Let the circus begin.
Jun. 6th, 2004 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kickahaReagan has died. The news will be full of honorariums, retrospectives, and such... none of which I have much interest in. I didn't agree (and still don't) with much of the man's politics, and I think that while his presidency was surrounded by a constellation of world-changing events, his direct influence was not as much as his promoters would like to think. Which isn't to say it wasn't as little as his detractors would like to think either. He *was* the freaking President, people.
So the circus begins... but not the one outlined above. No, I'm talking about the venom, the ire, and the downright disgusting bile from the little people that can't take a minute to realize... someone died. A father, a grandfather, a husband, a brother, a son. Someone who suffered many years from a disease that, frankly, I'm terrified of. I lost three elderly relatives to Alzheimer's, and anyone who says "oh, they don't know that they suffer" doesn't have the first clue what they're talking about. They suffer, in those moments of lucidity when they know that their life is slipping away, that the very essence of who they are is slipping away, and that they are slightly more than a vegatative lump, draining the rest of the suffering family. They know. They suffer. And so does everyone around them.
I'm disgusted. All those who have reviled and made sarcastic fun of 'the compassionate conservative' are showing their stripes to be just as petty, just as mean, and just as venomous. Sure, be angry at the fact that this bonehead did his damnedest to block AIDS funding... I am. Be pissed off that his economic policies were questionable at best... I am. Just don't be a fucking hypocrite.
All I can think of, finally, in hearing the cheers and self-congratulatory pats on the back from the hypocrites around me is my mother, telling of her horror and disgust at her extremely racist, redneck father's comment on hearing that Martin Luther King Jr, had been assassinated: "Thank God someone got the son of a bitch."
To those cheering this event: You're no better, no matter what high-horse you may think you're on.
So the circus begins... but not the one outlined above. No, I'm talking about the venom, the ire, and the downright disgusting bile from the little people that can't take a minute to realize... someone died. A father, a grandfather, a husband, a brother, a son. Someone who suffered many years from a disease that, frankly, I'm terrified of. I lost three elderly relatives to Alzheimer's, and anyone who says "oh, they don't know that they suffer" doesn't have the first clue what they're talking about. They suffer, in those moments of lucidity when they know that their life is slipping away, that the very essence of who they are is slipping away, and that they are slightly more than a vegatative lump, draining the rest of the suffering family. They know. They suffer. And so does everyone around them.
I'm disgusted. All those who have reviled and made sarcastic fun of 'the compassionate conservative' are showing their stripes to be just as petty, just as mean, and just as venomous. Sure, be angry at the fact that this bonehead did his damnedest to block AIDS funding... I am. Be pissed off that his economic policies were questionable at best... I am. Just don't be a fucking hypocrite.
All I can think of, finally, in hearing the cheers and self-congratulatory pats on the back from the hypocrites around me is my mother, telling of her horror and disgust at her extremely racist, redneck father's comment on hearing that Martin Luther King Jr, had been assassinated: "Thank God someone got the son of a bitch."
To those cheering this event: You're no better, no matter what high-horse you may think you're on.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Thank you.
Date: 2004-06-07 02:22 am (UTC)