03 29 01


CASUALTIES OF WAR

I'm pretty sure I lost a friend today. Call it a casualty of war...though I imagine she'd call it a casualty of Rose's big mouth. No need to go into all the gory details - suffice to say that her husband butted in on a conversation because he felt compelled to voice his opinion that people like me are "whiners" who indulge in "liberal rantings" and need to just get over it, and I then felt compelled to tell him MY views on the subject. It wasn't pretty. And my friend then told me that - although she still considers herself a Democrat - her view is that what's done is done, and I shouldn't have been rude to her husband just because he was rude to me...I should instead just plan to vote Shrub out of office in 2004 and stop running around disturbing people with talk of the right-wing coup.

Well, that'd certainly be the EASY thing to do. My daughter would be happy if I quit yelling at the television, my fiance would probably love it if I eased up on the protests and emails and website updates and took the time to comb my hair now and then, and god knows my house would certainly look a lot better. And I could get back to writing fiction, which is my raison d'etre, and which I miss terribly.

But here's the thing - if I don't stand up for what I believe in, then what sort of person am I? Not one I'd want to be associated with. If I bury my head in the sand and accept the status quo, then could I complain in the future about things that are just plain wrong? Things like, say, drilling in ANWAR, or growing restrictions on women's rights, or a lack of adequate standards in drinking water and pollution, or proposed tax breaks for the wealthy, or endangering Social Security? Of course I couldn't - once you accept something, then you really don't have a right to gripe about the consequences down the road.

My friend (well, ex-friend) says that she dismisses what I say as "liberal rantings". Funny - she calls herself a liberal, yet because my rants are written from a liberal point of view, they're not, in her opinion, worthwhile? I could comment at great length on what I think of her opinion (without the danger of further angering her, since she went out of her way to tell me that she never visits this site, and not only because I've never asked her to) but there isn't much point. There will always be people who are afraid to disrupt the status quo, and sometimes we just have to recognize that these people will never be willing to stand up for justice. And ordinarily, I wouldn't be angered by that. Not everyone has the energy and determination to be a crusader for justice (I love calling myself a crusader for justice - the arrogance of the term drives regressives nuts), and since I myself was apolitical for over ten years, I'm certainly not in a position to cast stones -- or rather, I wasn't before Selection 2000.

Things have changed. It is no longer acceptable to bury one's head in the sand and trust in democracy to solve the problems we face, because democracy is headed the way of the dodo, at least in this country and at least for now. Apathy is partially responsible for where we are today (Shrub & Co. had to go to quite a bit of trouble to steal this election, and probably would have failed if more people had voted), and cannot be condoned.

I'm appalled by the attitude of people who say that we should accept Shrub as legitimate because "that's the way things are". What they really mean is that we should accept the lying little thief as legitimate because to do otherwise makes people nervous - and god forbid people should actually be nervous! They might have to DO something! If people had been this spineless in the 18th century, there never would have been a revolution. Our forefathers aren't rolling in their graves - they're writhing.

We tried playing by the rules, and the right-wingers broke the rules and laughed all the way to the White House. The rules don't apply anymore. We can't sit back and simply accept things, and plan to cast our vote in the next election. We don't know if our votes will be counted. And to the people who feel uncomfortable when they hear such statements, I have only this to say - get used to it. We won't shut up, because we can't AFFORD to shut up.

Those of us willing to stand up and fight for democracy are under a great deal of pressure from the right-wingers and the apathetic ninnies to stop ranting. They would prefer that we speak softly, never question Shrub's legitimacy, and voice our disapproval over his actions with phrases like "I'm disappointed by..." and "I think it's a shame that..." But to protest in such a wimpy manner is unworthy of us, and an insult to democracy as well. The more valuable something is, the harder we fight to protect it, and if we refuse to speak up and instead tiptoe around murmuring in dismay, then the message we are sending is that we don't care all that much about our country or our democracy.

Change is difficult, and many people will continue to shy away and make hushing motions when we ask them to acknowledge that our democracy was stolen and a usurper is in the White House. My solution? Every time you're asked to tone your rhetoric down, turn it up. Every time you're asked to use gentler words, use harsher words. Every time you're asked to lower your voice, yell louder. Every time you're told to "move on", dig your feet in more firmly. Every time you're told to stop being angry, get angrier.

And if you lose a few friends along the way, stop and consider whether they were really worthy of your friendship in the first place.

~Rose

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