HEROIC VICTIMS

What does one do when the people in their family and certain friends, people that you love and respect, but who disagree with you politically.....all sound like Rush Limbaugh?

Do they plaster themselves in front of the radio every day? Don't any of them work? While Democrats are working 9-5, those lucky enough to still have jobs, Republicans must spend their afternoons lolling about, listening to the radio. Sure enough, if any conversation about politics of ideological philosophy comes around, it's Limbaughese they speak, as though it is some distant country, unrecognizable from the one we live in, named the Nation of Limbaugh!

At the same time they have time to listen to this nonsensical palaver, they accuse Liberals of all varieties, Black, White, Latino, Poor People, Sick People, Mentally Deranged People, of being lazy and not up to snuff about the facts of life, of being downright unproductive, feeding off the cash of the mighty productive.

"Productive," to a Republican, usually means money. Follow the money. For years, they must have resented any help to the poor, to single mothers, to those unable to walk or see. This resentment must have festered like the blister on a boil, erupting around any dinner table, if politics rears its head.

They are not civil in their beliefs. They are enraged and feel they have the right to insult any person disagreeing with them. Many of them think of themselves as very religious, even though they break just about every command that Jesus left us. Don't kill....they inevitably support War, approve the Death Penalty, and do not give a fig about the innocent citizens killed in Iraq, the orphans left behind there. These are, to them, just the meaningless casualties of War.

Memorial Day brings out their full-fledged patriotic fervor. They practically drool over those they deem as "heroes" who are protecting our freedom and saving us all from speaking Arabic.
They don't pause to see the pitiful tragedy of these young men and women losing their lives in a war that was built on lies. It's hard to face that truth, but the News Media and various documents support it. Iraq was a "mistake," according to George W. Bush, as he stated on National Television. The parents and wives of these dead and maimed soldiers now have to face that fact. Heroes these military personnel were, for they are the victims. They are the martyrs to the religious zeal and greed of men like George Bush and Dick Cheney, to the Iraq Group holding secret meetings in the office of the Vice President, to the awful rules on torture that sully the memory of their courageous lives.

Sometimes war is inevitable. Sometimes it may even be unavoidable. It should never be a charade cooked up by dishonest leaders. These young men and women went to war, fearing the chemicals Saddam Hussein might release into the air. They marched into Iraq, leaving only a skeleton crew in Afghanistan, which is where the real perpetrators of 9/11 were fighting. They fought and died, losing life and limb, doing their duty with the loyalty their country and their Commander-in-Chief demanded. Little did they know that the "eminent" danger was a figment of intricate lies, a "mistake."

Looking backward in time, we can remember the long ten years of the struggle in Viet Nam. There, 60,000 men died, as well as millions of Vietnamese. And for what? Today, Viet Nam is a tourist attraction, scenery so beautiful it brings in thousands of visitors, tranquilly run by the very same government we fought so hard to conquer. At the same time, we were led on by the vicious lies of our leadership, lies echoed by those concerning the War in Iraq. Our young people finally rebeled and fought against the war, until finally, the ten year struggle came to an end.

It ended much earlier for 60,000 Americans, now named on that bleak, black wall in Washington, D.C. These people were heroes, yes, but they were victims....victims of the stupidity of the old men plotting political wars.

For many people, Memorial Day is a day for a family picnic, with a fleeting remembrance of the men and women who fought these bitter wars. For many families, it is a day of grief and torturous memories, of young, memories of fresh faced people cut off from life before they had much of a chance to enjoy it. Hard enough to bear when the death is connected to a country defending itself, but well nigh unbearable when it is all just a "mistake."

The Limbaugh Echoes do not admit these mistakes, nor do they weep for the Charade that caused these needless deaths. Memorial Day goes by without any mention of this murderous "mistake." In Washington, D.C., Republican Congressmen are still bleating their angry recriminations and accusations. In daily life, in the kitchens and living rooms of our land, they still regard their political beliefs with a sense of superiority, still regard other Americans as "unproductive," still are Gung Ho for marching through the Middle East, bludgeoning the fearful enemy, still quoting 9/11 as though they do not realize that more people die in auto accidents every few months than were killed in that terrible attack. They feed on fear as though it contains a vitamin that revitalizes them into even more frenzied behavior.

There's nothing a person can do if he doesn't agree with Limbaugh and believes the radio waves would travel with more clarity if that bobbling bigot were taken off the air. About 20,000 strong, his supporters stay loyal, and I think I am related to many of them.