Soapbox

    We build walls around our certainty to protect our special sense of place, to guard against things that might threaten it- things like compassion, a recognition of common bonds and larger truths. Common bonds break down walls, and ours walls are what lets everyone know that we are special.
   We celebrate our small variations of color, language, cultural standards, shelter the perception of our vital uniqueness because too often we find our validation in superiority rather than in commonality.

    Like a rare and precious orchid we give our rituals sanctuary behind the hothouse glass of exclusion lest we be damaged by the cold, harsh winds of “other”, tainted by the mongrel of “them”.

    But the things we let divide us are not rare and exotic or worthy of protection. Intolerance and xenophobia are common as crabgrass,
as smothering  as kudzu, as toxic as poison ivy. They are parasitic, strangler vines that envelope the community, robbing it of life and light, choking off the ability to work for the common good, blocking our view of the future.
    When we put ourselves behind the glass walls of tradition and segregation, we exile ourselves from the universal constants of the quest for purpose: the need for  affection, a child’s smile, the very beating heart of life.

    "Ask the girl" she said pointing to me, and I knew I liked her right away. (Well, it's been a long time since anyone called me a girl) She was about 2 1/2, with dark riotous curls, brown eyes and wearing a tiny replica of Belle's dress with a red t-shirt under it and purple sneakers.
    "We're looking for sticks for princess wands" she said before her mother could speak up. I was supposed to be taking my lunch break but I led them to the right area and while her mother debated, she showed me the goodies they already had in their basket: ribbons, pom-poms, stick-on gems and lots and lots of glitter.
    "Goodness, are you having a birthday party?" I asked.
    "No, it's for a craft day. Don't you ever have craft days?"
    "When you work here" I said solemnly "You have craft day every day" Her eyes sparkled, no doubt imagining all-night glitter sessions.

    I offered to show her mother something else I thought might be fun to use on their wands in another sections. Her mother said "Can you play follow the leader?" and gestured to me. I figured this was probably how they did things in pre-school, and on a whim I  held my arms out like an air plane, tipping one up and the other down and called "Follow the leader!". I heard her giggle.
     "Follow me!" I called again after an aisle or two, and started hopping.
     "We're kangaroos!!!" she shouted behind me, breathless.
     "We are the best kangaroos in the whole store!" I agreed and waved at a passing teenager (who seemed pretty sure that I was insane).

I showed her mother what I'd had in mind, and while she looked at them, knelt down.     
     "Did I hear your mommy call you Kathleen?" I asked, and she nodded. "I once had a tiny Kathleen just like you" I said "And she was my very own little girl to play with."
    "But what happened to her?"
I put my hand on the top of her head, and then lifted it up higher and higher until it was over my head. "She grew. She grew and gre and grew!!!"
    "I'm growing too!" she assured me.
     "I can tell. You may be taller already then when I met you. You'd better stop growing before your head hits the ceiling!" I was rewarded with a giggle.
    Sadly, her mother was now finished choosing her items and I had no excuse not to go have my lunch. I waved, said "Thanks for playing with me!" and walked away, filled with wonderful memories of my own tiny Kathleen and glad that sometimes, if I ask nicely,  she still is willing to play with me.

    Poor Republicans! They started out so strong this week, with a new scandal with which  to attack Obama nearly every day! You could just tell they believed they could sail that ship all the way to victory in 2016 and maybe even pick up an impeachment along the way! But by the weekend, the wind had gone somewhat out of their sails.

     First, there was Benghazi, which Dick "What World Trade Center?" Cheney called 'the worst tragedy in his lifetime'. In Act 1, Hillary Clinton was accused of lying to congress about it- but that accusation was proven to be a lie. (Congress lying about someone lying to congress apparently is not the crime that lying to congress is. Yes, I know it's complicated, but do try to keep up!) 
    When the curtain went up on Act 2, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ambassador Pickering were accused of being part of the 'cover-up' and refusing to testify!  Gasp! Now surely that subversion of democracy will draw some blood!  And perhaps it would have, but both men came forward and explained that, far from refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-Republican Activities, the committee chairman was actually  refusing to let them testify in open session. He would only agree to meet with them in private chambers, because he realized that they were not planning to say what he wanted America to hear.
     But the big finale, the last nail in the Obama terrorist-loving coffin was going to be those White House e-mails that clearly showed a concerted effort to get the Benghazi lies straight before public statements were made. And they were pretty damning!
     Too bad they were fake.
     In a single day, Benghazi-gate turned into Benghazi-gate-gate when it came out that someone in the GOP altered the White House e-mails and released "quotes' from them to ABC News that were not quotes at all. When the actual e-mails were examined they were found to pretty much back up what Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the people involved in this sad incident have been saying all along.  Bummer, guys. Looks like your grand production may close in reviews.
    Still, do not despair, scandal-hungry Republicans! Beacuse there is a Benghazi  scandal after all!  You should assemble another committee, convene more hearings, pound the table and demand to know- Who in the Republican party lied to the American people and why did they think they would get away with it??? Ah, but I'm guessing you may not want to talk about those e-mails any more.

     And as if that wasn't enough bad news, their big IRS scandal began to fizzle too. Turns out that while the IRS did violate their standard procedure when deciding that the Tea Party groups applying for tax exempt status should get some extra hoops to jump through first,  they did not target only the Tea Party, or only conservative groups. Nor in the end did they deny any of those groups tax exempt status. So while clearly some shake-ups are in order at the IRS, the poor, martyred Tea Party turns out NOT to have quite the nail holes in their hands and feet that they would like you to think they have.
    Tempest- meet Tea Party Pot.

    But John Boehner's marching orders have come down from the Heritage Foundation!! Regardless of how badly the American people need for Congress to get something done– his #1 job is to attack!
     Do NOT allow anything to come to a vote that might show a difference of opinion among Republicans, he was told. Stall, stall and stall! This really plays to his strength because he's quite skilled at the art of getting nothing done! Focus instead on the 'troubling issues'  facing the President.
   Ah yes, the 'troubling issues'. The manufactured outrage by people who have all but admitted that they don't really intend to do any actually governing in the next 3 years- who have spent the entire Obama presidency so far focused like a laser on rape (it's not such a bad thing, ladies! ) abortion (its a very bad thing, you sluts!) denying global climate change (a total hoax which only  98% of the scientific community says is real but who ya gonna believe- a bunch of liberal scientists or CPAC?) and people using unemployment benefits to buy drugs (We're sure you're out there though we haven't actually  located any of you yet!). And of course blocking an energy bill, blocking a jobs bill, blocking an education bill, blocking the Violence Against women Act… you see the theme.
     Well, it seems the entire Republican party has decided switch professions this week and become pushers instead of legislators. And the high they are pushing? Hate, scandal and off-with-his-head anger.

    Just think for a moment: if the GOP had passed even one jobs bill, or offered  a budget that didn't tax the poor to help the rich, they could be out there today bragging to their constituents about the news that the deficit is shrinking faster than predicted and the stock market is up!
    Instead, they are frantically setting their hair on fire, trying to keep us from noticing these disturbing developments. They cannot afford to let anything good to happen to America while the dark-skinned guy is in office.

    As Bill Maher said; at some point, obstruction becomes treason.

     So forget about the closed schools and un-inspected food, and unsafe bridges; forget about the clogged courts because we refuse to approve any judicial nominees and about the veterans languishing without their promised benefits and the folks whose unemployment has run out…
    No, seriously-  please, forget about those things. Because we intend to do nothing about them.
    Please talk about this umbrella instead.

Wait- no, not that umbrella… this one!

     Yes, the latest "We've got to hate Obama about something!" talking point is that image of Obama making an outdoor address while a Marine holds an umbrella over his head. No, I am not making this up.
    The question conservative bloggers and idio- I mean pundits are asking is: what kind of elitist, socialist Muslim, gun-stealing dictator would have someone else hold his umbrella??!

     Sarah Palin tweeted her outrage about this, even as someone found a picture of her climbing down from her airplane with an assistant holding an umbrella over her head. And of course others turned up of Bush 1 and Bush 2 and Clinton doing the same thing.
     Oopsy.

     Dear right-wing scandal addicts:
           It's called "Protocol".  And really, you're talking about a man who has a jumbo transport plane to fly his own ambulance and limousine wherever he travels, who has entire teams of people that swarm all over a town days in advance, inspecting every house and building that looks out over where the president will be!
      Getting upset about the ' elitist entitlement' of having a marine hold his umbrella while he's speaking in the rain is like being outraged that they play "Hail to the Chief" before he walks into a room.
     What kind of a dictator-thug has his own song that people have to play for him every time he walks in?!?!

      Well let's see… professional wrestlers… and the President of the f**king United States, you pea-brains!!
      Now stop wasting our time and go do your jobs!

This is not our first rodeo.
    But here we are in training class, because that's what we do. Every time, we practice it first. We practice every pen stroke, every  tick-mark and circle to be colored in. We go over how to connect the machines, where to put the flags, even where to find the card with a few helpful ASL signs in case we need it.
   It takes a while, but every detail counts in democracy. Your vote means nothing if we don't do our job correctly.
   You joke about the preponderance of old folk sitting at the roster tables, how you may as well be voting at a nursing home for all the white hair and orthopedic shoes, but if you thought for 10 seconds about how important our job is, you wouldn't be quite so impatient when the old guy with the coke-bottle glasses takes the time to double-check your signature before he sends you over to your booth. If you realized what a brutally long day it is for us, you would be less amused and more impressed by the octogenarians around you.

   It's always cold at 4:30 AM in November, dark and still. There are boxes to unpack, tables to set up and not quite enough coffee to keep you energized as you count the hours in your growingly uncomfortable chair, realizing that 8PM is a long way off.
   But there are also cheerful and familiar faces, intelligent questions and happy families teaching their children what citizenship is all about. And  this room full of people, however old or young they might be and whatever political persuasion guides them, are all aimed at the same target: to help everyone who can become a part of America by voting.
   Some voters are excited about their first time, and it always makes us feel proud. Some are hopeful. Some are anxious and cynical, or bored and unengaged. But every one of them matters equally to us.

    I wish I could say to all those  congress members and governors of all the states who are trying to place more and more locked doors between America and her citizens-  this is not our first rodeo.
   Every one of us here in this training room wants every legal, registered voter to vote. We do not need your locks and chains blocking the doorway which we are guarding. We know our job, and we take us very seriously.
    We know the difference between preventing fraud and just preventing voting.  When you propose a law that forbids us from telling someone who turns up at the wrong polling place where their proper location is… we know what that's about.  When you insist that we turn away an 80 year old woman who's been voting here for 50 years but who doesn't drive any more because she no longer has a driver's license… we know what that is about, too.
  You are saying that we don't matter. That we come here to practice and get up at 4:30 in the cold dark November mornings-  for nothing at all, because America isn't  really a place where every citizen who pays their taxes and registers their name has the same say as any other.

    We take that personally. We may be old, some of us, but we're not stupid. This isn't our first rodeo, and we know a pile of bull when we see it.

    It's a question we all wrestle with whenever someone shoots up a room full of people. Why do so many of us feel that mass murder is the only answer to anger?

    Some blame  a lack of good mental health care in America, or too-easy access to guns. Others point the finger at violent music lyrics and video games. Lately we've ben told that it's because there aren't enough 'good guys with guns' to kill the bad ones. Some say it's because we don't 'let Jesus in the schools any more' and that kids would grow up fine if they just were made to pray before math class. Some insist that it's because slutty women take birth control and won't just stay home to take care of all their babies, causing the family to decay. Of course the gays are always ruining everything, and abortion makes God so wroth that he turns loose madmen to shoot children.

…and then there's shit like this.

   An Alabama Republican party newsletter just published a piece written by the husband of a county GOP official. In it the man expressed outrage that the Arkansas House (in an effort to keep much-needed federal dollars flowing into Arkansas)  voted to use the Obamacare health insurance exchanges to expand medical services to the state’s poor.
   In other words, they agreed to use the free market to allow poor people to get health care.

The writer called it 'a betrayal' that will 'lead us down the road to socialism' and told readers that really, these legislators should become 'bullet backstops'.

      "We need to let those who will come in the future to represent us [know] that we are serious.  The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives. It seems that we are unable to muster that belief in any of our representatives on a state or federal level, but we have to have something, something costly, something that they will fear that we will use if they step out of line.
If we can’t shoot them, we have to at least be firm in our threat to take immediate action against them politically, socially, and civically {sic} if they screw up on something this big. Personally, I think a gun is quicker and more merciful, but hey, we can’t. "
 

    Really? This is what passes for political opinion in conservative Alabama? For the good of America, if someone says something you believe is wrong… SHOOT 'EM? This is what you think the second Amendment is for- to allow you to kill people who don't share your belief system? This is how democracy works in your book?
   Huh. And to think us crazy liberals, when looking for something to make our misbehaving legislators fear, just think 'ballot box!"  This gang, they think 'bullet box". And aww shucky-durn, what a shame we can't just cut right to the chase and kill these traitors, but those pesky  law-and-order huggers will probably get upset about it.

    The state republican leadership called this letter which said they deservd a bullet in the head 'scary' (ya think??) and seemed to think that this fellow's problem is that he doesn't understand what a good job Republicans in Alabama have been doing. The spokesman pointed out that hey, they were saving people money by this action and always  voted as pro-life as possible. 
    “I don’t see how as a conservative we could have had a better session.” He further argued "As for the Second Amendment, we had one of the strongest pro-gun rights session in history"

     Seriously? You actually think that in response to this threat you need to defend your voting record to this putz? This guy wishes- in a public forum- that he and his friends could  walk up and shoot you in the head any time you don't vote the way he thinks you should, and you think that the only thing  it wrong with that is his failure to recognize what a good job you're doing???
      You don't want to maybe rethink that whole  "Everybody should have as many guns as they want" plan of yours now?

    Yes America, this is how a terrifying number of people think Democracy should work : I elect you to the Statehouse and in exchange you do exactly as I tell you to. If you step out of line- if your vision of what will help people is different than mine, even on something like health care, then in a fair world, me and my like-minded patriotic friends would be waiting in the parking lot to gun you down.
   And this is what they think the second Amendment means! Skip right on past that "well regulated militia" part and go straight to the old watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants crap, which isn't exactly in the constitution and apparently the definition of 'tyran't has been expanded beyond mere "despotic king who is keeping people in chains'  and now also includes… well, anyone who doesn't share your pet conservative obsession.

   And this wasn't just some back-woods ignorant red-neck bitching to his buddies over a couple of beers. This was a piece written by the husband of a local Republican party official, and one which the newsletter saw fit to publish as legitimate discourse.

     Imagine for a minute that a local liberal official had opined in a democratic newsletter that since Obama has sold us out on the whole "Chained CPI" thing, any democrat who had voted to support Obama's policy should be shot. Say he insisted that democracy can only work if people like Nancy Pelosi believe that if she does not vote the way he wants her to, she might be shot in the head.
    I'm pretty sure our reaction would be a little stronger than to defend the democratic voting record. I expect we would call this a threat of terrorism.
     But apparently, for the Arkansas GOP, terrorism is only something which brown/liberal/Muslim folks do. To them, this was merely 'disturbing' and 'not our position'.

     Well that's good to know.