ulitave

I've mostly remained quiet on Coretta Scott King's funeral, because I really didn't have much to say. She affected my life in some ways, not as much as she affected my sister's. I was deeply saddened by her passing, but not as much as I was by Betty Shabazz - I think I was more prepared for this. I didn't listen to the whole funeral, but I did listen to key points, like Clinton's speech and Lowery's speech.

blogs have the effect now that talk radio had back in my formative years. Like Rush Limbaugh or some others, perhaps only the loudest and most vituperative get heard. Or perhaps the very nature of the internet allows anyone with a computer to speak and be spoken to.

MyDD reported on a blog called RedState that was leading the funeral-bashing.  I read the deconstruction of the original post,  then I followed the link to the RedState post . I'll hold my comments until the end - I'm more intrested in this question: does this viewpoint represent a large section of the population? Splinter groups? Some fringe fifth-column? Is this the mainstream of conservative thought, in whole or in part?

Now the fine print -

I know we all feel strongly about these issues. The folks who read this are a fairly carefully chosen bunch. Some I'm just getting to know, and some I've known for what seems like my entire life. Some of my friends are rude, cantankerous, snarky, and [gasp] may not agree with you. At all. They may not agree with me. I don't associate with people who agree with me all the time. that doesn't mean I don't care about them, often quite deeply. And when you say "ulitave, how can you possibly care for someone who believes..." you'll be taking the first steps on the path I'm walking.

For the duration of this thread, I've turned on comment screening.

EDIT: most of us seem to have had our say, so I'm turning the screening off again. For me, I'd have to say that all personal and cultural considerations aside, Coretta Scott King was a political figure. She placed her political beliefs ahead of herself, her marriage, her grief, even the safety of her own children at times. I'm trying to imagine a ceremony honoring her that wouldn't be political and I can't. At best, I can imagine her immediate family in privacy, speaking to each other. For a public ceremony, mourning her as a public and political figure, as well as a woman and a mother, the conversation would have turned political no matter which president was in office.

Perhaps this was the breaking point for me. This may have been my straw. I will no longer commiserate with my friends and ask, "don't *they* see their hypocrisy? How can *they* say this now and have supported the GOP on Terry Schaivo? Why are *they* following the leaders like sheep?"

I don't believe in a "they" anymore. I don't believe in an "us vs. them" model, but I do believe that some radicals and fundamentalists believe that. I can't reach out to them. As we say, I don't negotiate with terrorists. I can have conversations with responsible, thinking people on all sides of issues and ask why are *you* supporting this or not? Why are *you* speaking or staying silent? And I have to ask myself all of those same questions. Fighting fire with fire doesn't work, but humans are made from 65% water.

I've noticed lately that I've been annoying the fuck out of people, especially on the issues of politics and race. Just about anything I've said on those subjects, whether it's been a thought-out argument or some tossed-off comment has pushed buttons. I thought about that last night. Why? Why is this happening? They're not different. Something must be different. I must be different. What's different about me?

Much has my adult life has been a search for love in one form or another. I can confidently say that search consumed me from my 20's until recently. It permeated my friendships, my art, my career, everything. Now that search is largely over. Not the search, but the obsession. I was obsessed with love.

Thanks in no small part to the efforts of my therapist, I've been able to put love in a relationship with other things I need: beauty, truth, art. I need to speak. I need to live life with the blinders off. I need to take more chances. All of this brings me back to pissing people off.

Journalists take heat all the time. They get accused of printing lies. I want to be accused of printing the truth. I'm not going to measure my artistic effectiveness by the number of people who throw things at me, but I have come to a few conclusions on why I write, why me, why now, and what I have to say.

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