The Problem With Mud
Originally posted by nikelbee
Please do not think I intentionally misread your point. It is a little hard to see it. Try unmasking next time. Armed in sarcasm just makes this into
an insult fest and I don't really want to have to pull the thesaurus out again. Besides it would be much better if we actually discussed whether or
not it was right for her to go shopping for shoes at a time of national crisis. Not whether you think I’m ----- insert word here.
You're right, and I'm sorry.
The problem with getting into a mud fight is that everyone gets covered in mud.
I could have made my point differently, but I didn't, and that was my mistake.
We're all upset by all this, and we all react to it in our own ways. I know quite well how ironic it is to point a finger at someone pointing
fingers.
I knew it when I first replied to this thread. My sarcasm was directed at the idea of someone sitting at a computer somewhere claiming the high moral
ground versus someone else who is simply trying to live her life without some self-appointed political pundit or another mendaciously applying their
own false interpretation to something that frankly isn't their damn business.
The problem with the mud being slung here is that it covers everyone who passes it along, from the woman who indignantly confronted Ms. Rice in the
shoe store -- the exact same store that same self-righteous woman had no problem shopping in while the Gulf Coast suffers, by the way -- to the gossip
columnist passing it along, to the other gossipers, precisely
none of whom are helping anyone by feeding this meme to the public.
What do I see in all this? A self-appointed panel of experts who sit in judgment of how other people should live their lives.
What are they offering in a time of need? Sanctimony. Vanity. False piety. Self-congratulation. Hypocrisy. And nothing,
nothing that helps
anyone anywhere, let alone the Gulf Coast.
Now here I am, covered with the same mud. And it's not clean mud-bath mud, but mud that is as fetid and noxious as the mud which has bubbled out of
the sewers of New Orleans.
Am I wrong to consider the slinging of this mud not only inappropriate, but disgraceful? Am I wrong to think that we the public should focus on the
jobs our public officials do, rather than demand that they
deliberately deceive us and put on some sort of cynical puppet show for the
cameras?
If that's wrong, I'm going to stay wrong, because there's no way in hell I can see what's going on here as right. What's being called for is
dishonesty and the implication is that once a person is elected or
appointed to public office, he or she forfeits the right to do anything in
public without some self-serving jackass or another making political hay out of it.
Screw that. I refuse to accept that, because it
is wrong, and I will not support it in any form.
Witness John Kerry's pathetic pandering to the cameras during his campaign, the staged photo ops, the banal, soulless lip service, the endless signs
that he couldn't be trusted. Bush did the same thing, so don't get me wrong, but when I voted, it was with the uneasy assurance that between these
two snake oil salesmen, he wasn't as good at lying to me as Kerry tried to be.
Why would I possibly want to encourage politicians to be even more dishonest than they already are? How will that improve the dismal state of American
politics?
What has anyone involved with this ridiculous and disgraceful episode of rumormongering contributed to the betterment of the world?
Not a damn thing. Just more evil in a time of evil.
We all deal with tragedy our own way, and I am helping my fellow Americans in my own way. Anyone who has a problem with that can go piss off, because
I'm not in the mood for it.
If I gave the impression I think I'm above all this, or think I'm better than anyone else indulging in this sort of shameful behavior, that's
incorrect. I'm not. But I've tried to get out of the habit, because I used to do it all the time.
Eventually, I grew out of it, but I can still slide back down into it again,
just as I did here. Mud this deep is soft and yielding and easy to
sink into, but hard to get out of as it sucks you in deeper with each step you take.
And that's what threads like this do. They don't do anything good, just add bad to what is already bad.
Knowing this as I do, I've said what I have to say.
Now if you'll please excuse me, I need to go wash my clothes and take a long shower.
Wow guys, come on. 
