In Defense of Mark Foley - Where to Draw the Line
Maybe I’m just a bit thick, but I don’t quite get this Foley hoopla. Not from the right, not from the left, not from the media. Of course the actions of Foley were inappropriate. But compared to what? Tell me, why does this so catch the American imagination? Why is this something, like the Michael Jackson trial, seemingly titillating and magnetic, while at the same time intuitively abhorrent?
And why is this destined to become a footnote of history? It is a three to four week media feeding frenzy in the making.
And it detracts from far more important actual real time news, such as: the war (both of them), illegal immigration, social security and tax reform, jobs, environment, health care and education.
But how in our hypocritical national psyche are we immune to any of the other following real news events that also happened today – and just about every day?
➢ The barely nineteen year old American soldier in Iraq who is gunned down today by a 16 year old Sunni kid hiding behind a stone wall?
➢ The 14-year-old girl in Darfur who is raped today – for the ninth time?
➢ The 15 year old working a 12-hour day in an Asian factory where he makes pennies a day, turning out crap that is sold at Wal-Mart?
➢ The three year old who won’t get adopted today by a screened responsible loving gay couple, or ever have the opportunity of loving parents and a sense of family, because homophobia prevents this adoption?
➢ The nine year old in a Pakistani Islamic madrassa reciting over and over, to memory, the entire Koran … in an environment of indoctrination of hate for things Western, the materialism, the arrogance of power, the perverse excesses, the corrupt leaders of the West.
➢ The six-year-old Nicaraguan whose father works long and hard days picking coffee beans to support his family of four at a subsistence level, so you could have your $4.00 cafe latte each morning?
➢ The eleven year old boy who is hacked by machete to death by roaming militias in the Congo – just one more in the millions that have so far died in this the “out of sight” genocide of this generation. “The United Nations recounts three to four million victims. People are dying because of deprivation and violence. Pregnant women are cut open and the fetuses are stabbed with bayonets. Young women are raped, their vaginas filled with pigment and then they are buried alive. Girls become pregnant, are infected with AIDS and are forced to bear the child of the aggressor. Men are tortured and killed. Babies and small children end up in the latrines. Youngsters die in the flames of villages burnt to the ground. Hospitals and schools are demolished with intent. A completely innocent civilian population lives and suffers under a monstrous terror and the world keeps silent.”
I just must be thick; I just don’t get it. Not defending Foley; just questioning America, and what seems to grab our common attention..
And why is this destined to become a footnote of history? It is a three to four week media feeding frenzy in the making.
And it detracts from far more important actual real time news, such as: the war (both of them), illegal immigration, social security and tax reform, jobs, environment, health care and education.
But how in our hypocritical national psyche are we immune to any of the other following real news events that also happened today – and just about every day?
➢ The barely nineteen year old American soldier in Iraq who is gunned down today by a 16 year old Sunni kid hiding behind a stone wall?
➢ The 14-year-old girl in Darfur who is raped today – for the ninth time?
➢ The 15 year old working a 12-hour day in an Asian factory where he makes pennies a day, turning out crap that is sold at Wal-Mart?
➢ The three year old who won’t get adopted today by a screened responsible loving gay couple, or ever have the opportunity of loving parents and a sense of family, because homophobia prevents this adoption?
➢ The nine year old in a Pakistani Islamic madrassa reciting over and over, to memory, the entire Koran … in an environment of indoctrination of hate for things Western, the materialism, the arrogance of power, the perverse excesses, the corrupt leaders of the West.
➢ The six-year-old Nicaraguan whose father works long and hard days picking coffee beans to support his family of four at a subsistence level, so you could have your $4.00 cafe latte each morning?
➢ The eleven year old boy who is hacked by machete to death by roaming militias in the Congo – just one more in the millions that have so far died in this the “out of sight” genocide of this generation. “The United Nations recounts three to four million victims. People are dying because of deprivation and violence. Pregnant women are cut open and the fetuses are stabbed with bayonets. Young women are raped, their vaginas filled with pigment and then they are buried alive. Girls become pregnant, are infected with AIDS and are forced to bear the child of the aggressor. Men are tortured and killed. Babies and small children end up in the latrines. Youngsters die in the flames of villages burnt to the ground. Hospitals and schools are demolished with intent. A completely innocent civilian population lives and suffers under a monstrous terror and the world keeps silent.”
I just must be thick; I just don’t get it. Not defending Foley; just questioning America, and what seems to grab our common attention..
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