yeah, okay, hush

Monica worried about her blog (Jordan addressed the issue of having a welcoming blog) Does rantage would drag a writer down? Actually we don't mean the writing part of the job, only the Author and The Public Image part. We're dependent on readers, and if we alienate them, we're not doing ourselves any favors.

A friend pointed out that that my last post (that basically accuses the administration of neglect bordering on genocide) could be mite too inflammatory. She has a point, I think. Not only because it would put my readers off, but because when people are too shrill, they're impossible to hear.

I still think that the potato famine thang isn't such a bad example. The English didn't consider the Irish entirely human**, and from the various threads I've read, today the "let them shoot each other" theme is common. Am I the only one who sees that people who write that are demonstrating the attitude that African Americans or perhaps the poor in general are:
1. looters or destructive at heart
2. certainly not as valuable as the neighbors and associates the writer knows. (not said, but implied)
3. therefore not entirely human.

I wish someone would convince me I'm wrong, because it scares me.

Anyway, back to the The Irish--when they landed in the US they faced the same kind of discrimination they encountered in England--lucky for them, future generations lost the tell-tale accent and blended in just fine. You don't often hear that Irish-Americans are not like the rest of us.

Actually, it makes sense that people would villify the poor or make them "different from us". If their poverty is all the fault of poor people themselves (or because of that pesky welfare state) then we don't have to feel guilt or expend our own energy or resources to aide them. Peasants are born and bred to be poor. They have always been with us and always will be. It's natural and therefore we can't do a thing about it. Much easier.

Okay, okay, I'll stop. I don't want to lose my passion, but I think the Marie Antoinette farm example (and by the way she did NOT say that cake line) might be over-the-top. Not as dopey as the poor Bush comment by anonymous in that thread. *****

Sheesh. The last person for whom I feel a drop of pity is George Bush. No matter what happens, he's going to come out of this fine. He'll have his gazillions of dollars, the support of family members who are all still alive and .....uh oh. Heading towards shrilldom again*******. I really truly have to shake some of this unattractive self-righteous anger. A writer's blog is supposed to attract readers, or at least not drive them off.

_________

**Where's Jonathan Swift when we need him? We need a Modest Proposal!

***** In fact the more I read about Bush's photo ops the angrier I get. Click here. Read the last paragraph. Weep for us all.

the photo is from Reuters.


and then this bit from here. I didn't write it so you can't accuse me of ranting. Ha.

"This is a clear signal of the depravity of this administration, where everything is political and nothing can be real. Nothing can be done simply because it's the right thing to do, or it's the best thing for America. There is a 'real' America, and then there's Rove's America, where firemen serve the Republican Party and their leader, not people in distress . . .."


*******note to self: dammit. . .SHUT UP all ready.