Y'know I rarely blog on the subject of my own feelings, after all there is scant interest in my political opinions, what I feel therefore seems bound for internet anonymity. That having been said, it is hard not to feel some rude humane sympathy for the demonstrators outside that Hospice in Florida. Few people outside the ranks of the KGB or SS can watch a fellow human being expire of dehydration and starvation and not be moved to some desire to redress the suffering. This has been a hard thing to witness no matter what your religious persuasion or lack thereof.
I have elderly parents and I shake at the thought of Michael Schiavo's decision, even if his wife effectively perished fifteen years ago. We are feeling creatures at the core, suffering especially personal suffering motivates us to generosity every time.
What I have NO sympathy for, is the spirit of absolutism, clericalism and yes-revolution that clings to this whole story like a bad odor. Last week commentators on Fox News were calling on Florida Governor Jeb Bush to send in the state police to re-connect Terry's IVs. This week worse things will be cheerfully proposed and all with a scorpion tongue.
No doubt even as I write this, grown adult men and women are crowding the podiums in congress eulogizing Terry Schiavo by screaming for blood and dynamite. Tonight on cable and radio the lowest rightical chic scum in the nation will rouse themselves to new heights of demogogic indignation, threats will be made, and vengeance on all liberals will be demanded.
Laura Ingraham will shake off her perpetual hangover to snarl "murder most foul" into the microphone-count on it!
At that moment, all those humane instincts out in front of the Hospice and in every human breast in the nation will be forgotten in a riot of retribution and political gamesmanship. We are a feeling animal but also a forgetting animal as well.
Where is the respect for the law in all this? The deference to tradition? The value of Institutions?
Nowhere. All is given over to base fury.
What is needed in this country, now more than ever is a revolution in values, which must be secular, democratic, and Jacksonian in scope..something both humane and unafraid. Something certainly beyond the corrupting reach of spin doctors, lobbyists, demagogues and professional wowsers.
Today they say anything to retain power, what happens they decide to DO anything to retain power?
No comments :
Post a Comment