I failed to attend Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" gathering at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend.
I thought about going. I mean, America's honor has been stolen. By "Them." That's pretty serious. Someone should do something.
Frankly, I can't believe They would do such a thing. Who do They think They are?
The problem was I couldn't get out of bed. I live only five Metro stops away, but still it would have taken me 40 minutes to get down there, which means that, to make the 10 a.m. start time, I would have had to have been dressed by 9:20 at the latest. On a Saturday.
It was only after I failed to attend the rally that I realized the opportunity I had missed.
Not that I begrudge myself for wanting to sleep in on a Saturday. But it did occur to me that, as someone who cannot even be bothered to drag himself out of bed to confront a proto-fascist movement when it holds a rally in his figurative back yard, I may actually be part of the problem.
I mean, remember America's energetic, determined, can-do spirit? Remember when we got out of bed -- sometimes even before 9 -- to fight for the things we believed in?
Paul Revere. The Midnight Ride.
Well, we've lost that. It's been replaced by an apathetic, affect-less, pitiable laziness. We've lost that energy, that caring, that sense of "I'm going to do what's right for America for no other reason than because it's right for America."
But when I say "we," I really mean "I." I have lost that spirit.
What else can you conclude from my behavior? Here was a threat to our American way of life. A threat to our freedoms and our collective sense of fair play and justice. A threat to our tradition of tolerance and universal acceptance, in the phantom guise of a fake grass-roots political movement, bought and paid for by nefarious corporate interests, holding a rally in a public space within a mile of my apartment.
And I couldn't even be bothered to roust myself out of bed to confront it.
What would Thomas Paine say about my behavior? What about Ben Franklin? Nathan Hale?
And where are they? The Thomas Paines of today, who would have kicked me out of bed, or at least looked down on me and said, in a somewhat condescending tone, "Get down there lazybones! We fought a revolution! We wrote Articles of Confederation, a Declaration of Independence, and a Constitution! Now they're under fire from a group of wing-nuts who claim to speak their truths when they haven't even read them! The least you can do is protest against these fruitcakes when they come to your city! Light a candle in the darkness! Do something! Oh no, he's fallen back asleep. Ben? Can you wake him? Ben? Where's Ben?"
I don't want to be too hard on myself. I know I'm not the only one who stole America's honor from us, who lost that sense of what makes our country great. The people we used to believe in. The America we thought we knew. But I've definitely done my part.
Which is why it's such a shame I missed the rally. Because had I attended, I could have helped reclaim, from myself, the honor that I, through my laziness, stole from America. Our honor. Taken from us. By me. And it was up to me to reclaim that stolen honor, from me. For us.
What I'm saying is, I could have been both the "they," the "us," and the "we" in this transaction -- the THEY who took our honor from US, and the WE who proudly took it back. From THEM. By which I mean ME. For US. Which is also ME.
Talk about power. Talk about a missed opportunity. Rarely does one get a chance to traverse that kind of existential chasm. Reclaiming from myself the honor that I had, through my actions, taken from America -- surely that complex moment of being and becoming would have led to an amazing personal transcendence.
But no, another life-changing opportunity squandered.
All I can hope is that I'll have another opportunity to reclaim America's honor from those who have so selfishly and carelessly taken it from us. By which I mean me.
I think.
Follow Sean Carman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/seancarman
In fairness though, I did catch about 15 minutes on CSPAN until I realized this was "church" thing. Pissed me off! Thought it was the new Harry Potter when I heard about the Order of the Black Robes - and "He whose name must not be mentioned."
That said, however, I think an argument can also be made that our political system, as it currently exists, and as opposed to the system imagined and then realized by the Founding Fathers mentioned in the article, is massively more immune to the kind of grass-roots influence and protest that seemed to have some effect up through the 1960s at least.
We've only managed, in the last couple of years, to re-vivify that grass-roots spirit in order merely to ELECT someone who promised to change the system. So far, all we seem to have gotten is a kind of glacial incrementalism toward that goal, if indeed we've even gotten that.
Let's face it: What we're talking about here is the political influence of the citizenry, such as it is. One aspect of this influence, legitimate to discuss and complain about, is public involvement (or lack thereof), which makes scolding ourselves for apathy a necessity.
But the other aspect of this influence is whether or not it actually constitutes a significant influence, in the teeth of a political system that clearly favors the professional lobbyists and their organizational advantages (e.g., access).
The sad spectacle of Tea Party enthusiasts rooting for candidates whom they believe will "change the system" to their liking.... We on the other side have been there, and very recently.
As they try to get We The People to accept the likes of Sara "Quayle II" Palin, Glenn "Sick Twisted Freak" Beck, and Newt "The Neocon Futurist" Gingrich as our "New Gods," they still refuse to see that a storm brews.
The sign of the storm is everywhere:
High Unemployment, Forty-Plus Years Of "Me First!" Political Rhetoric, A "Tough-Love" Approach Towards Our Most Vulnerable Citizens, Naked Xenophobia Used As Basis For Laws, And The Outright Hate That Has Corrupted Our Faiths and Our National Dialogue.
Be Warned, Tea Partiers--Folks like myself, the very "THEM" you demonize, have had enough of your vitriolic rantings. WE are THEM--The Very Storm that is brewing and awaiting it's time. And it's later than you realize!
Thank you, Sean, for your thread. You've just made a fan out of me.
--RJ
Beck does represent a threat to our American concept of tolerance and respect. While "I abhore what you say, but will defend, to the death your right to say it" may exist for some of us, it does not exist for Beck. He is advocating sedition in the face of a decision by the American electorate, and treason for undermining the Constitution. He must be watched closely and confronted for his dishonesty.
70% of the American electorate did NOT want Obamacare, yet they rammed it home anyway. Was that sedition?
Sometimes it just seems like the knee-jerk, believe-every-email right-wing nut jobs have a lot of motivation, and a lot of time on their hands.
Looks like I will not live long enough to see this country come to its senses.
"I have witnessed in Germany in 1992/93 how a racist "mass rage" can spin out of control.
This kind of mass rage can easily happen again in other places as well. All you need is an incident, a reason to ignite the flame. There seems to be already a broad base of people in the USA who are heavily prejudiced against Muslims, and we have seen the first "incidents" against Muslims. What would for example happen if a Muslim "hits back" and hurts a "white person?" Wouldn't that give people a reason to "strike" against the Muslims?
That's why Glenn Beck's and Sarah Palin's game is so dangerous: If you whip up the masses, you might as well see some (unwanted?) results.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/08/exclusive-pictures-and-report-from.html