Reversal of Fortune

I don't usually like the whole imaginary change of realities as an excuse to write something but a couple of items in the news lately have compelled me to indulge in a moment of sick-fun fantasy.
Imagine a world where the Limbaugh-loving ultra-right wingers are opposed to private gun ownership. It could happen; think if the secular humanist liberals really didn't care about human life, as they are portrayed ad-nauseam  by Limbaugh and co., and they were taking aim with a 30.06 instead of a pen at all the hypocrisy of the Republican Party.  Might be those same Republicans would feel differently about AK-47's in the hands of Democratic "bird" hunters and start screaming on the airwaves about the need to limit the number and power of guns in the hands of outraged and sometimes, gasp!, misguided citizens. In no other way do I want to change reality; other than granting this brief moment of sanity regarding gun laws Mr. Limbaugh spews the same hateful garbage he does in real life.
Last week there were two, not merely one stupid awful tragedy but two, children who were killed when they fired a handgun in a car, one boy killed his sister and another boy killed himself. The mind boggles at how this could happen. The children were left alone long enough to get out of their car-seats and get a gun that they must have  known was there. The parents, leaving the children long enough to do all of this, didn't think to take the bullets out of the gun in order, I presume, to be ready to defend themselves from some external threat they must have felt was eminent. Now just think of the kind of comments a Rush Limbaugh would make about these events were he in favor of gun control, picture the gigantic red face and vituperative abuse he might pour forth! But now that I am at this point I am choking on the kind of hateful remarks that are Limbaugh's stock in trade. Though it might be nice to indulge in some smug self satisfaction about the idiocy of carrying loaded guns around that children can so easily access, I can only imagine the utter grief and guilt that must be overwhelming the parents of those children. Instead of working myself up into a frenzy of outrage at a policeman showing such a colossal lack of judgement and insisting on him facing criminal charges, not to mention losing his job, I see him standing with his son, the killer, at the grave of the little girl they both loved. What can the father say? That it isn't the boy's fault? Just an unfortunate accident? The lives of the survivors will be forever altered and not likely in any positive way. Instead of vilifying we ought to sympathize, instead of displaying hate I am gratified that the media is leaving those families alone to grieve in whatever peace they may find.
Hard to see Mr. Limbaugh approving of this passivity. Where is my gumption, he might say,  to take on an issue that I believe in so strongly? Am I just a yellow-bellied chicken for sitting quietly by while innocent children die because of stupid laws? Perhaps I am, perhaps it is the whole of civilizations' idea of mature behavior that is wrong when it attempts to see more than one side of an issue and then to behave with tact and humility.
I think it was T.S. Elliot who said "this is how the world will end, not with a bang but with a whimper", but it might very well end in a rant that everybody takes to be an intelligent argument. Most of the time I think Mr. Limbaugh is funny, a weathervane of the absurd. Mr Limbaugh is the cultural heir to Archie Bunker and in some ironic way he serves as a warning to progressives that the culture war will never be completely won. Alarms are supposed to sound obnoxious but if left on too long we stop paying attention. Mature people cannot afford to ignore the rants of Mr Limbaugh and his ilk, they warn us of the chaos that is always present and that we might slip into.

Thank the Santorum

Rick Santorum is publicly waging a culture war. Whatever the issue Mr Santorum can be counted on to take the regressive, anti-choice viewpoint regardless of how absurd the absolutist traditional view may be and no matter how settled the modern view is. He has a lot of support which we all knew, but pretend not to, and his supporters are happy to get out of the closet and into your face, or into any other body part they think needs regulating. As a staunch believer in free speech I certainly approve of the radical fringe making their opinions known but more than that I welcome it; what better way to see the absurdity of Mr Santorum's attack on choice than to hear it spoken in the light of day, or on some news source other than Fox? What better method can be constructed for careful examination of the right-wing conservatives belief that America should be flung back to the 19th century than to hear them state it publicly?
Stopping the building of nuclear weapons was a very important issue for me. I marched, wrote letters and raised money for nuclear awareness causes, in particular to protest the most expensive and the most egregious of all weapons system; the nuclear submarine. Armed with enough firepower to kill every human being on the planet, two or three of these multi-billion dollar super killers roamed the oceans ready to deliver a thousand year death sentence to civilized humanity if ordered to do so (Think of Mr. Santorum having That kind of power at his fingertips!). Every 4 years or so one of these subs would publicly show itself at our very own Seafair celebration and oh! how the ire in the anti-nuke community would rise! The outrage poured out upon the sailors, who responded with courtesy and thought-provoking analysis of their own occupation, the Navy and fair officials who allowed this abomination to be displayed in our own backyard! In response the defenders of the doomsday machines shot back the absurd and unintelligible rationale for having the subs along with some nasty personal comments about the folks protesting. What I hoped for was More displays of nuclear weapons.
Like the Soviets we should have MX missiles roll down Greenwood Avenue during its Seafair parade. In every city for the 4th of July the anti-nuke folks should have demanded the government display the deadly result of the billions Americans spent on our national defense. We paid for them, lets all get a good long look at the bombs we built and then we can explain to our children why we need these more than schools and healthcare. A good friend of mine who worked in the Peace movement told me that after every time a sub visited membership in his organization increased. Like a visit from a nuclear submarine Mr Santorum is letting us see clearly the danger lurking close at hand.
The American people are benefiting greatly from hearing and then taking some time to imagine the kind of world Mr Santorum sees for us, a place without a right to privacy, where government can tell you what you can do in your bedroom, with your body, and very likely your soul. Freedom isn't free and every now and then it seems to be necessary to be reminded of how fragile freedom is. Thank God for Mr. Santorum's aggressive attack on the American way of life, we needed a wake up call.