Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Inner wars
While there has always been a give and take tug of war between the various political factions in this country, I don't recall a time since the Vietnam war when it been so virulent and unsettling as it is right now. Obviously the war in Irag has contributed greatly to this unfortunate situation, but I believe our national discontent is more deeply embedded in what we have come to refer to as 'family values', a phrase that means different things to different people.
This schism in our national psyche has been neatly catagorized by the spin doctors as conservatism versus liberalism with very little wiggle room in between. There's the religious right, once referred to as the moral majority
and then there's everybody else, the alleged not so moral minority. Never have I seen so much religion injected into the political arena where it was once considered politically incorrect to do so. When one group lays claim to the only righteous path to follow, the implication is that every other group is out of round and damnnation bound. How did we come to such a pass where so many Americans have become so hidebound in making judgement calls on other Americans? I don't like to see any secular group ride herd on the rest of us, be they in or out of power. Every day, it seems, we see the Congress of the United States making a mockery of the word, 'bipartisan'. We hear talk of unity and co-operation and witness choas and diversity. Perhaps it has always been thus and the encroachment of old age has made me embittered, but there must be a better way to build a mouse trap.
George Morin
Auburn
This schism in our national psyche has been neatly catagorized by the spin doctors as conservatism versus liberalism with very little wiggle room in between. There's the religious right, once referred to as the moral majority
and then there's everybody else, the alleged not so moral minority. Never have I seen so much religion injected into the political arena where it was once considered politically incorrect to do so. When one group lays claim to the only righteous path to follow, the implication is that every other group is out of round and damnnation bound. How did we come to such a pass where so many Americans have become so hidebound in making judgement calls on other Americans? I don't like to see any secular group ride herd on the rest of us, be they in or out of power. Every day, it seems, we see the Congress of the United States making a mockery of the word, 'bipartisan'. We hear talk of unity and co-operation and witness choas and diversity. Perhaps it has always been thus and the encroachment of old age has made me embittered, but there must be a better way to build a mouse trap.
George Morin
Auburn
