The Right Makes Me Smile
A right-wing friend of mine posted the following to a listserve. Can you believe how bizarre the right wing is becoming?
I wonder if there are some profound truths lying behind the ludicrous analogies, though. Perhaps people become Republicans because they were emotionally abused as children?
The other day, my nine-year-old son wanted to know why we were at war.
My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I
were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and
defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a
good explanation.
My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in
our front living room window. He said, "Son, stand there and tell me
what you see?"
"I see trees and cars and our neighbors' houses," he replied.
"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United
States of America and you are President Bush."
Our son giggled and said, "OK."
"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house
and yard on this block is a different country," my husband said.
"OK Dad, I'm pretending."
"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you
see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair
and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the
face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death.
Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming
and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and
they are afraid of their father. You see all of this son....what do you
do?"
"Dad?"
"What would you do son?"
"I'd call the police, Dad."
"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your
call, listen to what you know and saw, but they refuse to help. What do
you do then son?"
"Dad...but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.
"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or
your place to get involved and that we should all stay out of it," my
husband says.
"But Dad...he killed her!" my son exclaims.
"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want
you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're
pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his own
children."
"Daddy...he kills them?"
"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"
"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door
neighbor to help me stop him," our son says.
"Son, your next door neighbor sees what is happening, but he refuses to
get involved as well. He'll not help you," my husband says.
"But Dad, I NEED help! I can't stop him by myself!"
"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.
"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for
help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and
puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"
"What Daddy?"
"Watching you in the window, he walks over to the old lady's house,
breaks down her door and drags her out. He sets her house on fire and
then he...he kills her. He does this while he laughs at you and her.
WHAT DO YOU DO?"
"Daddy..."
"WHAT DO YOU DO?"
Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the
blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him..."Why?"
"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help people who needs
them...and they won't help.... You always say that neighbors are
supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop
him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself Daddy.....I can't look out
my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and... and.....
do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds.... so I can't see
what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not
happening."
I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in
the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's
questions and he says..."Son."
"Yes, Daddy."
"Open the blinds, son, because that evil man.... now he's at our front
door..."WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?"
My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up
his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without
hesitation he says: "I'LL DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM
HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!"
I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his
chest and hugs him tight, and says... "It's too late to fight him, he's
too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have
stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady
across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it
alone, before it's too late," my husband whispers.
THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq and other
terrorists. When good men stand by and let evil happen son, THAT is the
greatest EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is right. We, as a
free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must
remove evil men from power so that we can continue to live in a free
world where we are not afraid to look out our window so that my nine
year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just "closes"
that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him.
posted by Dan at 11/01/2004 01:07:00 PM
6 Comments:
Gah, that's just chilling. Here are the lessons I've learned:
1.) We raise and allow psychopaths in this world.
2.) There are no social structures to enforce civility.
3.) You'd better become a bigger psychopath before the guy from #1 comes after you!
-Keith Sader
http://www.saderfamily.org/roller/page/ksader
I'm just hoping for the sake of that poor child that that story is completely made up. That's sick to put a child through that.
dolphin
http://www.dolphinsdock.com/blog/
Terrible way to talk to a child.
But, our country almost ignored Hitler until it was too late. The lesson may not apply to tin pot dictator Hussein. But there is some truth lurking in that analogy.
What bothers me with this analogy (apart from the disgusting way of speaking to a child) is:
1. He teaches his son to distrust the capabilities and intentions of others.
2. He more or less encourages his son to see violence as the answer to a problem in spite of more people getting hurt than by peaceful solutions.
Even if the father says that one must act early he _doesn't_ say that one must deal with the corrupt police before it becomes too corrupt or unequipped to deal with "wife abusers". Nor does he mention the importance of talking to your neighbours at an early stage so that you have common strategies and can benefit from your combined strength when a situation like this appears.
Instead he encourages his son to work alone and despise exactly those things that could save us all from a war. And I noted that the father doesn't say what the right thing to do actually is. Kill all your neighbours before they think of something bad to do to you, or what?
Oh, and I think that letting it come to a war without realising the conflicts earlier is a splendid example of acting too late. But that's just my opinion - hope you don't mind.
Regards
Flip
Flip,
Well said. Another question the father should have asked is what the son would have done if a neighbor asked for him to help. The analogy discusses what to do when no one else will help. It doesn't discuss our obligation when someone else asks for help.
When someone asks our country for help, what do we do? Do we say, "sorry, its not our problem" or do we offer what aid we can?
yeah it's shame the father sold a baseball bat to the wife-beater in the first place. But at least he made a profit out of it.
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