Oy. So I got an email from my sister's father-in-law, who is a staunch right-winger who has infrequently made my husband uncomfortable to the point of abstaining from visits with him. Yes, he's sent me other emails in the past--several of my right-wing relatives love to "bait" the liberals in the family like me, and my usual response has been a quick search on snopes.com and a terse reply with nothing but a debunking link.
Tonight's email, however, merited a different response. Pls. join me at the flip, if you dare wish.
So the email he sent me was a tirade from the "older generation" called the Gray Haired Brigade. I will not post the email in its entire, but please click the link if you want to read the whole bloody thing. (The link, by the way, has its share of racist responses, all back-slapping the email writer, and each other, about how right they are.) Perhaps we are guilty of the same, but I would think that our purpose is to put together our broken country and unite different people, while theirs is to fear anything that differs from their Ozzie and Harriet alternate reality. But I digress.
The part of the email that stood out to me the most is this passage (bolding is mine):
There are those who want to destroy this land we love, but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.
It was the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic congress. You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies."
You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don’t like it after all.
You make a lot of noise but most are too interested in their careers and "climbing the social ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting.
It appears that we care more about our grandchildren than some care about their children.
Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer’s remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the kool-aid.
Now you’re paying the price and complaining about it.
No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom. This is what you voted for and this is what you got. We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.
Well, don’t worry youngsters, the Grey Haired Brigade is here, and in a few days we are going to take back our nation.
We may drive a little slower than you would like but we get where we’re going, and in November we’re going to the polls by the millions.
This land does not belong to Hussein Obama or Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It belongs to We the People, and We the People plan to reclaim our land and our freedom. We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren.
For the record, my dad happened to be CC'ed on this email, along with other right-winger relations plus me. Pointedly, I was the only left-winger on the email thread. Talk about Internet bullying.
Anyway, several points in the email were offensive to me, but the first and foremost one was the implication that I, as a Democratic voter and advocate, am somehow an accessory to "evil." I am deeply curious to know what is meant by this implication. Thus, I felt compelled to write back:
I apologize if I am overreacting to this email or taking it a bit too personally, but I must admit that, with all due respect, I take great offense to the insinuation in this email that, as an Obama supporter and a Democrat, I am somehow supporting "evil." (the quote in the email below says that we in the younger generations "have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face..."). Just what exactly does the writer of the "Gray Haired Brigade" mean when he talks about evil? Is he calling us supporters of and accessories to evil? And what exactly about the Obama Administration and Democratic agenda do you and the writer consider "evil"?
I am really interested in knowing, because when I voted for Obama--and when I voted recently via early voting for Democratic candidates in state and local races--I was voting for the same things as you claim to have supported back in the day. Good jobs. A strong middle class. Security for those who work hard and want to pay their mortgages with an honest salary. More funding for a robust public educational system for our children. Quality healthcare for all who need it, regardless of their income range. I hardly think any of these voters' concerns qualifies as "evil." So I have a difference in political opinion than you and other conservatives--that's fine. But why consider my choies for a different American political party EVIL? That is astounding to me, as a fellow American.
You are correct that I do not know what it must have been like to live during a Great Depression and a horrifying period of world war, when families sent their loved ones overseas perhaps forever, never to see them again. I also do not know what it must have been like to live in the days of Eisenhower, when the middle class rose up as a result of a progressive tax policy--one in which the top two percent of earners were taxed on their income 91 percent, so that our parents and grandparents could have the best infrastructure and technology America had to offer, and the highest-quality public education the world had ever known.
President Obama suggests letting the income tax rates for the highest earners to go back to 39 percent rather than 36 percent--and 39 percent is even lower than the wealthiest were taxed under President Reagan--and the ones in power and their enablers scream "socialism!" and try to trick us all into believing them. That is what they want, so we'll take our crumbs and keep quiet, like good little peasants. Workplace safety and business regulations for irresponsible banks and mortgage loaners--the ones in power think those things are quaint and for chumps, and without Democratic efforts along with the unions to thwart these efforts, the ones with all of the power would run away wild, leaving the rest of us to starve. Remember, the recession, along with the mortgage crisis, began in 2007, under President Bush's watch. President Obama hasn't been perfect (in fact, I think he hasn't gone far enough in implementing the needed changes that he needs to), but he has started slowly to dig us out from the deregulation mess that started this recession as well as what started the Great Depression under President Hoover.
With all due respect, that is the reason I vote the way I do, the reason I donate what I am able from my own earned money, and volunteer for the candidates I believe in, because I DO care about my children and the world they and their own children will inherit when my husband and I are long gone from it. The below writer's claim that I somehow care less about my own children than older people do about their grandchildren is deeply offensive and horrendous to me. My husband and I cared so much about our foster sons that we adopted them into our home and hearts when they had no place else to go, so that we will forever be their parents, and we will love and care for them until the day we die. I would like my children to grow up in a free society, where they can be free of worry over where their next paycheck or meal is going to come from, where they can educate their own children in schools that celebrate knowledge, diversity of thought, and critical thinking, and agree to disagree with others--and be of different political parties than even us--without being chastised for being or supporting "evil."
I like you and ((his wife)) and have a lot of respect for you, but I sure wish you would do the same when it comes to political beliefs, and not foist these messages upon me and my husband that we somehow support something that's evil, simply because we are not as conservative as you. I look forward to visiting with all of you this coming November, but sure hope that we will not ruin a happy holiday with ugly political battles. For my husband and I, I will not talk about or bring up politics, and I hope we can all agree to just have a good time together and enjoy one another's company.
Love,
me
I am really interested--and not a little bit fearful--of reading both his and my dad's replies.