Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

From the newsletter of a local musician (Chuck McCabe):

Question-of-the-Day: Do you think the Orange Alert is an attempt to stop folksingers from writing antiwar songs, by declaring an alert level that nobody can rhyme?

Actually, that's what this anti-war movement is missing; good folk songs! Instead it's an anti-war movement of very little substance, and what substance there is is often as insultingly simplistic and stupid as the crap coming out of the White House.

But substance doesn't count anymore, if you look at the media coverage of the events. There's no actual detailed coverage of the message of the anti-war movement, only listing of numbers (in contention) and which streets were shut down as a result. The resulting traffic report gets more time (or column inches) than the quotes of the organizers.

The weekend's events were covered as a horse race; who's in the lead, how many are on each side. The stories of the protests are followed by coverage of veteran's groups who are insulted by the protests, with quotes of "If they hate Americer so much, why don't they just leave!"

This is considered giving equal time. After all, isn't the other side of the anti-war protests the people who blindly do what the President tells them?

Personally, I'm such an idiot, that I would have put on the protesters (their message, not their numbers) as giving "equal time" to Bush, Powell, and Rice's constant pro-war message. But what the hell do I know?

Of course, I contradict myself. I say I would have liked to see the media give some serious articulation to the anti-war message, but just before that I said that there is no substance to the message.

There's no serious voice at the head of the movement explaining why it's suicidal to attack Iraq, whether or not you like Saddam. And when somebody does try to do that, they're ostracized from the movement as Rabbi Lerner, of Tikkun, was this last week.

Only pro-Saddam rhetoric is allowed on the stage at these new, larger anti-war protests, proving the veteran's organizations point that these aren't people who love America.

Silenced are the majority of us who do love America, but think the administration is full of morons - and don't think that's a contradiction. Yes, we can love our country and disapprove of its actions, and say both loudly. I know I'm not the only one, but we're given no public voice because we don't cause traffic jams.

Happy President's Day. I'm going to work.