This is my first diary at Kos. I wrote it last Wednesday night and I'm posting it tonight after my probationary week expired. I drew my inspiration from an unlikely source, as you'll see when you scroll down.
I have checked to see if anyone posted a similar diary and was unable to find anything. At any rate it is purely me, and if anyone else wrote something that this resembles, I apologize beforehand.
There is an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that came out on Friday night and touches on my theme, but definitely not from the same angle.
http://www.sltrib.com/...
That article did point out to me an instance at the YouTube debate that I missed, and served only to increase my impatience for posting.
The following is my first addition to Daily Kos.
It was written only to make you think.
I of course hope that you think like me.
What's In A Word...
While I've thought about this particular subject before, it wasn't until perusing the Fox News website that a kind of clarity availed itself to me.
Hard to believe that anything resembling enlightenment can be found there I know, but bear with me for just a little while.
Let me first say that the only reason I was on the site was to know my enemy. That is an age old axiom that never loses relevance, and Fox is most definitely an enemy of mine.
I didn't want things to be this way, and believe me I really wish that things were different, but I've been wishing things better for about six and a half years now and that hasn't done me any good.
I say peruse to conveigh my sense of disdain and to let you know that I don't enjoy the few minutes it takes to go over the graffiti they attempt to pass off as news. The prepackaged opinions and in your face lies only enrage me, but you really do need to pay attention to the barbarians at your gate. In most cases once they actually break through, it's a bad scene for those of us behind the gates.
This trip to the fairy tale land that is the Fox News internet site was different, because in addition to my usual feelings of digust and anger that I feel with all things Faux; I was reminded of that nagging feeling I've been having about a certain little word, and what I perceive to be an active campaign on the part of some to deride it's meaning.
The title of the article that got my attention was
"The Difference Between Liberals and the Far Left".
Copy and paste into a search engine for your edification if you wish. Only one word from the title is relevant to this entry, and as a first time poster I'm hesitant to provide that link.
Said article was written by none other than everyone's favorite Fox personality, and was basically a slam piece against the very site your reading this on. Suffice it to say it was full of inconsistencies and was no different than what seems to be the norm for them. As blindingly false as every other sentence was(Did you know that we have full employment right now?) I was drawn to liberal because of what I feel is the demonization of all things associated with that word, and my mounting dread of the consequences.
Of course, one could say this has gone on for much longer than our current state of affairs, and is pretty much a way of life. Well, I'd like to put forward the opinion that the pattern is becoming increasingly worrisome, and by my nature I must strenuously reject the notion of accepting things as they are. As if change wasn't appropriate or natural.
People are using what was a simple word and turning it into a label that's affixed with a sinister intent.
With contorted features, as if the very utterance causes them pain, more and more Americans are beginning to spit out this simple word with angry emphasis. Every other word in their sentence poses no oral hurdles, but magically, this little tongue twister raises the bile of the easily swayed in concert with those who manipulate their strings.
Seven little letters neatly in a row. Reimagined and orchestrated to sow discontent, and where they expect to take it, where it can be taken; can be a very scary proposition indeed.
Those of us that can see a future where words and anyone associated with them can be marginilized, ostracized, and eventually victimized as part of a larger plot, have only to look to the past for sad affirmation.
Look to Germany and see the revulsion and antipathy a citizen of the Reich reserved for the word Jew, and the methods reserved for the Jewish people.
Look to Africa and see the disgust and loathing painted on the face of a Hutu as he shouts, Tutsi Scum! and goes about his work with the machete.
Look to someone you may have encountered, and wonder to yourself if the malevolence that seems to come along with the delivery of the word is truly as deep as it appears.
Look to any country where one group with a different idealogy then another has used hateful propaganda and the methods of exclusion and denigration to promote their dark agenda.
A world where hope will be reversed, every forward stride is doubled back upon, and any chance of liberty is ground under an authoritarian heel.
This of course is but a piece of the puzzle. As you know there are numerous problems facing us, and our foes have no shortage of tactics nor reservations in their methods.
With this word and a bellows full of hostile intent, far right zealots are fanning the embers of intolerance and facism. Nurturing a conflagration that could turn the Constitution to ash, and our way of life into a memory.
We must not allow liberal to be turned into something for everyone to abhor. Not only because it represents the very best that America has to offer; more pressing is the grave disservice that would be done to all of the people through history who have sanctified this word with their deeds.
While there are certainly many barbs in common usage where the inflection can be in a similar vein (any derogatory term fits the bill) What this particular word represents, what it actually means, far outweighs any actual or perceived verbal attack in day to day life. It was certainly never intended to be used as a slight against another, or to be used as a means of identifying those whom the fearful and unreasonable consider unpatriotic or amoral.
Even at the precipice we find ourselves now standing over, my hope for the future remains intact. The faith I have in my fellow Americans has not been eroded to the point of being irreparable, and I still believe in what we can accomplish together. If the worst that could happen to us is what the future holds, and there is nothing to come except our undoing, I'll never be ashamed of being a
Liberal
If like me you embrace this word, and the definition it attaches to you, then remember to make your stance known, and allow no advance on your position. Do it with reason(our strongest weapon), do it with firm determination, and do it with a proud bearing in deference to those who made this word what it is.
I promise to do the same.