Creeping Socialism, oh my!

Printed in the Durango Telegraph May 21st, 2009.
It was inspired by another irrational right wing letter to the editor.



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right wing fear mongering - socialism, etc.

Dear Editor,
The sky is falling, the sky is falling! It’s creeping socialism, oh my!

It’s incredible hearing the right wing rant against “socialism.” If we can for a moment keep the lies of Hitler, Leninist Communism and all that misleading stuff out of it, let’s consider socialism.


Do you go to church and consider yourself a Christian? Well, what about that church community you’re proud of? Let’s see, theoretically parishioners possess a special sense of community, caring about one another, even lending a hand to help others. Don’t look now - but, that’s “socialism.” In fact, the person Christian’s put upon God’s pedestal, namely Jesus, is arguably the greatest socialist that ever lived.

Do you believe in family values? You know, real family values like the one’s exemplified by Mexican families far better than the white middle/upper class’s fractured echo of what once was? You know, where everyone cares about their brothers/sisters along with cousins and aunts/uncles including the old & sick folks. Don’t look now - but, that’s socialism.

>>> Admittedly, governments have done horrible things using “Socialism” as a propaganda shield, but that does not make a lie out of the fact that we are social creatures! We depend upon one another and the better we figure out how to cooperate ~ while recognizing differences ~ the better off everyone... everything would be.

While the right wing waves “FreeMarket” at us - what does Reaganomics actually have to show for itself? That is, beyond a few extremely powerful, wealthy folks who believe the world is their stage. Under Reaganomics the gap between rich and poor has grown to obscene levels. Even our middle class is discovering that they were only being conned by that great “Greed is Good” mantra.

Our world has been saturated with weaponry and hatred to the point that we have reverted to a planet of countless, endless wars... of course, with their accompanying profits for the masters of industry & finance.

Our planet’s “environment” which right wingers continue to hold in the utmost loud mouthed contempt ~ even though it is undeniably Earth’s life support system ~ is a tattered, and aged before her day, remnant of what the great explorers discovered barely two centuries ago.

Yet, we refuse to look at what that degradated biosphere means for our children's future, instead pretending the economy runs purely on buying, trading and financial voodoo.

All the while, the mounting, foreseeable challenges our children will be facing continue to be ignored in favor of wasting our precious time with imbecilic ideological battles, rather than rationally looking at this new world we are creating out of our own collective avarice.

Tragically, the only solution right wingers seem to offer is: buy more guns and ammo.

Like the song asked so long ago: When will they ever learn?