Pride and Pre-judging
Dunkirk NY – I rejoice in the elevation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. My 80-year-old mother, who is Puerto Rican herself, is also taking a quiet pride. Of course, the 31 senators who voted against her is another indication of how low this country is falling in terms of its ability to hold civil debates and to consider issues on their merits rather than on selected, skewed, and in some cases, made-up evidence. Calling her a “racist” and using one particular quote taken completely out of context is just a further indication of this trend. With a 17-year record on a federal bench, you would think a lifetime record would have much more to say about her than one or two quotes. Not in this time and era. We’re seeing this in the “birther” movement and also in the town meetings on health care debate, where it appears even death threats are now a legitimate means of rhetoric. Assaults on the homeless are now getting bad enough to think about passing hate crime legislation to fight it. I find the trend truly disturbing.
Perhaps the only attitude or refuge we can take in this era of over-hyped ad hominem rhetoric are the words written by the late John Hughes. From the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles:
You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I’m an easy target. Yeah, you’re right, I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you… but I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings. Well, you think what you want about me; I’m not changing. I like… I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. ‘Cause I’m the real article. What you see is what you get.
-twl
