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you know, james, I was thinking some things this morning that made me realize reality is not synching up for republicans.
last night, I was watching a couple of elected officials, one of whom who claimed to have war experience, I think he might have been a senator or something from new mexico, say how misinformed the public was by the media. it was tragic, in his view, that the public wasn't being shown how noble an act going on over in iraq--only the negative. just like vietnam, in his estimation. I'll not linger on his romantization of that past war, but I found it strange that he argued we were being misled by the (he paused here) 'mainstream' media.
Now the reason I find this so interesting is because I keep thinking about those iraqi soccer players. One would think in the height of their winning streak, just when they are feeling so damn awesome, and from what I think I can safely believe about olympic athletes in regards to their politics (shortly, that they might be more prone to be apolitical during their events and really just enjoy what they are doing with one another)--I was thinking," just why the hell didn't one of them say, thanks? or man this is complicated, but the people really aren't getting a fair viewing, don't use us in your campaign, but we aren't mad at you--american people,; anything?"
the commentators made a point to explain that the greeks always seperated between the events, the american public, and the actions of our leaders after the support for our athletes was so loud and consistent. it got me thinking that some nations might just feel for us, for our apparent blindness to the actions of our politicians, or maybe just our real lack of ability to change anything substantially, despite our notions that this is the 'free-est' nation on earth.
this is all jumbled together but it just struck me as profound that if the people of Iraq were really as happy as many people keep claiming, if the media is just not showing us all the shiny, happy people in the land, why the hell aren't any of the happy people saying anything whenever they get the chance?
not even a 'mums the word on this complicated situation' when these athletes are doing things that are fulfilling their dreams. Not even a 'we support you america' line, but just a very reassuring 'there are many good people in iraq, don't worry' ; what we got was 'there are many good people in iraq, and they (and we) want to battle you right out of our homeland--just like any other good people would do anywhere else."
don't know if I'm making sense.
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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann
"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman
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