the truth is almost always dirty.
We have all been listening to it for the better part of a week now - that is, comments about John Kerry's "botched joke." We all know what he said, and any American with half a brain knows what he meant. And honestly, all of it is really starting to piss me off.
It was a joke aimed at the President of the United States (who'se name is George W. Bush, for those of you who don't follow current events). Our current President is a person who did not "study hard," "do [his] homework," or "make an effort to be smart," therefore he (George Bush) got "stuck in Iraq." I actually think it's a pretty funny joke. George W was a "D Student," always just scraping by. It's no wonder he bankrupted Texas as governor, and is currently in the business of bankrupting the United States with his bad policies and his endless, illogical war. That was the premise of the "botched joke" that republicans are attempting to blindside the democrats with in the final sprint of the congressional/senatorial election. I thought it was pretty easy to grasp.
But let's say Kerry WAS actually talking about the troops. Let's say he WAS saying that the kids doing the fighting over in Iraq are largely uneducated. You know what? He's right! In general, our wars have been and probably always will be fought by our poor and our uneducated. Do any of us honestly believe there are more than a handful of upper-middle class white kids fighting in the streets of Baghdad right now? I don't, and I won't pretend that equality actually exists in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter. It isn't right, and I'm not defending it, but it is still a fact - politically correct or not. I believe that if this sad reality was grasped and understood fully by more Americans, the tides would turn on senseless wars.
I have a close friend who was in the middle east for a year. Thankfully, he was not stationed in Iraq, but in Kuwait. When I told him my opinion about Kerry's comment (that, like it or not, the guy is sadly correct) he affirmed my belief. He said that most of his unit was made up of minorities, including several hispanics who weren't even citizens of the United States, but had joined up simply to make some money, and hopefully shorten the wait time to become citizens. But every person in his unit, and nearly every front-line soldier he came in contact with had one thing in common: they were all poor, and most were uneducated.
That is why people join the army in the first place. It's that sign in the window that says, "$30,000 for college when you join." Why else would someone want to risk their life? Our standing army is made up largely of people who had few other places to turn. Even my friend is from a family with little money, and the army resrve seemed like his way into a good college to earn his degree in physics. That was seriously interrupted by the Bush regime's propoganda assault on the American public, and their consequential Iraq War battle cry. Fortunately for my friend, he made it back alive (several in his unit were killed), but not so for 2,700+ other young blue collar Americans, and countless more who will have to live the remainder of their lives maimed, crippled, or otherwise (who also have to live with this republican-congress' cutbacks on veterans' health care and aid).
So whether John Kerry meant to or not, and whether or not is politically correct to say so, we need to have the guts to admit to ourselves that the kids dying in Iraq are mostly poor, and mostly uneducated. They can spell and read and write - that isn't the point. But I would wager that not many of them went to Harvard. All Harvard kids, same as George W. Bush, can always wiggle their way out of being in any real danger, and never would a $30,000 promise for education assistance entice them to pick up a gun, fly to Iraq, and risk getting killed or loosing a limb. $30,000 would barely even cover one semester of college for them, and they don't have to pay for it anyhow.
On top of all this, I am so tired of the democrats always feeling the need to be sorry for everything they do. Mark Foley practically molests a little boy, Tom DeLay steals millions from American citizens, as does Keneth Lay, and the republicans just brush it aside - "no big deal, Mark Foley is a good man. His mother was an alcoholilc and he was molested by a priest." How come the Democrats can't just say, "John Kerry is a good person and a great leader. This is what he meant by saying that, and we stand by him." The republicans have solidarity to the point of stupidity - but the democrats are always on the run, and ready to jump ship on one another at any moment. They need to start putting their foot down and taking firm stances on things. Look how it's worked for the President. He STILL can't admit that things are bad in Iraq, and it's working for him, despite the obvious reality that he is dead wrong. Americans, particularly "conservatives," like to see solidarity and a willingness to stick to your guns, even to the point of insanity, a trait that the President wears on his sleeve.
Furthermore, I think the democrats would do well to make a point of saying, "you know what? Whether he meant to or not, Kerry brings up a very good point - our nation's lower and middle classes ARE the ones that are getting killed over there. We need to take this Nation back from the rich warmongers who think it is acceptable to kill 2,700 kids in a needless war, and turn it over to the middle class where it belongs." I think that they would have every blue-collar worker behind them on that one. It makes this power stuggle one of the rich against the poor - and there are a lot more poor people.
The democrats are always way too indecisive, and who can blame them? They are completely terrified of the GOP power machine that owns this nation, and they always will unless the public outcry is so much that it cannot be silenced. The democrats could accomplish this by taking a firm and bold stance on issues that really matter to the lower and middle classes, by speaking their minds, and not apologizing for it.
It was a joke aimed at the President of the United States (who'se name is George W. Bush, for those of you who don't follow current events). Our current President is a person who did not "study hard," "do [his] homework," or "make an effort to be smart," therefore he (George Bush) got "stuck in Iraq." I actually think it's a pretty funny joke. George W was a "D Student," always just scraping by. It's no wonder he bankrupted Texas as governor, and is currently in the business of bankrupting the United States with his bad policies and his endless, illogical war. That was the premise of the "botched joke" that republicans are attempting to blindside the democrats with in the final sprint of the congressional/senatorial election. I thought it was pretty easy to grasp.
But let's say Kerry WAS actually talking about the troops. Let's say he WAS saying that the kids doing the fighting over in Iraq are largely uneducated. You know what? He's right! In general, our wars have been and probably always will be fought by our poor and our uneducated. Do any of us honestly believe there are more than a handful of upper-middle class white kids fighting in the streets of Baghdad right now? I don't, and I won't pretend that equality actually exists in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter. It isn't right, and I'm not defending it, but it is still a fact - politically correct or not. I believe that if this sad reality was grasped and understood fully by more Americans, the tides would turn on senseless wars.
I have a close friend who was in the middle east for a year. Thankfully, he was not stationed in Iraq, but in Kuwait. When I told him my opinion about Kerry's comment (that, like it or not, the guy is sadly correct) he affirmed my belief. He said that most of his unit was made up of minorities, including several hispanics who weren't even citizens of the United States, but had joined up simply to make some money, and hopefully shorten the wait time to become citizens. But every person in his unit, and nearly every front-line soldier he came in contact with had one thing in common: they were all poor, and most were uneducated.
That is why people join the army in the first place. It's that sign in the window that says, "$30,000 for college when you join." Why else would someone want to risk their life? Our standing army is made up largely of people who had few other places to turn. Even my friend is from a family with little money, and the army resrve seemed like his way into a good college to earn his degree in physics. That was seriously interrupted by the Bush regime's propoganda assault on the American public, and their consequential Iraq War battle cry. Fortunately for my friend, he made it back alive (several in his unit were killed), but not so for 2,700+ other young blue collar Americans, and countless more who will have to live the remainder of their lives maimed, crippled, or otherwise (who also have to live with this republican-congress' cutbacks on veterans' health care and aid).
So whether John Kerry meant to or not, and whether or not is politically correct to say so, we need to have the guts to admit to ourselves that the kids dying in Iraq are mostly poor, and mostly uneducated. They can spell and read and write - that isn't the point. But I would wager that not many of them went to Harvard. All Harvard kids, same as George W. Bush, can always wiggle their way out of being in any real danger, and never would a $30,000 promise for education assistance entice them to pick up a gun, fly to Iraq, and risk getting killed or loosing a limb. $30,000 would barely even cover one semester of college for them, and they don't have to pay for it anyhow.
On top of all this, I am so tired of the democrats always feeling the need to be sorry for everything they do. Mark Foley practically molests a little boy, Tom DeLay steals millions from American citizens, as does Keneth Lay, and the republicans just brush it aside - "no big deal, Mark Foley is a good man. His mother was an alcoholilc and he was molested by a priest." How come the Democrats can't just say, "John Kerry is a good person and a great leader. This is what he meant by saying that, and we stand by him." The republicans have solidarity to the point of stupidity - but the democrats are always on the run, and ready to jump ship on one another at any moment. They need to start putting their foot down and taking firm stances on things. Look how it's worked for the President. He STILL can't admit that things are bad in Iraq, and it's working for him, despite the obvious reality that he is dead wrong. Americans, particularly "conservatives," like to see solidarity and a willingness to stick to your guns, even to the point of insanity, a trait that the President wears on his sleeve.
Furthermore, I think the democrats would do well to make a point of saying, "you know what? Whether he meant to or not, Kerry brings up a very good point - our nation's lower and middle classes ARE the ones that are getting killed over there. We need to take this Nation back from the rich warmongers who think it is acceptable to kill 2,700 kids in a needless war, and turn it over to the middle class where it belongs." I think that they would have every blue-collar worker behind them on that one. It makes this power stuggle one of the rich against the poor - and there are a lot more poor people.
The democrats are always way too indecisive, and who can blame them? They are completely terrified of the GOP power machine that owns this nation, and they always will unless the public outcry is so much that it cannot be silenced. The democrats could accomplish this by taking a firm and bold stance on issues that really matter to the lower and middle classes, by speaking their minds, and not apologizing for it.
posted by adampaul at
9:05 AM
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