The Political Discourse In America; Divided We Fall

 

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Where Is The Outrage?
Original op-ed (in blue) published in Wall Street Journal 080808)
A Libertarian Reply To A Conservative View (libertarian response in brown)
Ed note: What is painfully obvious is that a dangerous divide has been nurtured in this country. The right is more often than not these days hard pressed to not police itself beyond party lines and talking points (see David Vitter), while the left appears more apt to be objective to a greater degree, in most instances. (see Elliot Spitzer ) We need to find truth among common ground or we are doomed as a nation. We're Americans First Folks. This political discourse has to be moderated or we will kill ourselves from within. It would seem that is what some group wants from us all. Remember the civil war?

This letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills , CA . in response to the Wall Street Journal article titled "Where's The Outrage?" that appeared July 31,2008.

Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I?

I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement. 

I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates.

I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public.   

No, you are a human resources consultant who has earned her way into Beverly Hills by cannibalizing the manufacturing base of this nation and adding your finger prints to the greatest financial debacle since the Great Depression.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/946/551

The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change.

Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America , is in a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair.

Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment?

No, what is not fair is the incessant onslaught of junk mail, telemarketing, TV and radio commercials, financial networks, magazine articles, news features, cable TV, and talk radio propaganda. So that when those of us with relative common sense balked at any of these obvious scams, we were met with a tsunami of irrational "popular myth" and summarily marginalized by those whose ignorance was consistently being validated by people like you, who personally profited from it!

When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country.

Yet, I notice that you are not a proud resident of Compton or Watts where the wheel of property owners has spun so many times within the past 30 years that the average slum-lord is now in debt for his dilapidated property as much as you would have paid for your Beverly Hills digs before this all started. (And how many of these deregulated concepts did you support?)

I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.

And if she were still alive today, would likely be ashamed that what you write resembles so much of what she once escaped! 

I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call the bank, the phone company , or similar business, I hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish". WHY? This is America , our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English.

See paragraph above. Otherwise, riddle-me-this; When has any part of Beverly Hills, ever been any part of the L.A. public school district?

I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee. The last I checked, Tennessee is still part of the United States. If Muslims want to live and work here they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history.

I guess that "Freedom of Religion" only applies if it's the religion that you dictate. On this, I kind of agree. But, let's not stop with Eid-al-Fitr. Why not Easter or Christmas, since archeologists and astronomers agree that these events, (if they did actually happen) occurred at different times of the solar year than when they are celebrated. Better yet, Columbus Day! Since world history (except for that, written strictly for American consumption), and now archeological evidence has disproved that myth, and shown it to be an out-right lie. Why not celebrate "Erik the Red Day" ??? Since there is ample physical evidence of his presence on various parts of the Eastern Seaboard of the North American Continent some 500 years before Columbus?

In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country.

Look how long it took anyone to publish "The 27th Wife", by Irving Wallace. A book on the life of Ann Eliza Webb-Young. Technically the 19th wife of Brigham Young. But the one who openly divorced him for the fraud and evil man that he truly was!

I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews - one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end?

It is obvious that foreign policy is not what your doctorate is in !!! NO ONE has mentioned anything about "Appeasing" Iran by establishing diplomatic communications. Unless you are one of those ignorant Morons who considered Richard Nixon a "liberal" for his diplomacy of detente with Brezhnev, with Mao Zedong, or Ronald Reagan for his diplomatic policies with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Then, there is the Wall Street Journal. Once deemed the pinnacle of financial journalism, now mostly dismissed by a growing number in the Financial Sector due to its contributions of disinformation leading to the past three financial crisis' and the incredible slant on reporting that it shares with other entities of Rupert Murdock's News Corporation, such as Fox News, The New York Post, The Weekly Standard, and Britain's "The Sun" tabloid.

As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where does the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong, good from evil. So what does California do? Tax grocery bags.

Congratulations, you hit every one of the Pavlovian Bells that will get any right wing-nut slobbering uncontrollably, all over themselves!

So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me.

Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills , California 

Face it, it's called democracy! Something that in the past eight years of control by those you support was not practiced, and therefore as a true Minority, you have a right to your own opinion. You do NOT have a right to your own facts. Minority rule has once again been safely relegated back to solely within the borders of the state of Utah. Where it will hopefully stay contained until the next incarnation of the "McCarthy Era". (Around 35 years from now) 

Mid-Lifer, I can see. Well educated? That's what they said about MBA's, and we've all witnessed those morons. upper-middle class, in Beverley Hills? Isn't that an oxymoron in the class of Fox News?

Richard C. Edwards, M.F.P.S. 


There are a lot more out there who think just like, Alisa Wilson, the only difference, she put her thoughts in an email that will reach thousands.  I would like to keep this going and see how big it gets. (Op-Editor Wall Street)