Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

A few days ago, someone came on here and left a diary consisting of nothing more than a piece of hokey poetry sent around as a chain email. The message was one designed to elicit unconditional support for soldiers sent over to other countries to fight and kill people.

It bothered me to think that, for many Americans, the preferred method of dealing with foreigners seems to be to invade their countries and kill them. American xenophobia isn’t expressed just in terms of war, but also in terms of this year’s push to make English the only official language of the United States – as if there is something inherently menacing in a foreign language.

I thought back to a song that I heard a long time ago, performed back in 1991 by Raffi to a crowd of children. Remember 1991, when people had hope for the world, and there was the promise of the Peace Dividend to deliver us from the Republicans’ debts?

Well, this song was pretty simple, consisting of the simple declaration of the names of children from different countries. The point was simple too – human beings from different cultures and countries have the fundamental things in common, and we ought to try to understand each other instead of being afraid of our mutual foreign identities. It’s a simple message that has, sadly, largely been lost.

I’d like to hear a lot more of this song. Here are the lyrics:

Janet lives in England
Pierre lives in France
Bonnie lives in Canada
Ahmed lives in Egypt
Moshe lives in Israel
Bruce lives in Australia

Ching lives in China
Olga lives in Russia
Ingrid lives in Germany
Gita lives in India
Pablo lives in Spain
Jose lives in Columbia.

And each one is much like another
A child of a mother and a father
A very special son or daughter
A lot like me and you.

Koji lives in Japan
Nina lives in Chile
Farida lives in Pakistan
Zocha lives in Poland
Manuel lives in Brazil
Maria lives in Italy.

Kofi lives in Ghana
Rahim lives in Iran
Rosa lives in Paraguay
Najee lives in Kenya
Dimitri lives in Greece
Sue lives in America.

And each one is much like another
A child of a mother and a father
A very special son or daughter
A lot like me and you.

So, the New York Times has endorsed Ned Lamont, rejecting Joseph Lieberman’s term in Senate one “in which the never-ending war on terror becomes an excuse for silence and inaction”. Swell.

What does this mean? Mainstream pundits are viewing it as a devastating blow to Lieberman’s re-election campaign. But does that mean that we’re supposed to believe that Lieberman’s campaign was doing well until the big newspaper’s endorsement of Lamont?

Washington D.C. pundits just can’t imagine that Connecticut voters might have been making conclusions about Joseph Lieberman’s right wing politics on their own, but that’s just what has been happening. Lieberman has been a stain on the Democratic Party for years, long before the Iraq War was begun. Starting with Lieberman’s preaching condemnation of Bill Clinton’s personal life, and extending through the drag of his religious preoccupations on Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, many of the Democratic Party’s most devastating defeats have been due in large part to Lieberman’s insistence in promoting a narrow, restrictive vision of what it means to be an American.

It’s good that the New York Times is finally joining grassroots Democrats in their rejection of Joseph Lieberman. However, it’s not the editorial of the Times that will have sunk Lieberman’s career. Senator Lieberman managed to do that all on his own.

You know, when I first heard that Mel Gibson had said, while being arrested recently in California, some “offensive things,” I was really really worried. I thought maybe the star of Lethal Action had said “Stem cell research is not such a bad thing” or “Gay? OK!” or “F**k, but those Buddhists really have a point there.” That would have been a level of career-destroying offensiveness, for sure.

But then I read the actual police report of Mel Gibson’s remarks while being arrested for driving after drinking the communion wine (what’s wrong with that? nothing but being RELIGIOUS!). Here’s all the nicest guy in Hollywood ever said:

“My Life Is Fucked” — Well, that’s all Jesus said, really. All our lives are “fucked,” until we accept Jesus as our personal savior!

“You Mother Fucker. I’m Going to Fuck You. You’re Going to Regret You Ever Did This to Me.” — Everybody knows these are lines from Mel Gibson’s latest film, A Trial of Faith, about a man whose wife leaves him for a chinchilla in a state with same-sex marriage, triggering a crisis of faith that involves a lot of swearing at God. But don’t worry — the movie shows in the end that God can handle being sworn at, and eventually forgives Gibson. In the meantime, come on, the Saucy Aussie was just rehearsing his lines!

“I Own Malibu” — OK, well maybe he does. That’s a good thing to know: he’s a property owner, a good upstanding citizen and all. A nice factual statement.

“I’m Going to Get Even With You” — said to the police officer, this makes sense. Mel Gibson, upright conservative Christian paragon that he is, is only telling the nice office that he’s not going to “get odd” with him tonight. No fag boy, that Mel Gibson! We all breathe a sigh of relief.

“Fucking Jews” — well, they do “that,” you know. That’s how they perpetuate their scheme to overtake all the world’s population and turn them into banking customers!

“Are You A Jew?” Good thing to know, because if so, there’s one more Jew who needs a nice New Testament sent to them as a thank you gift and chance at salvation!

“The Jews are Responsible for all the Wars in the World.” OK. So. Well. This looks really bad. At first glance. But when you consider that um, well, with the hypotenuse of the square of the Pythagorean Theorem in the second case, the smiggledy smaggle of the plumbum in green mainly takes the exclusionary clause in an unnecessarily literal manner. You know what I mean? See, no problem!

Thank you, Mel Gibson, for continuing to show the gracious goodness of Christian conservatism the whole world through. I am your number one fan, and you are my hero!