Words have power [extended health care rant, part 1]

[katster]

First off, I know my hometown is rather Republican. It’s part of the reason I don’t always feel comfortable up there, but people have a right to their politics despite how much I may disagree with them. But this video makes me embarrassed to be from Redding:

Alright, so again, there’s a first amendment right to say as you please, no matter how dumb you come across sounding. The guy has a right to protest, so I don’t mind that he’s a teabagger sort. Folks have a right to say what they want. However, the bit that just makes me angry is that bit about being “a right-wing terrorist”.

Again, I know that folks have the right to say what they want to say. But labeling oneself a terrorist is a bit like yelling fire in a crowded theater. If you want to pull the Feds down on your head, there’s only a few worse things you can say. But alright, fine. First amendment and all, even though the first amendment doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences for what you say.

The things that make me embarrassed to be from Redding in this video is by how loud the crowd applauds. I mean, they literally cheer for the guy — a guy who has said that he’s not above blowing up buildings and killing innocent people for his cause. Let’s not beat around the bush (or the Bush, for that matter) here. A terrorist is somebody who uses terror — the threat of hurting innocent people to cause fear — to achieve a political goal. I’m willing to give the guy in the video a pass in the sense that he meant another word and said the wrong one, as much as that is a really bad slipup, if that’s the case. However, the crowd cheering at those words — in essence, approving of terrorism — is what appalls me.

Then there’s what the Congressman said, which makes me embarrassed to admit that I think I voted for the guy once. You see, Herger was pretty good, despite his political affiliations, of doing what was right for his constituents. He even listened kindly to me when I asked him at a town hall meeting how he could help in regards to the cost of attending college. In the end, he might not have done anything, but I got the feeling he was taking me seriously and at least thought about what I had said when the next bill to help with college aid came up.

But again, there’s a line you cross when you say to somebody who’s just declared himself a right-wing terrorist: “Amen, God bless you, there’s a great American.” I don’t really think our representatives ought to be encouraging those who would stoop to violence to achieve their political goals, whether they share the same political beliefs or oppose them. There’s a line of decorum here that shouldn’t be crossed.

I know Republicans don’t want this health care bill, and I can vaguely understand why. But, that said, some of this rhetoric is getting a bit out of control.

(BTW, don’t give me the it was a joke bit. There’s some things that just aren’t funny — and I hate to say it, that didn’t sound like a joke on the tape. He sounded dead serious, and to cover it up by saying “Haw haw, it’s a joke, it’s supposed to be funny, you liberals have no sense of humor” isn’t right either. My mom taught me that some things just weren’t funny no matter if you meant it as a joke or not, and terrorism is one of those things.

That said, this bit in that editorial is spot on and something I can agree with:

If there’s a lesson here, maybe it’s about the need for everyone to turn the volume down. Left and right alike slap the vilest labels on those with whom they have political disagreements. Critics slag both “tea-bag” activists and Acorn organizers as “Brownshirts” – as if voting differently on the “public option” is the equivalent of slaughtering millions, as the Nazis did in the 1930s and ’40s. What will we say if real Nazis ever show up?

Is it so hard to be polite and respectful to one another even though we disagree? Can we stop with the hot-button words?)

But between this video and the news that Ted Kennedy died, some part of me this morning is sorta feeling like, there went my last best chance to become a productive citizen. I’ll have more to say on that later, when I’m not rushing off to work, as it’s a story that’s going to take a bit of time to tell.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

Wow...that *was* pretty offensive. The 'right-wing terrorist' bit was particularly ridiculous, as well as the follow up 'endorsement' of 'there's a great American'. I was also rather annoyed with the 'self-appointed king' comment. I mean really...WTF???

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I guess that at least leads to an obvious ad against the guy in the next election, loath as I usually am to think of campaigns in those terms. :P

(And I love how they always fall back on "it was a joke!" after saying something egregiously offensive.)

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

And Wally was my Little League Baseball coach, back when I was in the fourth or fifth grade and living in Tudor and playing baseball in the South Sutter Little League.

[katster.livejournal.com]

Wow, it's a small world. :)

(I had forgotten he was from Yuba City, actually. He's been my Congressman for almost as long as I can remember -- but CA-2 is a large district.)

As I said, he seemed to be a good guy when I went to one of these town hall meetings as a senior in high school, which makes me just all the more depressed to see this. But I guess people change, and the current political atmosphere is not exactly genial at the moment.

-kat

[katster.livejournal.com]

And the bit about 'looking for his birth certificate' was also somewhat grating. I mean, as Rep. Frank put it, "it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated."

I mean, the dude's got his right, but... *sigh*

-kat

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

Oh dear...I missed the birth certificate reference.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Rio Oso, actually, south of Nicklaus. He only just barely misses being in Sacramento county. This is something that always seemed to trouble me about him representing a district that stretches so far north -- he's so close to Sacramento that I often wondered how much in touch with the feelings of his constituents in the more rural parts of the state he was. But the flip side of that is that there's a lot of looney-tunes in rural Northern California, and I should know, coming from a tiny mountain town in Yuba County as I do.

He wasn't a great baseball coach, but to be fair, we weren't a very good team, and I'm not much of a fielder. (I could hit a little bit, but every ball hit to me was an adventure. I think in four years of Little League I had exactly one putout as they tried to hide me in right field; near my fourth and final season I managed to catch a pop fly, which surprised me as much as anyone else on the field. That was three seasons after my stint with Mr. Herger, though, after I'd moved back to Challenge and played for a team in the North Yuba LL.)

Getting back to the politics: I think there are a lot of people who seem to think that dictatorial powers for Maximum Leader are a great idea as long as it's Our Guy wielding them. The right-wing nut-jobs complaining about the current President should take a good long look in the mirror, because it was Their Guy who can be said to have started it, and a compliant Congress who let him get away with it. Actually, as something of a libertarian, I dislike the expansion of government under both the Democrats and Republicans, but for different reasons than these "domestic terrorists," who as far as I can tell have an attitude of "I'm all right, Jack, the rest of you can go to Hell -- except that I want the government to make people think and act the way I do."

[katster.livejournal.com]

It's kinda buried, and I'll believe that was more intended as a bit of a joke (it's right after the 'I forgot my papers at home' bit), but yeah, it's in there.

*sigh* Look, we have elections in this country, and just because you're not happy with the results of the election doesn't mean you can make up crap.

But I'm ranting again.

-kat

[katster.livejournal.com]

Ah, so he's not overly far from where I'm living now (which is Sacramento County, but very close to where Sacramento, Placer, and Sutter all come together). And you don't have to tell me about the crazies who inhabit Northern California, I grew up around them and have some of them in the family tree. (Makes Thanksgiving *really* fun, let me tell you -- but I've pretty much learned to stay shut up on politics and religion around them.)

As for the politics, I get where you're coming from in regards to being mostly libertarian. At least you're not the 'I got mine; screw you' sort. And in terms of social relationships, I suspect I'm a bit on the libertarian side myself. (Economically, I'm a little less so, but I'm not convinced than an entirely free market ends up being the best thing for anybody involved.)

Besides, I freely admit I might be a little irrational on the whole health care debate, but part 2, which I'm going to write and post tonight, should help in explaining why I'm so irrational on this subject.

-kat

[katster.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that really drives me crazy. You know, if you said something, own it, even if you meant it as a joke. "Yeah, I was trying to be funny, and it failed. I'm sorry." goes a long way.

But the Congressman...*sigh*. And as far as I can tell, there's been no attempt to walk it back. Being a Republican never means you have to say you're sorry.

-kat

[loopychew.livejournal.com]

Strangely, from my friends list your video links to a Hatsune Miku video.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Youtube links on LJ get weirdly broken if there's more than one on the same friends page, I've noticed.

[katster.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a cache issue somewhere, but it's hard to say where.

-kat

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Would it still be a joke if he said he was a left-wing terrorist?

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Now, now, to the type of person who'd describe himself as a right-wing terrorists, everyone on the left is a left-wing terrorist.

[katster.livejournal.com]

Naw, if I'd said something like that, I'd probably meet Mr. Handcuffs and get a nice ride in Mr. Police Car all the way down to my new accommodations in Mr. Jail.

Same would probably apply if I said the same words as him, but happened to be ethnically Arab.

-kat

[jaeai.livejournal.com]

Mr Handcuffs bad. Mr. Police Car, ok.

Mr Jail is not ftw. No sirree.

*waves out*