I’m Sick of Their Voices

I want it to be over. I’m sick of their voices, the smears, the noise from the crowds, McCain’s air quotes that accompany his snarling sarcasm, Palin’s alien sentence structure, the planted, propaganda plumber, Biden’s buffoonery, and Obama’s “right war” in Afghanistan.

I want the subterfuge to end.

I want all of them to halt the gushing of unconditional allegiance to Israel. Say it ain’t so, Joe. Tell me you’re not a Zionist.

More than appalling is the McPalin demagoguery that’s a rallying cry for not just divisiveness but violence that encourages blockheads who yell, “He’s a nigger” when Palin disparages Obama.

I am tired of opening my e-mail and seeing requests for donations from Orrin Hatch with his photograph in the upper right. You see, I have a reaction to Hatch not unlike the body’s rejection of a donor organ. I’m being begged not only by Orrin but, also, by Rick Davis, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Kelsey Grammer. Grammer wrote that “the liberal elite arrogantly snicker about the unwashed masses in fly-over country and suburbia.” Chris Carr is thanking me–for what I don’t know

Huh? The “liberal elite?” Doesn’t he mean the ultraconservative elite–George Bush’s response to Katrina?

A friend told me she sent $2000 to Obama when McCain chose Palin.

I told her I contributed to the campaign of Independent Cindy Sheehan who’s running for congress in California’s 8th district If Sheehan could upset Nancy Pelosi, whose roots wrap around George Bush as tightly as Joe Lieberman is attached to John McCain and the other neocons, the electorate would see a real transformational leader who listens to the voice of the people.

And I just mailed my annual donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that tracks hate crimes and prosecutes those who commit them. The SPLC is known for its program of Teaching Tolerance, a lesson plan the McCain-Palin groupies gravely need.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are so desperate to win that their rallies should be quarantined for bigot contagion. When Palin demonizes Obama, her racist followers respond with “kill him” and “terrorist.” We have just seen an example of the kind of hatred inspired by Palin politics with the recent arrest of two Tennessee skinheads who were plotting the assassination of Barack Obama as the culmination of a killing spree that involved the beheading of African Americans.

Still more evidence of McPalin divisiveness is McCain’s response to Gayle Quinnell. When Quinnell sputtered that Obama’s an Arab, McCain said, “No, he’s a decent family man, citizen.” Certainly, every Arab and Arab American must have felt the dagger of McCain’s sentiment. And so should every human being.

Each time McCain and Palin preach, “Obama wants to spread the wealth,” the seething crowd screams, “Socialist.” Don’t these people realize that the bailout of Wall Street is socialism for the wealthy?

Add to this the poisonous Michele Bachmann, representing the 6th district of Minnesota. Bachmann labeled Obama “anti-American” and called for a “penetrating investigation of anti-Americans in Congress.” Minnesotans should not reward her with reelection.

Shouldn’t we celebrate our diversity? I know I have to accept that there are people who don’t like this melting pot–the mix that makes life so much more interesting and exciting for me. But I do not have to tolerate the rhetoric and outbursts that lead to acts of terror.

When I hear the cacophony at the McPalin rallies and the blaring prejudice, which is either ignored or encouraged by Sarah and John, I witness the very worst of mankind. I see the venom-filled ignoramuses who believe that a fertilized egg has more personhood than anyone who is not of white, European descent, as long as that egg is of white, European descent.

I am weary of war here at home. The rage of those who identify differences as something to destroy rather than embrace places all of us in peril.

I am yearning for a leader who’ll act in the best interest of humanity–someone who understands that the reversal of American imperialism is imperative. Because it is this ism that results in unbearable suffering to those we raid or invade and occupy and causes shame to those of us demanding peace and justice. I don’t want a McCain Doctrine that’s a continuation of the Bush Doctrine. A Palin Doctrine would be unfathomable, and I’d like to understand what the Obama Doctrine would be.

John McCain pledged a civilized campaign. But his behavior begs the question: Senator, if this is an example of your civility, what might we expect if you achieve the presidency, an unlikely outcome unless voter disenfranchisement and hacked punch-screen computers deliver you victory? Would you go Medieval on us? And on the rest of the world?

Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She’s written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she’s a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,’05, she has been writing political articles. She can be reached at: Missybeat@aol.com

 

 

 

 

Missy Beattie has written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. She was an instructor of memoirs writing at Johns Hopkins’ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in BaltimoreEmail: missybeat@gmail.com