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The Readers Respond.
All I can say is wow.
I breathed out disgust and you responded.
Good for you!
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The key to a heated debate lies in the ability of each opponent to answer each debater's points and then add an additional argument. (Hell, the same rules apply to war.) Last week I spoke rather harshly. I used stereotypes to describe a group of people who where spouting off about a subject which I strongly disagreed with. And while some of you - the readers - responded to my ideas and perspective, many others became involved with my hippie bashing. While my first reaction to these readers is to simply raspberry you and then ignore you - I would also like to point a couple of items out.
- I try to offend everyone equally. While some "groups" haven't had their time in the spotlight yet, believe you me, their time is a coming. Long haired, tie dyed, un-bathed, peacenik hippies just happen to be the bunch of yahoos pissing me off that day.
- Stereotypes, while often harsh and inhospitable, are almost always true. That's why they're stereotypes. If you are a member of a group who doesn't fit the cliché of that group, well, then you are the exception to the rule. Good for you - here's a cookie.
- Making fun of people is funny. That's why it's called "Making fun of people." If you can't laugh at yourself you should look in the mirror to see why people are laughing at you. Laugh and the world laughs with you, take everything personally and the world thinks you're a stuck up prick with no sense of humor. I choose to laugh…. Maybe you should too.
- No one likes the joke, "A person walked into a place to buy a thing." It's flavorless, dull and non-descriptive. Being politically correct is crappy and is the moral opposite of the Freedom of Speech. Besides, isn't it a better world when you can say, Your Mamma's so fat, when she broke her leg gravy poured out? Yes, I think we all agree it is.
- These are my opinions. Deal with it. (See footer caption.) Sometimes I hope to make you laugh, sometimes I'm actually trying to piss you off. I have twisted little demons running the show behind the curtain of my mind and I almost always have an ulterior motive. But don't mistake that for me not meaning what I write. If I didn't mean it, I wouldn't write it. However, sometimes I like to punch it up a bit for a little showbiz flair. **Jazz Hands**
- A lot of you missed my Animal House reference and kept correcting me. There is no hope for you people and, to be honest, I'm more than a little disappointed.
As for those of you who actually responded to the points I made in last weeks column - well, all I can say is this:
I heard a lot of cries for understanding. A lot of Anti-American sentimentality - usually in the form of "We the bullies" - "We the global police" - "We the hate mongers" - "We who shout for vengeance." And while some wrote compelling stories backed up by volumes of fact, no one addressed the simple idea that was the root of my rant. Lets go to war! Now - many of you wrote to me to say 'We shouldn't go to war…" but no one gave me a reason why we shouldn't. Saying we shouldn't be the global police, or we shouldn't take vengeance on Yomama, doesn't mean we shouldn't go to war. As much as they may "feel the same" - they aren't. We can still go to war without being the "global police" and without taking vengeance.
A few of you listed many of America's past "not so glorious" military adventures. Sighting them as examples of where America went wrong - where America killed innocent lives, played both sides of the political table and even armed the enemy. Now, while these stories make me cringe, they don't for an instant make me think that we shouldn't try and stop these evil men. AND -They are still not a reason why we should not go to war. And, FYI, stating all those examples actually showed me that you'd be FOR warfare if America had a better track record. However, I also feel that even if we did, you'd still be against war, fighting and bloodshed because, what you're really trying to say is that fighting is morally wrong… In all shapes and sizes.
But is it? The one point I keep coming to, and the one argument I think people are trying to make, is that it is never "OK" to fight. Ever. That, no matter what the adversary, it is never "okay" to take up arms. And well, as we should all know, that's just a bunch of hogwash. I mean - what a load of crap. If history has taught us anything, it's that sometimes people, even civilized people, behave uncivilized. You can't always solve everything with a treaty. I mean, after all, it's just a piece of paper - and it's only as good as the people who sign it. Fighting is ugly folks, but it gets things done.
But before I get too side tracked, let me back up a bit. Let me ask the question, "Is there ever a time to fight?" "When is enough, enough?" "When is the use of force, violent, military or otherwise, justified?" For, if you honestly believe that there is never a time to fight, ever, then we are at an impasse. Death, destruction and mayhem can rain from the sky from countless enemies and destroy countless nations and it would be okay for you. Because, we must first try to understand this evil and come to terms with it. Approach it with open arms with offerings of peace and truth. Well, while thoughts of taking this moral high ground may warm your bosom, it won't stop the murdering and it won't let freedom prevail. There are evil people in the world that you cannot reason with. These people would just as soon kill you and take all that is yours than listen to the words of infidels.
While it may be great to try to understand you enemy's motives, should that be a priority? Should we spend our time figuring out where we went wrong? Wondering why they hate us so? Wondering what we could do to make things better, to keep them from striking us again? Or should we spend our time defending ourselves, striking back, ensuring that this enemy will never commit this act of terror again. America should not act like the battered wife who asks, "What did I do to deserve this." We should only make sure it doesn't happen again.
So, while I'm sorry that some of you took my jokes a little too seriously, I'm more sorry that some of you haven't discovered that some things are worth fighting for. However, I am thankful that we, America, isn't protected by all you "Fair Weather Citizens" but by men and women who will stand beside their country and her ideals, in good times and in bad.
*Look for Mr. Sweeney's article "You'll be happy to have the right to buy a gun when the enemy invades our shores… but a little pissed you'll have to wait two weeks for it." later this week.
**The opinions expressed in Weekly Commentary are those of Mr. Sweeney and his alone. Any attempt at finding sanity or logic in his rantings are feeble, at best.
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