that social programs have simply shifted crime from one locale (where it was contained) to another, where it is freer to infect an even larger percentage of the population at large, then Democrats are going to have to face some interesting challenges as they try to solve the problem.
We may have to face the fact that Government alone cannot provide the answers to all questions. We may have to find ways to form alliances with faith based groups, for example, who can help instill the social values and traditions that knit a community together and provide a structure. To head off fear, we may have to redefine our relationships to ideas, we may have to draw new maps to reach old destinations.
Worst of all, we may have to learn to be patient as we attempt to solve these problems...I do not say this lightly, one of the great things about the Democratic Party is that we are people who try to live our political lives as those who "who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."
We believe in change now...the blistering fact that the dirty work of 400 years may not be undone in 40 is one that will hurt, but one which we might have to face as we fight for solutions.
One thing, however, seems certain. If Barak Obama and the Democratic Party do not find ways to address this rising problem, then John McCain (disciple of Goldwater, prophet of the Republican Age) will find a way to do it for us, and we will find ourselves living in Nixonland for sometime to come.
Has America lost it's future? Sunday's Washington Post ran a great story on Disney's Tomorrowland. Originally inspired by Walt's fascination with the pristine corporate art deco view of the future seen at the 1939 World's Fair, Tommorrowland has changed with the times...
In the 50s and 60s, when the parks were planned and built, Americans seemed to have unbounded confidence in the Future and looked forward to living there. Danny Hills, a computer guru, and former Disney Imagineer, is quoted in the article:
"Basically there was a time in the 1950s and '60s that were very future-oriented. Everybody wanted to be an astronaut. 'The Jetsons,' 'Star Trek,' stuff like that. Everybody was imagining that future we were all going to live in. That's how I grew up as a kid."
But now, says Hills- you have to go to India or China to find widespread belief that the future will be better than the past.
Here in America, the articles from NPR on the economy (referenced in yesterday's post) paint a picture of an American people despairing for the future of their children.
It' makes you wonder....what is the future of a nation that has lost it's faith in the future? Must it be so?
In difficulty, there is always opportunity. Following 9/11, several opportunities presented themselves to the United States. We could have used the tragedy to change our world-wide energy strategy- pioneering in developing new sources of energy and efficiency which would be the envy of the world. We could have followed up on early victories in Afghanistan to crush Osama Bin Ladin and his Taliban allies. But, of course, we did not.
Now, the United States is facing difficulties again. I've been listening to a series on NPR about economic impact in the US. I highly recommend it. People are hurting and they are frightened and those things are going to come into play in the next election.
The American People will be looking for their political representatives in Washington and State Governments to implement solutions. They will be right to do so.
They will want to see America's public treasury taken care of, not squandered. They will want to see our society find ways to embrace a growing global economy- WITHOUT surrendering our jobs and our livelihood. They will want to see our representatives close loopholes that allow our wealthy to skirt their duty to the society at large- to admit that even the self-made man cannot make money or acquire property without the help of others (workers, educators, policemen, firemen, etc.)
At the same time, I hope that the American people will not miss the opportunities that have been presented to them in the midst of their hardship. In the NPR series, for example, one woman complained that she had to think twice, no, three times before taking a car trip.
But that is precisely what we should be doing- in times of lean, and in times of plenty. We should be thinking- we should be acting responsibly. And we should be taking responsibility for ourselves and the world in which we live.
It is only be regaining self discipline, and by learning to distinguish what we "need" from what we "want" that America will find her way back to success.
Times are hard right now, but opportunity to change ourselves, gain strength and ... well, grow up...is also here.
I just took a few moments to listen to Barack Obama's speech to the NAACP. Again, I am struck by his words...and his calls for, not just responsibility on the part of Big Business, or Government, but on the parts of ordinary AMERICANS.
So yes, we have to demand more responsibility from Washington. And yes we have to demand more responsibility from Wall Street. But we also have to demand more from ourselves. Now, I know some say I’ve been too tough on folks about this responsibility stuff. But I’m not going to stop talking about it. Because I believe that in the end, it doesn’t matter how much money we invest in our communities, or how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch – none of it will make any difference if we don’t seize more responsibility in our own lives.
Obama is right: as Americans we must begin to behave like Adults who are in charge of their own fates, rather than looking at the world as if we were tiny often abused children- played as pawns by mighty powers beyond our control.
Okay, I have to admit that I was one of the last kids on my block to become a beer snob, but it did, eventually, happen. As I grew older, my taste shifted from mainstream American Beers to Imported Canadian Lager to my home State of Vermont's smaller local micro-brews. Here in England- I've been moving further and further away from the main stream of American Beer production as I've found myself acquiring the taste for "the local ale"...yes, I even like it warm.
Still, the news that came this morning that All American Anheuser Busch, brewers of the Famous Budweiser Beer, would be falling under the domination of Europe's giant "InBev" came as a bit of blow to my American pride. (And, let's just stop for the moment and consider the irony of an American Icon with the thick, ethnic spelling: "Anheuser Busch" falling prey to European conglomerate with the soulless, faceless name: "InBev"- doesn't that just turn stereotypes on their heads?)
Budweiser is, after all, more than just a beer. As the AP article points out:
Few products are associated with America as much as Budweiser. Its Clydesdale horses are fixtures of Super Bowl ads, and even the label is red, white and blue, with an eagle swooping through the "A."
But Bud is more than a nation icon, it's a personal one as well. As a kid, I was fascinated by my Dad's ability to recite the logo on the Bud label (a sure fire bar bet winner.) I have to admit that I still love to hum the bud theme songs...and, on the evening of 9-11, when I really needed a drink and a moment to take in the enormity of what had happened...a Budweiser just seemed to be the only appropriate choice to make.
Take Care Bud, never thought I'd miss ya, but I will.
I read an interesting piece this morning from "Business Week" by Chris Farrell- in which he discusses the difference between the two tax plans.
The article is worth a read. However, it all boils down to this:
-
Senator McCain's tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes,[emphasis mine] almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their aftertax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts, and those whose taxes fall would, on average, see their aftertax income rise much less.
-- In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers [emphasis mine] and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise.
That is the most important thing for most people to remember. There are, however, to be fair, some interesting twists to Obama's plan. TazVox, the Tax Policy Center blog, lays out some interesting quirks of Obama's plan...particularly when it comes to Senior Citizens on a fixed income.
While very poor single seniors see a drop under Obama's plan, those with more moderately comfortable incomes see a rise, and, in another, more disturbing quirk, poor MARRIED seniors also see a rise-
On the whole, of course, Obama's plan is really the ONLY sane choice for this country...we've been trying Reagan's trickle down economics for over a quarter century...the gap between rich and poor is growing, the nation's treasure is spent and the debt is still rising, and each day sees the rolling back of middle class gains made in the years following Franklin Roosevelt's presidency...this, in turn, sees our nation grow weaker.
The debate about Global Warming has often been presented as a fight between hard-headed, profit seeking business types and fuzzy minded bunny hugging hippies.
It is time however, that America woke up and started confronting some of the REAL issues which may arise from a massive change in our climate. These go far beyond the loss of habit for small furry creatures...and may include famine, flooding, terrorism and war.
The US intelligence community has released a secret report to Congress, The National Security Implications of Global Climate Changes to 2030, which outlines to the nation's law makers the potential for global instability arising from massive migrations, failure in food supply, and opportunities for extremists to exploit political failures and up the tension levels.
As NPR's Tom Gelton puts the case: "With this report, the National Intelligence Council, coordinating the analysis of all US intelligence agencies, puts climate change in the same category as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and radical Islam: it's officially a security threat."
Listen to the story at National Public Radio. (Where you are there, check out their story about off-shore drilling as well, another story Rip and Read has been squawking about.)
McCain Supports Bush Call for More Off Shore Drilling
According the AP, John McCain has joined George W. Bush in a call for offshore Drilling in American coastal waters.
The American working class needs relief from high gas prices that eat into weekly pay checks, but common sense says that offshore drilling is not the way to go about providing that relief.
As Barack Obama said in his speech on the subject: "The politics may have changed but the facts haven't."
Only One Winner
There is only one group of people who would win from a change in the off shore oil drilling rules: BIG OIL.
American Drivers wouldn't even SEE this oil for years...so there are much better ways to help working Americans make ends meet.
And, when the oil finally DOES arrive, there is no guarantee that prices will go down. In fact, Americans watched for years as OPEC worked very well to keep Oil Prices UP by intentionally limiting the amount of oil they took out of the ground...if supply goes up, prices come down- if you want to keep prices up, you limit the amount of supply. After these boom times, anyone who thinks that the Oil Business is looking for ways to lower prices and profits is a complete sucker.
The Rest of us Lose
Who looses? Most of Us.
None of us see lower Gas prices anytime soon...if ever.
Fisherman, already waiting on empty boats for fish populations to bounce back, loose most hopes of returning to their jobs.
Working People in Coastal States who rely on Tourism loose when their beaches become blotted with oil bubbles, slicks and spills.
The alternative energy industry, which could help keep this country strong, is forced to wait again while people put off breaking their oil addiction.
We all loose as we continue to damage the planet's atmosphere through fossil fuel consumption.
Americans must resist economic panic. We need to look deeply at this issue and reject the short-sighted, crony capitalism as offered by Oil Man Bush and his would-be successor, John McCain.
There are many reminders in London that our two nations share a rich heritage, and enjoy an abiding friendship (however strained it may be from time to time). In front of the National Gallery is a small, but tasteful statue of George Washington, in Saint Paul's Cathedral, in the place of high honor behind the alter is the American Memorial Chapel, built by the people of the British nation as a gesture of thanks to those American service men who joined Britain in her fight against Nazi Germany, just off Parliament Square, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, erected at the behest of Queen Victoria, gazes across at the Mother of Parliaments. And, above the door at Westminster Abbey, you can see a statue of the Reverend Martin Luther King.
So given this deep nature of the friendship between the nations I was anxious to see the official expression of that good will, our American Embassy.
The American diplomatic mission to London has a long history. Benjamin Franklin served as a agent for the colonies, searching for a way to reconcile our differences with the Mother Country...our first Ambassador to the Court of Saint James (following the establishment of our Republic) was John Adams- named by some the "Atlas of Independence", and our second President.
The embassy is located in Grosvener Square, one of London's most fashionable addresses. I've been waiting to get a chance to go see it, expecting, perhaps a burst of pride when I came upon this little piece of home so far from home.
I expected a building worthy of the deep friendship between the Untied States and the United Kingdom. I expected a building worthy of the memory of Franklin and Adams. I expected to see a building that somehow called to mind the promise inscribed on Liberty's Tablet- give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free....I expected something elegant, because it's Grosvener Square after all, but something too that proclaimed a certain respectable pride in what it means to be an AMERICAN.
But as I approached the square, I felt the bottom fall from my heart. "Surely," I thought, "that cannot be it....please, tell me...that this is not the...." and then I rounded the corner and saw my little home state flag of Vermont; open, friendly, freedom loving Vermont, TRAPPED with all the other State flags behind a barricade.
The barricades are rather new... and of course we can blame that on 9/11...
But the building itself is...it is....well, in short, it is the ugliest building I have ever seen. It is a blight. A smear upon the landscape...if an architect had set out to confirm the worst stereotypes about America, he could not have done a better job. As a piece of propaganda, this building is an eloquent argument for the "other side" (whoever they may be at the moment.)
In short, it is a giant monolith- a huge concrete bunker (one could easily envision Hitler and Eva Braun huddled in the middle of it, waiting for the end). It has no face, but looks out upon the world with cold contempt (and, I think, a little fear- now reinforced by the barricades.) It is flat and without soul. Mechanical and Corporate. The windows recessed behind deep ribs of concrete... The perimeters are patrolled by men with automatic weapons.
I've never had a building make me want to cry before, and I've never in my life felt ashamed of my country. But the day I saw our Embassy in London was a very sad day....
After all, what does it say when Dwight Eisenhower- the liberator of Europe- is imprisoned behind a fence?
I wrote this post in response to something on Green Mountain Daily, but it occurred to me that I could post it here as well, since I'm pressed for time today.
There are those who would argue that eloquence, by itself, is mere noise. I do not agree.
There are actually few other acts that a leader in a democratic society can perform that are more important than eloquence.
Lincoln, Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, are all remembered, first and foremost, for their eloquence.
It is eloquence which is used to engage the people in a dialog and, ultimately, to exhort those same people to action, to inspire hope within them, or to help them change the way they see themselves and the world.
This power can be used for good, or ill. Leaving aside the examples of history's demagogues, like Hitler, who used their eloquence for great evil; we can find other, much less dramatic examples, right here at home, to show the damage that eloquence can do.
Ronald Reagan used eloquence to begin pulling down the social safety nets, government regulation of capital, and to destroy the health of the middle class, that FDR's eloquence had helped to shape.
Even more recently, George W. Bush has used what some have called "plain speaking" to propel this country into a needless war.
His words may have been false, but they were, in their own odd way, eloquent. Eloquent enough to move America to support a massive level of action in Iraq. It is hard to make the argument that Bush's words lacked substance...in fact the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians testify to just how brutally substantive they were.
I would suppose that test of true eloquence is the affect it has on those who hear it.
I can speak only for myself, but Barack Obama's speech Tuesday made me feel proud. It reminded me that we have mountainous problems in the United States...but it also reminded me that we have been working to solve those problems from the moment we banded together as a nation. It also reminded me that we have come far, very far, from where we started...and, for the first time in a long time, it made me look forward to the task of going further, of building upon what we have inherited, rather than feeling despair at what we are loosing.
I had heard that it was a strong speech. An elderly British man and I chatted about it last night- he had been impressed. A friend from Vermont, active in the Obama Campaign, to whom I expressed concerns about the Wright/Obama issue, emailed me as Obama's talk was being broadcast live: "This speech is incredible on so many levels... I hope you're getting or will get the chance to see it -- not just read it.."
Now, I've heard it for myself, complete, and in it's entirety, thanks to the magic of the internet. It got past the editorial gatekeepers of the sensationalist media, and I was able to judge it for myself. I agree completely with my friend...it was an amazing speech and it lifted my heart. Barack Obama gave the best reasons I've heard in my lifetime to justify my hope for this country, my pride in our history, and the work we have to do to move ourselves to where we would wish to be as a nation.
I urge you to watch the speech in it's entirety...I'll put up a link to the video at the end of this post, but in a world of sound bites, I'll choose a few that stood out for me:
Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger... The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.
I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who... on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are part of me. And they are part of America...
Barack Obama spoke of the kind of politics we have been practicing in this country:
We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
And he spoke about the way politics could (and I believe must) be practiced in this country:
Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time."
This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children.
This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life.
This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should have been authorized and never should have been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.
Senator Obama spoke about the anger of Black Americans trapped by a past they did not make.
And he spoke of the Anger of White Americans are are tired of being blamed for an evil which they have not personally committed.
Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.
He spoke of the anger on all sides of those who know that they are not reaping the just rewards of their hard work and he spoke of the dangers of allowing our anger at other Americans to keep us from joining together, as Americans, to overcome our shared problems.
"The path to a more perfect union," Barack Obama said, "requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper."
Our arrival at a better America will not be simple, nor will it be quick, but it can come. He said:
It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
It is a great speech, and, for me personally, those are exactly the words that I, and I believe the nation, needs to hear. Not just as damage control for the Wright episode, but because we stand at a juncture in history where, with hard work, and with - to borrow Lincoln's phrase- a dedication to the unfinished work which our ancestors have thus far so nobly advanced, we can continue our forward journey.
Great rhetoric is not not enough, but it is where we start.
I love my grandmother's politics. She is one of the last of a vanishing breed- a White Southern Evangelical Christian who, nevertheless, has stayed passionately true to her New Deal roots and the Democratic party. This, despite having watched her family and her friends become seduced by the empty promises of Reagan, and conned by the false promises of Bush for an easy victory in a war we didn't need to fight.
So, when she told me that she was probably not going to bother vote for President this year...I was alarmed. This, I thought, is not good. Why not, I asked?
"It's been all over the news, " she said, "his preacher's been on the news shouting out: 'We don't say God Bless America- We say GOD DAMN AMERICA!'
"Now," my grandmother went on, "Obama says he didn't hear this, he didn't know, and he wasn't there when that preacher said that. But Alex? How can a man be your pastor for twenty years, and you not know what he thinks? How can you be friends with the man, the man preforms your wedding, baptizes your children, and you don't know what he thinks? It's just not possible."
"I can't vote for somebody like that, I can't vote for somebody who hates this country," my grandmother said. "And I can't much stand Hillary either. So I think I'm just going to stay home this year."
Our talk drifted to other subjects, but this stayed with me. Here in secular Europe, it was easy for me to miss the story...but I'm sure that CNN and FOX are having a field day with it at home.
And, before I had a chance to start catching up, I found myself wondering- could I vote for Barack Obama after this? If this were true, that Barack Obama's paster of twenty years could think this way, what inferences would I be justified in drawing about the candidate himself?
The subject of patriotism has always been tricky for those of us who stand anywhere from the center to the left.
On the one hand we feel contempt for the shallow, meaningless displays of patriotism adopted by right-wing charlatans: the cheap "made in China" American Flag lapel pin sported by Bush leaps to mind.
Even more, we truly despise the kind of "patriotism" that is used to cover up, excuse, or rationalize the acts of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. These are not the acts of patriots, but of thugs, killers, and villains.
But on the other hand, many of us are still proud of the history of the United States. We know that our country has held out the hope that all of mankind is created equal, and that people have a right to a free and open Government. We look back with pride on our nation's struggles to rid itself of the evils of slavery, we know that we have been constantly redefining and enlarging the definition of what it means to be a participating citizen of our Republic. We can look back with honor at our fight, alongside our gallant allies, against fascism. We can marvel at our ability to overcome those voices who clamored for "America First" and "Isolationism" to engage with the world and to push back, over the course of several decades, the long shadow of the iron curtain- and to do so in a way that did NOT bring about global conflagration.
I'm proud of all of that. I'm proud to be a citizen of a nation that has produced Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Martin Luther King Junior.
Our country has engaged in great wrongs, both past and present, but our nation has also consistently worked to redress those same wrongs...and I have no doubt that, if we continue to cherish what we have been at our best, we will continue to find ways to atone for what we have done at our worst.
If we give up on that ideal, however, then we will have nothing left to fight for- there will be no standards to which we can hold ourselves and our leaders accountable.
Reverend Wright seems to have given up on that ideal. He seems to be one of those on the left who seeks to blame America for every evil, both foreign and domestic. While I can share the anger of the Reverend at many of the evils that he points out, I cannot share in his condemnation of the country.
America was, after all, the first nation on the earth to consciously set itself against such evils- evils which have been perpetrated by every society on earth. It is no wonder that we have not been completely successful, this country, is, in many ways, a miracle simply in the fact that it has held together- the fact that it has won so much justice for it's citizens, in spite of history's trends, is all but beyond belief.
Those are my feelings and they run very deep.
But what of Obama? Does he share the opinions of his pastor? If not, then how could he remain in this man's church and not be culpable?
I don't have an answer, and I must admit, my support for Obama is not as strong today as it was before I heard the Reverend Wright's comments.
But, if there is one thing I know, it is "NEVER TRUST A SOUND BITE". The ethics of today's partisan and sensation seeking media will never allow it to give up a good controversy in search of a more complicated and nuanced truth.
So, it pays to dig a little deeper. Fortunately, the tools are at hand...a quick trip to You-Tube showed me another side of Pastor Wright. Here is a man who is shepherd to a flock which is sorely pressed by the world. The African American community suffers from economic destitution, from violence, from drugs, from disease, and yes, from prejudice...anyone who would deny that is just plain foolish (or worse).
Any leader of the African-American community is going to have to work hard to create an feeling of esprit de corpswithin that community. Because their problems are largely separate, their solutions and their rhetoric will have to be largely separate, too. Wright is preaching to his people that they are going to have to work hard, stay healthy, and stick together... I can at least follow him that far, and have no problem that Obama would follow as well.
I find it ironic to watch the clip of Sean Hannity castigating Jeremiah Wright on FOX: "This is on the website today....commitment to the black community, commitment to the black family, commitment to the black work ethic..." Here, by repeating the world black, Hannity is hinting that it is racist for Wright to be exhorting the black community to make these values their own.
Yet, the very next time someone brings up the poverty and destitution of the black community- exposed by Hurricane Katrina, for example- you'll hear the same old conservative song about how a community needs family values, thrift, and industry if they are to thrive. (Thereby implying that, since the African American community doesn't seem to possess these values, the rest of America has no obligation to help.) So, I give up, Mister Conservative, IS Wright supposed to help instill these virtues in his people or not?
Going back to You-Tube, we see another picture of Paster Wright. This time, he is telling his congregation about a free AIDS testing clinic at the Church. He is warning them of the dangers posed to the black community by AIDS, and he is showing, by example, how easy it is to be tested.
This doesn't look much like Church in my neighborhood, I have to admit, but I can respect it all the same. This is an involved and passionate Christianity, with a leader who is truly caring for his flock and leading by example. I can easily see how a political leader like Obama who wants to make things better in this country might take great inspiration from moments like this...
This video is long, four minutes and thirty seven seconds...exactly four minutes and seven seconds too long for a controversial sound bite.
Does it absolve Wright for his Anti-American comments? No. Does it go a long way to explaining why some, like Obama, might continue to attend his church despite disagreeing with what the Reverend says about our nation? Perhaps.
I've been so far unable to hear or read the context of the "God Damn America" sermon- but it can be noted that, if we go beyond the "God Damn" sound bite, we can hear that Wright is in some measure "damning" America for using the same violent tactics as Al Qaedia...he might be, in fact, urging his flock to do the Christian thing and turn the other cheek.
Still, this is a sentiment that could have been expressed in HUNDREDS of different ways...all of them would have been better...
...as one commenter on MyDD wrote: "Once you hear Reverend Wright, it makes it much more understandable as to why Michelle Obama has never been proud of this nation..."
I am still just as outraged at Wright's anti-American rhetoric as I was when I first heard it. I am still, like my grandmother, confused and angry about this. I'm sure that is true for many American voters.
Unlike my grandmother, however, I have yet to make the decision to stay home in November.
Senator Barack Obama is on probation with me...I am not going to dismiss him out of hand, he strikes me as worthy of more than that. But I will be very interested to listen to him for the duration of the primary fight and the campaign. I will not vote for a man (or woman) who does not share my vision of America, and who does not support my hopes for America.
I do not see the United States in the starkly negative terms of Reverend Wright. I do not see her as a rotten power structure that must be kicked over, attacked, and Damned. We have made mistakes, we need to recover from those mistakes. We have made promises...GOOD PROMISES both to our own people and to the world. We need to keep those promises.
As a nation, we are on a journey, and we are family...all of us, black, red, yellow, and white...anyone who doesn't share that vision of America, for whatever reason, cannot win my vote.
I had, and still have, high hopes for Barack Obama...but he MUST put this fire out.
Postscript
After finishing this, I wrote to a couple of Obama supporters I know. Neil ofWhat's the Point? sent me back a link to an interesting article in the Washington Post.
It's definitely worth the read, and reminds us of the divides that separate us as Americans. It is here. Here's a quote from the article:
"Things that might mean one thing in the church take on a new meaning when you don't see the full sermon, or understand the full context," said Dwight Howard, a theologian and a longtime Trinity member.
Said Cone: "There are moments for [Wright] when the anger, when the rage about what's happened to poor black people in the ghetto is so tough, so deeply painful, that he says things most whites would find off the charts and unpatriotic. But you don't preach in sound bites."
another quote that stood out:
If he were racist, Wright's friends ask, why would he arrange bus trips for predominantly white congregations to visit Trinity each Sunday? If he were racist, why would he have steadfastly maintained Trinity's relationship with the United Church of Christ, a denomination with only a handful of black churches?
"He's been a wonderful friend to white pastors, and he's gifted the organization financially," said UCC President John H. Thomas. "That charge is false."
So, as usual, the truth would appear to be, both from what I'm reading and what I'm seeing for myself on the You-Tube footage, more nuanced than the Headline Sound Bites make it out to be. Learning more is helping me settle down again.
But, of course, that's what scares me. The American people as a whole CAN learn- but we do NOT learn fast. If you doubt we can learn, look at Bush's approval ratings and attitudes toward Iraq. But it took us at least two years too long to absorb the truth that Saddam, while evil, had nothing to do with 9/11, that there were no WMDs, and that victory would be neither quick nor painless- and that Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech only marked the end of the beginning rather than the beginning of the end.
I fear that, while Obama will probably regain traction as more people hear more of the story, this may be another issue on which our learning curve is just too long.
At present, I'm waiting to see Obama's speech. I've heard, both from friends here in England, and email correspondents at home, that it is good. I'm hoping that it will be effective.
I was born in Orlando Florida
in 1969. I moved to Vermont in 1979- arriving with a thick Southern Accent.
After a long search for what I wanted to do when I grew up, I decided not to grow up at all.
I produce Radio Advertising and do voice-overs for a living.
In my free time I read a lot of American History and current Poltics-- I keep wondering: from where we started, how did we wind up here?
I now live with my wife and (too) many cats in Minnesota.
If you like Rip and Read, check out MWMB: The Podcast. Alex and his ex-brother-in-law are no longer in the same family, but they've carried the post thanksgiving dinner arguments onto the internet. Don't turn to elitist commentators, we are are your source for HOMEMADE Rhetoric!
Perhaps it is worth considering, as these radicals try to appropriate Memorial Day to their own ends, that it was right-wing groups in the 1930s, namely the German-American Bund and the America First Movement, who ensured that, while Great Britain began her fight against Hitler in 1939, America did not enter the war against evil until December 1941- over two years later.
War Memorial In St. Paul Minnesota
War Memorial In London, UK
If you like Rip and Read, check out 