When the Wealthy and Powerful Do What's Right

It doesn't happen often, that the wealthy and powerful in this country step up and do what's within their power to benefit our nation.

But today, at the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear at the Mall in the Nation's Capitol, even the sponsors did the right thing.  This was a magnificent charity event to benefit the Washington Mall -- the people's mall -- which has been in decline since the 80's, when the powerful decided that money should not be spent on the rest of us, and capital improvements on roads, bridges, and our great Capitol were none of their concern or responsibility.

With their usual mix of humor, hipness, modesty, satire, and talent and energy, the Stewart production made this rally an historic event, for many reasons.

They did not just meet at the Nation's Capitol to rally for their cause, their cause was the Nation's Capitol.

The celebrities were not just the famous but those who were heroic in ways in which we all could be heroic if we so chose to be.

And the message, from Father Guido Sarducci (maybe you could give us a sign, or maybe not...), to the duelling duets of Yusef/Ozzie Ozbourne and Stewart/Colbert, to the Fear Awards to the media who were not allowed to attend, to Tony Bennett's America the Beautiful, to Stewart's final plea to think for ourselves, and work together to make this country work, did just that.

And I hate commercials.  And I hate advertisers.  I knew 9/11 was serious because there were, for a few days, no commercials.  We began to lose NPR when they began to be controlled by advertisers (Garrison Keillor, how could you???)  But Stewart found advertisers that were willing to put the message first, and I will do something I guarantee I will never do again.  The advertisers were:  LG, Reese's, and VW.  They sponsored the rally, live, on Comedy Central, for those who could not attend, without commercial interruption, and with limited identification during the program.

Jon Stewart ended by saying, "I know that many of you made a great effort to be here today, and I want you to know that everyone involved with this project worked incredibly hard to make sure that we honored the effort that you put in and gave you the best show that we could possibly do...."

When capitalists look to those who provide them their great wealth and power, and see the obligation it entails, our Nation will have the means to move forward again.

One Hate Group at a Time

Now that 9/11 is past once again, we breathe a sigh of relief and ask ourselves, "Which group will we hate next?"

It has been a few weeks since I've heard about those dangerous illegal aliens.  I am glad that they took a break from coming across our borders to try to behead Jan Brewer.  Of course, she may be safe even now, as her head lacks value or substance.

And what about those gays in the military.  I'm concerned because one of those activist judges has actually read the constitution and figured out that firing gays in the military is unconstitutional (and just plain old doesn't make sense).  It's very possible that we now run the risk of them actually telling people that they are gay and that NOTHING WILL HAPPEN!

Yes, since we the American masses have the capacity to hate, but the attention span of a tsetse fly, we will have to wait until Fox News and the rest of the right wingnuts tell us who we should hate and fear next.  

My Unsolicited Two Cents

Since I am an America, and it is 9/11, I feel I must also tell you what I think.

I think it is past time we leave the people who lost loved ones in the attack to their grieving and mind our own damned business about what New Yorkers should do.

It was an attack on a major US financial center, not a church.  I too was fearful that  my children and I were no longer safe, and over the nine years since I am thankful that our country is well protected, and we can go about our lives with only the frisking at airports to remind us of the attack.

Sadly, we as a nation were so fearful we trusted our Commander-in-Chief, the smaller President Bush, to start a war we would not ever have supported otherwise.

We abandoned Afgan citizens when they needed us, allowing the Taliban to once again take root.  We left Iraq with thousands dead, living in neighborhoods that still lack basic needs like electricity, and in continued fear of attacks by Al Quaeda and other militant groups.

We have abandoned our own Muslim citizens as well as our  belief in individual and religious freedoms, in order to wail hysterically about our grief.

It is not our grief.  We need to stop warmongering here at home, and if we can't build on our country's ideals, and help those who have been hurt, in the attack and in fighting our wars, we need to shut the hell up.