Saturday, August 02, 2008

Room for Discussion about the "Anti-American" American question

There's plenty of discussion about anti-Americanism in the blogosphere, but all the discussions seem to have one thing in common.

There's little room for discussion and the only criteria for cries of anti-Americanism from either camp seems to be the initial, "if you don't agree with my philosophy about how to reach agreed upon goals, then you are anti-American."

If I'm a right winger, the lefties are anti-American.

If I'm a left winger, the righties are anti-American.

Truth be known, either camp, if accused of being anti-American would take grave offense at the charge. You see, my view of the best way to accomplish the "best" for America is probably different than the next guy's view. We all have opinions about what is best, what national policies are good, bad, or which we are indifferent about, and there's usually some good, somewhere, in everyone's philosophy.

America IS a melting pot and was at its inception (and no, this isn't about immigration, I happen to support LEGAL immigration.)

But, I just wanted to say to anyone reading this blog on this fine Saturday morning that I respect your opinions. I might vehemently disagree with your approach and might hope that any given election will put in place candidates and office holders who more closely agree with my views of what makes America the best country on the planet, but I like that people who disagree with me are out there.

You know the old adage, life would be pretty boring if everyone was just like me? Of course, since *I* am so fascinating, beautiful and multi-talented I don't think that applies to me, personally, but as for the rest of you.........

;)

Comments?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

boiling the stances and philosophies at UMX down to "left wing" really actually only reveals the superficiality of the reading that has been done of the writing. but okay. granted, on the "left" with most positions taken.

the point (the indisputable point) is that discouraging American citizens from exercising their votes in a politicized attempt to discourage what DHS imagines will be Democratic votes is not only stupid, as it will continue to drive the wedge between Latinos and the Republican party deeper, but it is, yes it is, "Anti American" in the sense that citizens exercising voting power is a great privilege, and as the post stated, theoretically one of the most American. Just as suppressing "the detroit vote" with the intent of purging Democrats is unAmerican. Just as if you were to discourage an American citizen from speaking their mind because you didn't like what they had to say, you would be, in essence, advocating an Anti-American agenda, as Free Speech is one of the rights most enshrined in the laws that make us "Americans." hope that clears it up.

Jackie Melton said...

What was it supposed to "clear up," exactly?

Geez, the things people allege these days!

It is my privelege to be the primary proprietor of this blog. In the entry to which you replied, I made the point I intended to make. Clearly you didn't understand MY point and decided to make an effort to hi-jack my post with a point of your own.

Isn't that special?

tom said...

it's the American way. We don't read what is written in the text of how it was written or in a neutral manner. We must take our political persuasion and inject our own political correctness into the story then reply to that as if the author clearly was missing the point of their own posting.

Busplunge said...

"You know the old adage, life would be pretty boring if everyone was just like me? Of course, since *I* am so fascinating, beautiful and multi-talented I don't think that applies to me, personally, but as for the rest of you........"

Oh, Jackehammer, Enough of this talk about me, let's talk about you. What do you think of my new shirt?

Józef Jan Hughes said...

Looks to me as though Nezua didn't appreciate being lumped into the same category as O'Reilly - which I can certainly understand. But I have to admit that (sympathize as I might with his view on voter suppression efforts) he missed the point of your post by a margin that would have done O'Reilly justice.

Momma Twoop said...

nezua said....

"the point (the indisputable point) is that discouraging American citizens from exercising their votes in a politicized....."Anti American" in the sense that citizens exercising voting power is a great privilege,...."

Nezua, in the context of the Unapologetic Mexican's blogpost referenced here and your comments, it seems prudent to point out that CITIZENS aren't being prevented from exercising their rights by DHS or ICE. The Unapologetic Mexican and yourself seem to take offense because Santa Clara and other city officials were forced to cease the policy of handing out voter registration cards to people who HAD NOT YET BECOME CITIZENS and then helping those non-citizens fill in the cards. The policy was changed. Now, new American citizens are given voter registration cards IMMEDIATELY AFTER becoming citizens, as it should be. This completely shreds the claims of "DHS discouraging American citizens from exercising their votes."

Why this policy, which isn't harming anyone in the least, angers anyone is beyond me.

The only reason a wedge would/could be driven between Latinos and Republicans over this issue is because people like you and Unapologetic Mexican help to put it there.

Momma Twoop said...

Jackie said:
"It is my privelege to be the primary proprietor of this blog. In the entry to which you replied, I made the point I intended to make. Clearly you didn't understand MY point and decided to make an effort to hi-jack my post with a point of your own"

Oooops. I took the bait. I'm so ashamed of myself - I aided and abetted this hijacking attempt without so much as a single glance to the proprietor! I feel dirty.

Even more disgusting is that being that bad felt OH SO GOOD. heh heh

Love ya, Jackie!

I'll try to be good now.

Momma Twoop said...

Wow! You have a thingy to subscribe to the comments now? I did not know that. That's nifty, Jackie.

Jackie Melton said...

You're even good when you're bad, Twoop.

And - as co-proprietor you can say anything on any topic you want.

:)

I love YOU too.

Anonymous said...

I have the free will and freedom of choice to decide which camp I want to pitch a tent in. I think that it is a beautiful thing, a very American thing to have this sort of Cognitive Dissonance in all things. It requires the following of critical thinking, research, questioning, building up and breaking down, philosophizing, listening, speaking and interacting. I sometimes think that things can swing (gasp) too far left OR too far right and the political system has a way of trying to balance those two opposing forces out. It is when we get people involved in the decisions, in the melting pot, that we come up with ideas that seem anti-American, swayed, misunderstood, offensive...and then we are left with bitter diatribes to write and wars to wage. I'm not saying a fight is a bad thing, either....all the time. But I do believe there is a time and place for everything. I also believe that America has the freedom to keep our interests vested first in the people of America....in setting our citizens up for success, not failure. I suppose the thing I love most about America is the commonality of freedom of thought. The ability to make decisions based morally and that those with no shred of morality can endure the Unintended Consequences of their immoral actions. Though, I will say, on the whole, I find people to be so busy living that they rarely have the time to think on such prinicples of right versus wrong....and that for the most part, people TRY to live right.
Again, not always the case, but I am trying to be an optimist and to understand more fully and appreciate my total Freedom as an American.......that which is the farthest from anti-Americanism.