The Courier Won't Print It*

Letter to the Editor
The Madison Courier
Madison IN 47250

Dear Editor:

In this letter I comment on your editorial and Councilman Rick Berry’s statement taking Baron Hill to task for using the term "political terrorists" to describe people who disrupt healthcare town hall "debates."

I appreciate your newspaper as a forum to participate – I hope civilly – in the health care debate. As I write for this forum, I am not being shouted down, jeered at, or – chilling to contemplate – intimidated by people carrying guns and bearing the message that Timothy McVeigh bore the day he murdered 168 innocents at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

On the August 10 Sean Hannity show, Dick Morris urged viewers to "terrorize" Blue Dog Democrats. If you missed it, you can see the video at http://www.newshounds.us/ There it is, "terrorize" and Blue Dog Democrats, of which Baron is one.

A strategy memo circulated by the Web site Tea Party Patriots urged people to "pack the hall" and "rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation." It added, "Yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early…Get him off his prepared script and agenda…Stand up and shout ..."

These people don’t want a debate. They want to shut down the debate. And the Republicans in Congress don’t want health care reform. Period. Certainly not the absolutely essential public option. Should they have all the say?

I regret that Rick took "great offense" from Baron’s "quote." I am not offended by what Baron said, because it is the fact that people have been whipped into a fury and given license to "terrorize" by manipulators.

Those town hall meeting so-called "grassroots" disruptions have been abetted by corporate lobbyists led by the likes of FreedomWorks, headed by Dick Armey. Armey and his army of kindred lobbyists represent pharmaceutical and health insurance interests, which stand to lose if genuine health care reform comes.

Yes, many people are "scared." But who scared them? I say the terrorists are the people who could forfeit some of their enormous profits and lose their sweetheart status with our government which, to now, has been the last wealthy nation lacking universal health care for its citizens.

They have propagated the lies and distortions about "socialism," "government takeover," "taking away choice of physicians," "funding abortions," and "pulling the plug on grandma." These are lies. The lying has taken on monstrous dimensions from the mouths of Rush Limbaugh and the people of Fox "News," to mention only a few of the liars.

The hatefest has been tinged if not broadly smeared outright with racism, among other things. Barney Frank – a Jew, for God’s sake! – was associated with Hitler. President Obama has had a Hitler mustache painted on his image. The "wrong people" are in charge, the opponents say, and a woman sobs, "I want my government back!" (It's not your government, lady, it's everybody's government.)

No, the crying lady is not a terrorist, but she is being duped by terrorists. That scenario has always been the case. In the South, Jim Crow was instituted to divide and conquer – in that case, the rich whites fomented racial hatred among the poor whites and the poor blacks in order to keep both groups from hating - and overthrowing - their rich oppressors.

And then, to top it all in the present debates, the real terrorists show up with guns and with the attitude of domestic – that’s right – terrorists. At Bush "town halls," people who were merely not pro-Bush were forcibly excluded, but people with guns show up at Obama gatherings and nothing is said or done.

In Phoenix, not one but many showed up sporting pistols and assault rifles. They were incited by right-wing radio talk show host Ernest Hancock, who defended the Viper Militia, which stockpiled materials for bombs such as the one that McVeigh murdered with.

I would at least hope that the Republicans – and the Democrats, Rick! – would denounce people who are disrupting political discourse. Yes, speaking –even shouting – is freedom of speech. But all have the right to be heard, and we must be informed if there is to be a genuine debate.

I would hope that our leaders would publicly denounce bringing guns to public meetings. Yes, "the right to bear arms shall not be infringed," but the sight of a gun is intimidating. Shall the Second Amendment, proclaimed by bullies who are "packing," take precedent over the First?

I think that political discourse in our nation is in serious trouble. Greed and hate have put it there. God help us.

John T. Evans

*Addendum: The Courier did print this. They cut out a few paragraphs but didn't gut it or distort it. I initiated this blog because I believed that the Courier wouldn't give me a forum. I was misinformed. Thanks to the Courier.

Souls Raised from the Dead

Just finished an excellent novel by Doris Betts, Souls Raised from the Dead. It's about a girl of 13, Mary Grace Thompson, and her family. She goes into renal failure and that is the crisis the story is built around. Her father is a North Carolina state police trooper, her mother a slut who abandoned her daughter and husband, and the father has two women who love him. The grandparents round out the characters in the novel. People struggle with their faith and there is a Christian slant, I think, but there's no preaching. Some characters are religious and some are not, and Ms Betts treats every one with sympathy, "inhabiting" each of her characters, writing scenes that alternate between each character's viewpoint, a technique that was used by John Gardner to good effect a lot.

It kind of gave me a boost in faith, of sorts. Or at least I thought about mortality and what might be waiting for me when I die.

It's a good read.

The Freeing of Ms Lee and Ms Ling

Bill and Al working together:

They're still a dream team.