So My Therapist Says we can't meet today on account of a damn good reason. One would hope that might leave me without new material. The well, however, seems bottomless.
Either a sinus infection or the addition of a diuretic has had me in almost constant pain and a foul mood for the better part of 2 days now. I phoned The City to make an appointment with the M.D. - partly to complain to someone who has a prescription pad and partly to be educated on some recent medication changes that aren't making sense to me. I like this doc a lot. He doesn't even flinch when I balk or question. He doesn't seem to mind my controlling tendencies or my insistence that since it's my life on the line, I get to pick apart the treatment decisions. When I'm dead, I won't bother them anymore. Until then, they have a relentless partner in my treatment. I cancelled that appointment when My Therapist cancelled me. I also phoned in sick for the Social Group tonight. I'm spending a rare Friday night in.
When this is read someday - and it will be read someday - I want it noted that I spent nearly 3 months writing before I devoted a good number of sentences to a political screed. I'm fairly predictable, if you ask those who know me best. I don't tend to let what I consider political shondas to go unmentioned. When I decided to boycott Wal-Mart in favor of Target (it can be done - try it!) because of their atrocious record on employee compensation and health benefits, etc, etc... I mentioned their sins any time I heard someone mention their name. I still do that. It's become an impulse. The good but annoying kind of impulse, I like to think. My chest swelled with pride when Christi mentioned that she had taken a potshot at Wal-Mart while standing in one waiting for her paint to shake.
When I was younger, I was more prone to the unprovoked outburst. Now, I reserve my best material for blunt force responses. I rarely pick a fight on the topics anymore. But I don't run from many, either. Yesterday I got one of those fictitious emails that circulate. Some poor soul had supposedly been the victim of a horribly unpatriotic act at the hands of Starbucks. The suggestion was that we should all paint our faces red, white & blue and take to the streets to protest the java terrorists. The retraction came within 24 hours, to their credit, but not before I had replied simply, "Oh dear. How do we differ? Let me count the ways."
I got a civil reply about supporting the troops even if we don't support the war. On the heels of being reminded about Christianity's "Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin" schtick, my buttons were pushed. The parallel did not escape me.
I don't like war. I don't buy that this is or ever was a "war". I think it's incredibly naive of the vast majority of people to allow the commonly accepted term of "war" to be redefined the way it has been. I don't blame the Bushies. If you can find several million idiots and exploit them for your own gain, good on you. I blame the dumb people. Idiocy is its own reward. You get what you pay for. Caveat Emptor. All that.
Before anyone gets their panties wadded, I've held my tongue on this for 3 years while the charade of patriotism has swirled around me. You'll excuse me if I use the soapbox I designed for myself for a few paragraphs of well thought out retribution. I didn't hear this on TV first. That might be a good place for the other side to start when they decide to speak on the topic. And no, I did not serve my country in the military. I had "other priorities" to quote the sitting Vice-President. But more importantly, my country did not want me to serve. I tell. Don't ask me not to. It's a shame. Some of us have some real rage issues that would marry up with an AK-47 fairly nicely. Then again, who wants a bunch of angry gay folks with assault weapons when you're trying to write them out of the constitution. I see where they're coming from, perverse as it is. But I digress.
That said, I especially detest this deployment because this is the first time I've known anyone personally who has been deployed. But for the most part, I think smart people should never have laid down their intelligence at the feet of faux patriotism. This has always been about paybacks. Absent any 9/11, we'd have been here anyway. Anyone who tells you different is simply - and willfully - stupid. All of the lies have been revealed (unless you buy the redefining of the commonly accepted term "lie"). All of the motivations have been deconstructed to reveal the shams they are. You'd think even dimwitted people would have stopped the proselytizing by now. I'm supposed to embrace my distaste for the conflict yet support our people who are engaged in it. I'd like for one person to explain just how the fuck someone does that.
This has to be the second most ignorant concept ever parroted by an unthinking legion of lemmings. The first begins "Love The Sinner...". They are both either a paradox beyond our comprehension as mere mortals...or they're just silly to the point of dangerous stupidity. I lean decidedly toward the latter. If you "support the troops" but don't support what the troops are doing, just what do you support? If you applaud the person who pulls the trigger but don't like that they pulled the trigger, doesn't that make you either schizophrenic or stupid? Again, I lean decidedly toward the latter. I think it's a misplaced sense of obligation. For some reason, it's verboten to say that the people doing the thing you're allowed to hate are, themselves, assholes. I find it far more patriotic to point out the pile of lies (unless you redefine "lie" to mean something other than it means) and to say we shouldn't be doing what we're doing and those who do it should stop.
Just Following Orders doesn't work in the corporate world as a defense to anything. Morally, it doesn't hold any water, either. If your sense of patriotism finds a loophole in Just Following Orders, you have some hollow sense of God and Country. And that probably makes you an asshole, too. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no, I don't support our troops - because I don't support what they're doing - and I'll rest easy at night knowing that I didn't slap a magnetic friggin' ribbon to the back of my vehicle three years ago. I have walked away from the front doors of businesses simply because I saw a sign that ordered me to "Support Our Troops". My dollars spend equally well in places where more thought goes into the signage.
I have a question for the 25% of the American populace who have changed their minds about this cabal and its Middle Eastern Rah Rah Tour de Force: Do you feel ashamed or just stupid? As an intellectual matter, I'd like to think they realize that they're probably not qualified to vote anymore. As a moral matter, I'd like to think that they accept responsibility for enabling this whole thing. When someone votes to keep putting other folks in harm's way, I think stupidity is not a valid excuse. When their vote is sold for a Shock And Awe sideshow on someone else's land, they're pretty much just assholes. If more of us said so, perhaps they'd think twice before assuming we goose-step just like they do.
I wonder how they sleep at night.
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