·A Letter to my Father
Let me first preface this by letting you know, you will NOT be getting the normal kicks and giggles from this one. I apologize. But I can’t actually send this to my dad - so it’s gotta be somewhere. Because if I just lock it up in a drawer or keep it in a never-sent email folder, it has done no one any good, or shed any light, or made me feel any better (and dammit, that’s what this website’s all about.) So, many apologies. I promise funny shit soon. Right now, I gotta get the seriousness out of my head and onto the page before I explode with anger and sadness.
Dear Dad,
I could not sleep last night because you told me you liked Bill O’Reilly – that to you, he is a controversial figure, and like Larry King. He is not at all like Larry King, and I would be glad to prove it to you, but I doubt you want me to. I will live with the hope that one day you might.
I know you and I do not agree when it comes to politics, but what I do not understand is how you rationalize that this guy is “ok.” He is way more than a “controversial figure” - he is an outright liar. I don’t think it’s ok to just say, “well, all the media lies, so he’s just like the rest of them.” Look, I will be the FIRST person to tell you that I think the mainstream media skews things unbelievably, in one direction or another. Unfortunately, Mr. O’Reilly is one of the worst when it comes to not relying on facts whatsoever.
Let me say a few things, and then we never have to talk about politics ever again: Bill O’Reilly would have you think that those who do not support the war in factual basis - those who thought (and have researched the facts) it was and still is:
A) Based on a lie,
B) Ill-conceived, ill-managed and continually lied about to the American public, and
C) a moral outrage worldwide, that America would behave in a way that is equal to a high-school bully, and repeatedly disregard opinions of some of the most admirable members of the military as well as citizens of not only this country, but many countries around the world –
Bill O’Reilly would have you think those that do not support the war for these and many more reasons are not patriots. That they are traitors to their country. And I am one of those people. You can’t just call me another “pinhead” or “far-left nut bag” – I am not a faceless, unknown person that you can just label as “liberal.” I am your daughter. And I am in the majority and have been for some time. We could argue about how the majority isn’t always right, but I think when we have been lied to consistently by the likes of the current Administration and their ambassadors such as Mr. O’Reilly, we find what is right and true all too late. And I will be damned if I will stand by and let someone question whether I love what this country stands for more than anything in the world and whether or not I care about the lives of soldiers that are put at risk on a lie, and not for our freedom, every day.
I will die, if necessary, to protect the right I have to criticize my government.
I cannot fathom the destruction that is in progress to our beloved Constitution. By removing habeus corpus (which this president has done;) by warrantless wiretapping (which this president has done;) by demanding extraordinary, over-reaching power for the executive branch - all of this points not to democracy, but tyranny. Dictatorship. And we have been far too complacent. Some now seek to destroy the very rights that we say we are fighting for. The people that seek to destroy our rights are not the terrorists that we have been reminded daily by the Bush Administration to fear – those people make up the Bush Administration itself.
And while we are on the subject of fear, let me say this: I refuse to live in it. Iraq has not made us safer at all. It has made us more unsafe. Our presence there will continue to foment the ideas of hatred against us. And if there’s one thing that will always stand, it is the fact that ideas are bulletproof. That is true regardless of what one believes, or what side someone is on. So if we are doing more harm than good - and don’t forget, Sadr’s shia truce ends in February, so the violence WILL get worse than it has been since the “surge” and really, how long can we keep bribing each side to not fight? – if and since we are doing more harm than good, then WE have created a losing situation. It was not winnable from the start. And yet, because I (and millions of others) see the truth in that situation, I am told I do not support the troops. By Bill O’Reilly. And the Bush Administration. So by their theory, anything that is contrary to what they believe to be right is reprehensible and actually, criminal and punishably so.
I am so proud of you, Dad - you served your country for years and did things that I could never imagine doing. I am proud of the millions of veterans who have done the same. But I know that for me to not question why we fight some wars in the first place is dangerous. I know that I cannot believe what much of the media tells us. And I absolutely cannot abide by, nor tolerate demagogues like Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, and ideologues like Cheney, Rove, and G.W. Bush – they who wield their power by relying on the complacency and preying on the fears of this country’s citizens.
We had better wake up to the fact that we are wrecking this country from the inside out - not the other way around. The blame solidly rests with us. Many of us are standing and screaming for the first time, and I fear it’s way too late.
P.S. And for God’s sake, for the LAST TIME, Barack Obama is NOT A MUSLIM!!!!
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