Soapbox

George W. Bush, the man who vowed to restore integrity and decency to the White House has taken yet another bizarre backward step in his pursuit of that goal. He seems to have called half the population of the country Nazis.

On his official campaign website Bush officials have placed a flash movie called “The Face of John Kerry’s Democratic Party” whom he calls The Coalition of the Wild-eyed. It begins with a clip of Al Gore at his now famous speech saying, his voice hoarse with anger, “How dare they drag the good name of the United States through the mud!”. We see Howard Dean declare “I want my country back” and Dick Gephardt say, “This president has been the worst ever!”

Interspersed with these sane but angry men (who are, by the way, making very good points) we see images of Adolf Hitler, and also text saying “God told me to attack Iraq” which is, of course, George W. passing the buck to God for his miserable attempt at the conquest of Iraq. Then it says, “This is not the time for pessimism and rage” and we hear happy, heartland music and see Mr. Bush looking optimisticly into the future. Fade to black.

This little spot is as puzzling as it is insulting. First of all, it would appear that someone needs to give his campaign staff a little lesson in civics. The liberals are the Communists, man, don’t you remember? (Geeze, it was in all the papers! Just Google “Joe McCarthy” and read all about it.)

Plus it’s hard to see how a few people feeling angry at what you have done to the nation qualifies the democratic party as being compadres of Hitler.

I read today that the Bush camp has explained that the Nazi images used in that ad are actually taken from a spot developed (but fortunately not broadcast) by Moveon.org against the republicans. They are included not to call dems Nazis but to say that Dems are the kind of people who call other people Nazis.

Which should certainly illustrates to the moveon.org folks the danger of using inflammatory rhetoric like comparing anyone to Adolf Hitler! Such extreem measures have a way of coming back and harming the sender. I guess enough people realilzed that they were playing with fire that Moveon never ran the commercial the republicans refer to, but still they have been burned by it. Indeed, if the Moveon camp was offended by the apparent suggestion that they are Nazis then perhaps they know how it feels. Because no matter how right-wing and reactionary some of the Bush policies are, they are not facist mass-murders.

Which leaves us with the Bush ad. The first problem with it is that, whatever the true explaination for the Adolf Hitler montage, it is not explained in the movie and does leave the uninformed viewer with the clear and unfortunate impression that Bush is calling democrats Nazis. For that reason, I should think they would want to remove or at least modify the spot.

I also don’t see why the Bush campaign wants their supporters to see the Al Gore clip, because it is, in fact, a very legitimate and troubling question. We have been dragged through the mud- and why? Many people feel that America has been made to look like a greedy, grubby imperialist power that we no longer recognize, and we want our good name back. We want to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of the liar and the home of Halliburton!

Neither Gore nor Dean nor Gephardt look the least bit wild-eyed in this ad, just fed up. John Kerry isn’t really shown at all- apparently, even by their loose standards, he hasn’t said anything wild-enough to qualify.

As I understand it (and admittedly, I don’t) the point of the ad is that these men are bad leaders because… they tell the truth that the president doesn’t want us to hear. They refuse to wear the rose-colored glasses that President Bush wants the country to wear. They are pessimistic and angry at the frightening direction Bush in which is leading the country, and have the bad taste to speak out about it. The Bush camp cannot attack their message, so in typical cowardly fashion, they attack the messengers.

Apparently the proper behavior for a populace who finds themselves on the deck of the Titanic and notices an iceberg ahead is to strike up a rousing chorus of “You Are My Sunshine”!

Well excuse us all for not singing along with Mitch! We believe that there is still time to keep the ship of state from going down, but only if we, as Dean says, take back our country, change course from the deadly direction we are headed in and restore power to the hands of the people of this country, where it belongs. To paraphrase a famous movie, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!”

It is entirely reasonable to be angry with a government who labels all those who disagree, even those of the same party, as traitors. This administration lies, manipulates the media, wraps themselves in the righteous mantle of religion while violating the basic tenets of that religion, supports the rights of corporations over citizens, robs from the poor to give to the rich and starts a war for their own ends by announcing that only terrorists are opposed to the war. Of course people are angry. Anyone who isn’t angry is either one of Bush’s friends getting big hand-outs or is asleep and hasn’t been paying attention!

Naturally those who voice their anger will be labeled by the Bush camp as more examples of the “wild-eyed” crazies who support Kerry. But if enough people wake up by November 2nd, it won’t matter what the Bush campaign says.

Well I took part in a church service at the request of my friends Marj (who was preaching) and Byron in a public park today…and ended up doing the Gay Pride Parade too, How could I not, after all that happened?

I was a little reluctant to get into all this today, but I promised Marj I would sing with her and didn’t want to let her down. So there I was, standing in front of a little gazebo in Goodale Park with a hundred or so people, drinking an Arizona iced tea and watching the interfaith gay-friendly service start, and I noticed a bunch of big guys come walking up with these shirts that said in big red letters: GOT AIDS YET?

Oh great- the goon squad. I had been warned about them, but we expected them at the parade, not the service. I mean this was just church! They set up several posts about 50 feet back from the gazebo and put up their big banners that said thing like “Execute child-molesting faggot priests!” and “You are an abomination before God!” and “Aids isn’t a disease- it’s a cure”. What makes people want to do this, I wondered? Everybody tried to ignore them. The cops were watching and said they’d step in if they got too disruptive since we had a permit and they didn’t.

A few minutes later I noticed movement in the crowd and the biggest guy with the “AIDS isn’t a disease” sign was trying a flanking maneuver to get up to the stage from the side. And Nancy Snyder was stepping right in front of him.
Nancy weighs all of about 100 pounds soaking wet. She and her daughter were in Indian Maidens with me and Katie, so I have known her for some time. Like the man in front of the tank in Tianamen square, Nancy moved wherever he moved. She didn’t say a word or even look at him, just put herself between him and the clergy on the stage. He could shove past her easily, but he didn’t. At least not yet.

I handed my iced tea to Byron and walked over to her without even thinking, really. I mean, what else could I do? She’s a friend of mine, for crying out loud! One woman against all that hate? No, two of us now. I took her hand and she smiled at me and we stood in front of him. We moved where he moved and did not let him pass.
Suddenly Gene- all 6’2″ of him appeared on Nancy’s other side, and the man stopped, flummoxed. On the other side of the crowd I saw another protester trying the same move, but the crowd was watching and 3 or 4 people stepped in front of him silently and stopped him.

The fellow behind us just radiated hostility. He began shouting “You are an abomination!”
“God hates you!” another shouted. The human wall just grew larger with every word they spoke until there were 20 or more people protecting the service. We stood with bowed heads and tried to ignore them while the police moved behind him and asked him to be quiet.
“I dissent!” he shouted. “Dissent is a basic civil liberty in this country!” Ignoring for a moment the irony of a reactionary homophobe lecturing ME about civil liberties, I began to sing very quietly.
“I love you Lord…and I lift my voice…to worship you, oh my soul, rejoice…”
I saw Nancy break into a big grin and she and Gene joined in. “Take joy my God, in what you hear, may it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.” Our whole line took it up, quietly, and the guy shut up at last.
Then the communion started and goon-boy saw his opportunity when several people left “the wall” to get in line. He made a quick flanking manouver and tried to rush the lines. Nancy and I were faster and got in front of him, now just a few feet from the service. The line reformed, larger than ever, and slowly began stepping backward, herding the man out of range again. I started singing the first song that came into my mind- “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”

I don’t know what music was planned for communion, but that was the song that we all sang. The pastors came along the line and served us and thanked us as we held our posts. 2 park volunteers with trash-picker poles came up and stood with us and took communion with us, which was neat.

Finally the police made the protesters step back, disassemble their banners and with much grumbling, leave that part of the park. No one acknowledged their leaving any more than we had their coming, but I was really jazzed. I mean, I felt like there was a reason I was there today!
Oh, and we sang a benediction, and I had the last verse solo. Marj had told me to jazz it up a bit, so I just opened my mouth and let rip. I was told afterwords by several people that I was excellent.
So after all that, how could I not get on the truck with Nancy and sing church songs in the Pride Parade?

That was real hoot, let me tell you! There was the whole gamut of cars and floats and all sorts of people. There were more than a few churches represented: we had mikes and sang all the up-beat songs we could think of. “Oh Happy Day” seemed to be the crowd favorite. There were various gay-friendly politicians, civic organizations, bars, clubs, drag queens in rainbow bikinis and tiaras, leather clad women on motorcyles called “Dykes on Bikes”…when the parade first formed up we were in line right behind the condom float dancing and tossing condoms and advocating safe sex… but we pulled out of line and let a classic car group go before us and pulled in with another church’s van.

And there were thousands and thousands of people!! The parade itself was so big one could be forgiven for thinking that most of the gay people in Columbus were on the floats, but no! They lined the streets, 5 and 6 deep in many places, for blocks, cheering and singing along as we came by. There were hardly any hate-mongers at the parade: guess they concentrated on the church service this year. We sang “Let there be Peace on Earth” and “Jesus Loves You” and waved when we passed them.

It was sort of my swan song with the whole group, and it was fun. I saw over a dozen former New Creation people, some of whom I haven’t seen in years, so that was really nice. One guy greeted me by name and I recognized his face but just couldn’t come up with his name as we talked. He said “Gosh- I hardly recognized you without the kids! They were, what, 10 and 7 when I saw you last?!” so its not surprising that I didn’t remember him.

Wow- 2 demonstrations in a month for me! That’s my limit for the summer I think…but we’ll see. (I’m pretty jazzed about this Bush nazi ad thing, and might have just one more demonstration in me!) There were some people from WOSU there filming the service and the parade. I learned later that they are making a documentary about the whole thing, so the “love wall” may someday be on PBS. Who knows.
I couldn’t help but think that if more straight people saw what some nuts are willing to do to a church service, for goodness’ sake, and how we dealt with it, they would have less sympathy for the homophobes and be less inclined to see the gay folks as being the “Wrong” ones. I hope so.

While I was on the line, a few words started running through my head when I was trying to ignore their nastiness. After the service I got a pen and a scrap of paper and wrote this song of peaceful resistance to hate.

I do not hear the hateful voices-
All I hear is love.
I do not feel the fists of anger,
For all I feel is love.

I do not seek to change the world-
I only want to bring the word love.
I don’t believe there is peace without justice-
All I believe is love.

Copied from a posting on the Randi Rhodes message board, author unknown.

The primary difference between a Liberal and a Conservative is the placement of basic empowerment.

Conservatives believe that industry, corporations and government should have more power than the common people. Thus they support corporate welfare, the elimination of taxes on wealth (currently wealth is not taxed in America only income) the elimination of basic rights such as search and seizure, the tenth amendment eliminated and approval of the death penalty and pro-life positions. They are against “right to die” legislation because in conservative America, the government controls life and death.

Liberals believe that people should have more rights than the government, industry and corporations. Thus, they support social programs for the poor, the right to unionize, the desire to tax wealth rather than income, the expansion of individual rights (though there hasn’t been any expansion since around 1971), anti- death penalty positions and are largely pro-choice Free speech and civil rights are celebrated because in liberal America, the individual controls life and death.

Liberals do not hate America. Liberals love Americans first.
Conservatives do not hate Americans. Conservatives love America first.

These differences are critical, as the rightwing has been expanding its power base by playing off its basic principles. The rightwing is not for corporations over the common man and yet they claim that liberals are the wealthy elite.

This letter appeared in the Columbus Dispatch in June while they were doing a series on people waiting in line for food pantries around the state. I have since learned that an advocate for the working poor took it to Washington and used it in some of her lobbying efforts, which is totally cool.
Editor:

Congratulations on your thought-provoking series, “Lines of Despair”. The working poor are largely ignored in this country, despite the fact that so many of us are one illness or car accident away from disaster and homelessness. The “boom” of the Clinton era missed many working families in Ohio, unfortunately the “bust” of the Bush years has not. The families profiled in your series are not the stereotypical “welfare queens” sponging off the government but hard-working people working 2 and 3 jobs and still not quite able to make ends meet. Readers should keep these families in mind when they hear the administration tout our great “economic recovery”.

Although 900,000 jobs have been created recently, there are still over a million more people out of work now than 4 years ago. As for the jobs created: if you lose a job that pays $18/hr and replace it with one at minimum wage, you may be off the unemployment statistics, but that doesn’t mean you have enough money to eat! Education budgets are on the ropes, veterans benefits are cut, and many active-duty soldiers need food stamps just to get by! In time of war, that fact is a national disgrace.

“There’s not enough money in the budget� we’re told by a government that is giving away billions in corporate welfare and un-bid contracts. Their priorities do not reflect American values. It was recently uncovered by the Washington Post that the Bush administration plans to cut millions of dollars from education and programs like Head Start and the WIC nutrition program, after the election. During a war on terrorism, they even plans cuts for Homeland Security.

If we value these programs we must insist on an economic policy that supports them! America needs a sensible tax plan focused on funding the programs that matter most and not on rewarding corporations who out-source their work force, forcing more and more people into the food pantry lines. It is the only way to erase these lines of despair.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness”

These famous words of Dickens could have been written about America today. Never has the future of the American people held more promise. We stand on the brink of technological and social breakthroughs that could defeat disease, hunger, poverty and injustice. America is the driving force behind the development of medicines that could save the lives of millions of people and ease the suffering of millions more. Our scientific advances have enabled us to grow enough food to feed all of our citizens and much of the hungry around the world besides.

But never has that bright promise been more endangered. Despite America’s vast wealth, many of her children still go to bed hungry every night. Our ballooning deficit threatens to wipe away decades of work combating poverty and reducing welfare dependence, and could even destabilize the world economy. A rising intolerance disguised as piety threatens to deny some citizens their basic civil rights. The widening gap between rich and poor, insured and uninsured, is polarizing this country and increasing class division.
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