Liberal Crap

I saw Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. on The Daily Show two nights ago, and I'm still mulling it over in my head. He moves more slowly now than in the few television appearances I've seen him in before, but, as Jon Stewart observed sarcastically, he hasn't lost his edge.
One thing that I really have to respect him for is being willing to criticize anyone, regardless of his or her relative stance on an issue. That is, for example, the left, which is definitely the direction in which Vonnegut leans. He went on the Daily Show on Tuesday with a list he titled "Liberal Crap I Don't Want to Hear Again." There wasn't time on the show for him to read it, but Stewart assured him it would be published on the web site. Here it is:

Give us this day our daily bread. Oh sure.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those wh[o] trespass against us.
Nobody better trespass against me. I'll tell you that.

Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are the merciful. You mean we can't use torture?

Blessed are the peacemakers. Jane Fonda?

Love your enemies - Arabs?

Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. The hell I can't! Look at the Reverand Pat Robertson. And He is as happy as a pig in s**t.

I'm not saying I endorse everything the man is saying here, but Voneegut is giving a good example by speaking up when he sees something he doesn't agree with. If more people had thought the way he does after September 11, 2001 and been willing to openly criticize the way the Powers That Be handled, well, everything, maybe our country wouldn't be the mess it is now. And maybe President Bush wouldn't have been reelected. Maybe...maybe...maybe...

United We Stand is a nice concept in theory, but it sucks in practice. That kind of solidarity has to come from within; you can't slap it on a bunch of bumper stickers and expect it to come true. It seems to me that not everyone who still has those three words adhered to an SUV really understands what they're saying. One of the most ironic examples of stupidity I've ever seen appeared outside a dorm back in March of 2003, just as Bush was declaring war on Iraq. Some of the more liberal-minded students on campus had established a tent village on a lawn close to the dorm, complete with signs protesting the war. The sign that some of the dorm's residents posted in response to the protest read, "Our forefathers died to protect your free speech. Stop disrespecting them." The irony, of course, is that the tent villagers were actually honoring 'our forefathers' (why aren't there ever any 'foremothers'?), according to the dorm residents' line of thinking, at least, by exercising the free speech that so much was sacrificed for. The posters of the sign outside the dorm were technically disrespecting their 'forefathers' (the dorm's occupancy was completely male, by the way) by criticizing those who were exercising free speech.

My point, in this tangent-ridden post, is that free speech is good. And more people should take a cue from KVJ, 'cause he's great.