[NYTr] Where's the Outrage? Stunned by Passivity of Amerikans

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[This is a highly annoying column by yet anther middle-class liberal
who thinks she's hot shit because she continues to say mild-mannered
things about the war criminals running the USA. Radical change -- not
political violence, but radical change in LIFESTYLE, in OUTLOOK, seems
to be utterly beyond people like this. They always seem to mean well.
They simply want their fantasy Amerika back, and are unwilling to admit
the truth: What is happening now is simply what has been happening all
along, at least since World War 2... just extended out to a more
extreme limit. Where are YOUR Outrageous acts, Beth Quinn? -NYTransfer]


sent by anon at mouse.com - activ-l

Times Herald-Record (NY) - Nov 26, 2007
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071126/NEWS/711260317/-1/NEWS0206

Stunned by Lack of Outrage, Not Outrageous Acts

by Beth Quinn
Times-Record Columnist

I continue to be stunned.

Not by Bush any longer. There was a time when I was stunned by
nearly everything he did. Or said. Who wouldn't be stunned by a
president who could say, They misunderestimated me, and sincerely
believe hes on top of things?

Nor by Cheney. His pure evil no longer surprises me, although there
was a time when he routinely stunned me. Torture? Torture??

Not by Congress, either. There was a time when I was stunned by
that crowd's sheeplike mentality. I'd hear them decry the war, decry
torture, decry Bush's growing deficit, then I'd drop my jaw as they
voted time and again to give the president carte blanche.

No longer. I fully expect Congress to disappoint, to fail to do its
job in balancing the White House power grab.

I'm no longer stunned by the politicized courts nor by the media,
which is unwilling to offend and uses vague, watered-down language
instead of strong condemnations of this, the worst presidency in
history.

So who continues to stun me?

I will tell you. I am stunned by all that is left of America:
Americans.

I am stunned by the public's lack of outrage over all this presidency
has done to ravage our nation. Where is the outrage over this
war-without-end? Over waterboarding? Over our dead and maimed
soldiers?

I am stunned that Americans arent writing angry letters to the
editor about the Iran rhetoric, this carbon copy of lies that led
up to Bush's invasion of Iraq.

I am stunned that Americans didn't take to the streets with placards
condemning Bush for vetoing a bill that would have ensured health
care for children.

I am stunned that Americans aren't rioting over federal money that
has helped only the rich in New Orleans rebuild while the poor still
live homeless.

I am stunned that Americans aren't storming the White House as Bush
accuses the Democrats of irresponsible spending on domestic programs
even as he destroys the economy with his war and his deficit.

I am stunned that Americans havent marched on Washington over the
rising unemployment rate, over corporate greed that is causing
millions to lose their homes, over our rotting infrastructure.

People on the margins are already making hard choices. I know a
young woman who wanted to drive to Vermont to be with her family
for Thanksgiving but couldn't afford to put that much gas in her
car. [AWW... Did she ever hear of buses? - NYTr]

The middle class should take note. People are wandering the mall
charging Christmas presents, but that bill comes due in January
when the price of oil will be more than $100 a barrel and gasoline
will cost $4 a gallon at the pump. Where is the outrage? [Where is
their willingness to change their fucking lifestyle so they don't keep
driving everywhere in their private cars to buy useless shit every damn
year for no good reason? -NYTr]

I am stunned by people in Monroe who want to take away a veteran's
rights to free speech when he paints angry signs about Bush on his
van.

I am stunned by those same people who want to shut me up, shout me
down, spew viciousness into my telephone because I exercise my own
right to speak. They are so confused, these people who believe in
free speech until someone says something they disagree with.

I am stunned by those who say, He's our president, so he deserves
our respect. No he doesn't. He deserves our fury for bringing shame
to the presidency and embarrassment to Americans around the world.

Sometimes, those of us who continue to be outraged by this
administration sound like a broken record, even to our own ears.

We keep singing the same tune while our critics say enough is enough.

But that the same old tune has to be sung as long as Bush continues
to wage the same old war against Americas poor and shrinking middle
class. [NO... You have to start singing a newer, angrier, more
realistic and louder tune, lady.]

We have to keep singing. I have to keep singing.

But what I'd like to know is, where is the chorus?

There are 421 days til Jan. 20, 2009.

Copyright 2007 The Times Herald-Record