THANK YOU, PATRICK KENNEDY??

Although it was nearly incoherent, I initially appreciated Representative Patrick Kennedy’s speech to his Congressional colleagues about the lack of media coverage of Congress’ actions on the war.    I especially appreciated the obvious depth of his feelings about it.  In a “town” (Washington) where political correctness reaches absurd proportions and both genuineness and honesty is seem to be  rare commodities, it was a relief to see one of our elected officials acting like a human being.  Usually when that happens, it’s about sex or maybe drug use, but this was someone sharing my dismay and growing disgust at how the media and our leaders have abandoned their jobs.  Leaders aren’t leading.  And reporters aren’t reporting.

In truth, I don’t think we should call them leaders or reporters anymore.  They are politicians, playing politics, putting re-election ahead of the common good.  They are entertainers and commentators, appealing to our ugliest urges and narcissistically publicizing their points of view rather than informing us so we can develop our own opinions.   Yes, there are a few notable exceptions, but the overall quality and tone of politics, and television and internet media coverage of politics, is deplorable.  And isn’t each of us is at fault, too, when we are passive in response to it?

Since starting this blog, really since Brian’s death, I have become acquainted with the internet in ways I never did before, and in cyberspace have come into contact with people who are NOT passive.  It is often a disturbing experience.  The most active people often seem to be the least reasonable ones.  People like members of  a certain Kansas “church” who disrupt funerals of troops killed in the wars by carrying signs with cruel, un-Christlike messages and chanting the messages verbally as well.

Similarly, going to internet sites about either Kennedy’s speech or the military funeral cruelty, one finds comments on the events that are also disturbing.  So many of the comments are hostile to other commenters.  So many respond with their own versions of biased, opinionated, dogmatism rather than information or discussion.   Reading them, I feel outrage, too.   I want to “slam” the opinions that seem so uninformed to me.  I want to scream too.  (After all, it was that statement in my original Letter To The Editor that may have gotten me the brief flurry of media interest that I got.)  And if I don’t, it doesn’t seem possible to capture the interest of very many people, certainly not of the media.  (How many people outside of Rhode Island had ever seen Patrick Kennedy’s picture before he lost it last week? )

I believe, passionately, that the average U.S. citizen (myself included) is woefully uninformed and that that is a dangerous state of affairs for us all.

*Brian’s death, the war deaths,  may be a result of that.  (We didn’t know enough to ask how post-invasion Iraq was going to be managed or to question privatizing the supplying of out troops, for instance.)

*Our recent and ongoing financial crisis may have been a result of that.  Many of us did not know enough about the workings of the banks to protect ourselves or even know we were in financial danger (my 401k’s value dropped 55% in a matter of months); Mid- and low-level Enron employees didn’t know enough to recognize that the company stock they were encouraged by upper management to buy was highly overvalued, etc.

*The disengagement from the political process by nearly half our population may be a result of that.  If one doesn’t know what an election is about, it’s hard to see the point of voting, especially in a place like Virginia, where the elections seem endless.

*The increasing political and religious polarization within the population may be a result of that.  It’s easy to hate or demonize someone if you only know a few, supposedly awful things about them.

But, if I express my dismay and outrage and passion by screaming at others for expressing their opinion,  or ridiculing their opinions, that not only can’t help, it makes me part of the problem.

So, in the end, instead of thanking Rep. Kennedy, I decided to reiterate my “Thank you,”  to all the people who wrote or voiced their support after my Letter got published or after I appeared on TV.  Thank you to those of you who wrote messages of support in Brian’s Legacy page online or any other troop’s Legacy page.   Thank you to those who made reasonable and reasoned comments online about the Letter or my TV appearances or any other topic.  You help me remember that the loudest voice may not represent the most widely held opinion.  You give me hope that reason may yet prevail.  I need that more than you can know, because there are days when I despair.

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© Touched by the War: A Journey From Oblivion to Awareness 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Martha M. Gillis and Touched by the War with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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