Lest we forget.
Sep. 11th, 2008 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timSeven years ago, about 3000 people died in a terrorist attack in the United States. Ever since, at least 87,000 civilians have died in Iraq in a war that the US started as a misguided attempt at retaliation or a cleverly calculated use of pretext. The war has met with little domestic protest, and in 2004, those who thought it was at least a little bit important to stop it failed to gather enough of a majority to elect a president who cared at least a little about ending the killing.
But let us put aside our past failures. This year, we have a chance to redeem ourselves. It would be wrong to say that anyone has absolute confidence that Barack Obama can or will end the war, but he is at least unbeholden to the corporate interests that keep the war going. And thus, we have no reason to believe he won't make a good-faith effort to stop the killing.
This is an area of moral certainty. If you're American, are you going to do everything you can to elect a leader who will shift our resources away from killing foreigners and back to healing our sick, employing our unemployed, cleaning our environment? Or are you going to assume that history is something that other people make and politics is other people's problem?
This is not the year for namby-pamby platitudes about how you should support whichever candidate makes you feel the warmest and fuzziest inside. If you're American, and you're not giving your time to talk to your fellow Americans about why they should support Barack Obama, then -- in a far inferior tack, but one suitable for those with crippling social anxiety or without physical energy -- you can at least write a check. If you can't write a check, and can't talk to people, then [nondenominational-deity] bless you. I'm guessing that's not so for most people reading this.
If you were going to tell me I should leave my politics out of this day, then don't. Leaving my politics out of it means leaving my politics out of it so that there's more room for your politics to fit into it.
To those of you who are eligible to vote in the United States: Nonvoters, McCain voters, I'm not asking you to defend yourselves and so I don't need to hear your defenses. Please, just go sit in the corner for a while and think about why you hate your country so much.
But let us put aside our past failures. This year, we have a chance to redeem ourselves. It would be wrong to say that anyone has absolute confidence that Barack Obama can or will end the war, but he is at least unbeholden to the corporate interests that keep the war going. And thus, we have no reason to believe he won't make a good-faith effort to stop the killing.
This is an area of moral certainty. If you're American, are you going to do everything you can to elect a leader who will shift our resources away from killing foreigners and back to healing our sick, employing our unemployed, cleaning our environment? Or are you going to assume that history is something that other people make and politics is other people's problem?
This is not the year for namby-pamby platitudes about how you should support whichever candidate makes you feel the warmest and fuzziest inside. If you're American, and you're not giving your time to talk to your fellow Americans about why they should support Barack Obama, then -- in a far inferior tack, but one suitable for those with crippling social anxiety or without physical energy -- you can at least write a check. If you can't write a check, and can't talk to people, then [nondenominational-deity] bless you. I'm guessing that's not so for most people reading this.
If you were going to tell me I should leave my politics out of this day, then don't. Leaving my politics out of it means leaving my politics out of it so that there's more room for your politics to fit into it.
To those of you who are eligible to vote in the United States: Nonvoters, McCain voters, I'm not asking you to defend yourselves and so I don't need to hear your defenses. Please, just go sit in the corner for a while and think about why you hate your country so much.
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Re: not a mccain supporter. questioning your premises
Date: 2008-10-28 06:23 pm (UTC)still not the point. but never mind. and no, i didn't mean that. i just meant i didn't agree that war-funds would be redirected elsewhere, just into a different (and perhaps more just) war.
No, I'm saying that I'm not interested in defending it to you, and I brought up my personal experience just to let you know that knee-jerk free-market arguments don't work on me.
so it's a "knee-jerk-free-market argument" to say that some program isn't working the way it should?
why should you address my points instead of dismissing them? well, it's your journal, so i take it back. you're not obligated to do anything. i originally said it because i thought my point was a valid one and wanted to hear how you excuse Obama for it. clearly you don't agree, so nevermind.
I think people should use words that convey meaning. Just because most people use language carelessly doesn't mean you have to do the same.
i apologize. i made assumptions about how familiar you are with common english sayings. i should be more careful in case i happen to be speaking to someone who doesn't know (or refuses to acknowledge) the actual meaning of a given phrase and just takes it literally.
Re: not a mccain supporter. questioning your premises
Date: 2008-10-28 06:34 pm (UTC)No, you should be careful to use words that say what you mean. "Evil" is a real thing and there are people and ideas it applies to. When we overuse that word, we lose the ability to identify and describe genuine evil.
Re: not a mccain supporter. questioning your premises
Date: 2008-10-28 06:38 pm (UTC)good luck fighting the evil. that really does exist, really!
(i don't believe in "real evil" any more than i believe that one day CHRIST will come down from the heavens and the great war between good and evil will commence with the RIGHTEOUS winning and going to heaven! so i guess that's why i find it permissible to use it so loosely. point taken though. i feel the same way about using the word "love.")
Re: not a mccain supporter. questioning your premises
Date: 2008-10-28 06:44 pm (UTC)