Posted by wendy b. on March 22, 2003, at 23:40:11
In reply to Re: Iraq and Al Queda » beardedlady, posted by Dinah on March 22, 2003, at 9:52:21
> I certainly hope that you aren't equating ridicule (not that I at all approve of harassing people for their beliefs) with the blowing up of an office building without warning or the gassing of Kurds...
Dinah,I usually don't do this, but I have to say (well, I don't have to, I want to say): sorry, but I do not believe Beardy was saying this at all. You characterize her as someone who doesn't understand the relative weight of words, that she lacks subtlety. I disagree.
I'm pretty sure (!) that she was saying: Americae speaketh out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to issues like this. Terror visited upon other people -- whether they be abortion clinic patients, or innocent civilians -- should be called what it is. And that *certain* kinds of terror are deemed okey-dokey by the US of A (i.e., the clinic bombers and harassers), but other kinds, performed by brown-skinned people from that nebulous region, the "Middle East," are deemed high crimes.
Hope that addresses any misunderstanding.
An aside:
I have been in parking lots at abortion clinics in my area, trying to outsprint the protesters who screamed venom at me and other women. Some of us were there to have the procedure done, some of us were escorting patients into the clinics, others of us counter-protesting with our own signs and slogan-chanting. They carried signs of botched abortions, and tried to chain themselves to the examining room tables. These people inclded the infamous Randall Terry and his Band of Merry Men (and women and children, of course)."I have seen the face of evil..."
In Buffalo, they succeeded in murdering an OB/GYN who performed the procedure, among all the other types of services he provided. These anti-abortionists also made their children protest out there with them in sub-zero temperatures. What a world...
As somebody said, in one of our other recent "War" threads, it is here in America that the right to protest -- to publicly and peacefully disagree with one another, without fear of being detained by the miltary state apparatus -- is guaranteed, simply by the fact that you live here. Civilized people (those who are civil to one another), can disagree and still respect each others' rights to co-exist on the planet. It's this type of peaceful protesting that Bush dislikes; everyone MUST agree ("Ya-voll"), or our patriotism is called into question.It's this slow eroding of our fundamental freedoms (and I don't mean the 2nd Amendment) -- those of speech, assembly, and public expression -- that I ultimately fear about Bush's administration. That, and the fact that the United Nations has been turned into a farce by the behavior of the U.S. In my view, in order for this world-body to be effective, we cannot chose to live outside of its rules whenever the rules do not justfy our own ends. But this is what we have done. All I can say is: woe betide us.
Luckily I don't have cable, or I would be glued to the TV news right now. Who has the time? Who doesn't already have enough anxiety? I read my news on the web (so I control the rate of input into my overloaded-already brain), and look at several daily newspapers, to try to stay informed. But it gets too overwhelming on the boob tube. Somehow I always end up wanting to throw large, blunt objects at the television screen, when watching the American news program channels.
Best wishes, in any case, to everyone,
Wendy
poster:wendy b.
thread:210223
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030322/msgs/211644.html