January 14, 2011 9:23 AM
Obama's Tucson campaign kick-off - for shame!!
I've been thinking more about this since yesterday - I think I was actually in a state of shock after watching the Tuscon "memorial service" - at what a terrible injustice was done to the shooting victims and their families and to the American people.
Like most people my age (62), I've seen a lot of American tragedies and many official public responses - as well as the demeanor of more than a few American presidents assuming the mantle of responsibility to lead the country in mourning and hope.
Had I been a family member of any of the Tucson victims, I would be grieved by having to attend a national event designed not to honor my loved one, but to serve certain political ends. Specifically, this event was designed to play up the President (his "Oklahoma City moment"), to kick off his 2012 presidential campaign, to press forth an agenda, to propagandize the masses, and to introduce a secular state religion.
Why was this "memorial" held not at a church but at the University of Arizona, stacked with whooping and hollering students, presided over by the ridiculously star-struck college president who behaved as though he were lobbying for a position in Obama's never-ending campaign?
Why was there no dignity? Why the branding - the event title and free T-shirts? Why did Michelle dress like she was going to a garden party (Not that she's ever paid much attention to what might be expected of a First Lady)? And when will she learn how to cross her legs properly?
Why was not a single member of the clergy invited to speak or pray? As far as I know, the victims were all Christian or Jewish. Why was a man invited to give the "blessing" who first regaled us with his Mexican heritage, then informed us that though not a medicine man he'd received permission to render unto us other lay people a Yaqui blessing (for those of a certain age, perhaps the name Carlos Castaneda will ring some counterculture bells).
[In a strange twist, this guy later claimed to be Catholic.]
Why was scripture read not by ministers or rabbis, but by the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Naplitano (Isaiah 40) and US Attorney General Eric Holder (2 Corin 4:13-18)? Seeing these two Separation-of-State stalwarts reading from the Bible was Kafka-esque, to say the least. Why no hue and cry from our increasingly clamorous atheist sector?
Obama's speech was 35 minutes long (as compared to Bush's 6-minute VT Memorial speech and Clinton's 9-minute Oklahoma Memorial speech). The White House has boasted that Obama's speech was interrupted by applause 53 times. Why? Why would he encourage that kind of adulation - and encourage it he did. When he announced that Giffords had opened her eyes, he responded to the applause by repeating it three times (for a total of four applause lines) - each time ratcheting up his voice to sound like - who? Martin Luther King? Moses? Clearly, he was hoping for - and duly received gilt-by-association (and I do mean that pun) because it happened shortly after he left the room.
The speech had been carefully crafted to position the president and his party as the party of civil discourse - even though for the past four days they and their media attack dogs had been conducting a public lynching of Palin - a swell of hate-mongering they continued the next morning, shooting the level of Palin death threats to the highest level ever.
Had Obama admitted his own fault in vitriolic attacks on his "enemies" (his name for political opponents) - had he publicly repented and promised to do better - he could have led the country in a noble direction. Instead, it was more of the same division, Us vs. Them - no matter how subtle.
Make no mistake. This is an administration eager to seize any opportunity to press forth its relentless agenda. Tucson presents an opportunity to take some more whacks at the First and Second Amendments. It's an opportunity - with the help of the Propaganda Press - to recast the results of November 2, to discredit conservatives and the intentions of the majority of Americans.
It also was another opportunity to undermine any still-lingering national pride in the citizenry. Unlike Sarah Palin's much-castigated video America's Enduring Strength, which emphasized - a la Reagan - pride in our country, hope in the future, Obama preached his usual gospel of our country falling short, still needing his help to reach its true potential.
And finally, it was also a great opportunity to further jettison America's traditional dignity and decorum, offering us instead a dumbed-down and secularized pep rally which instead of honoring the fallen, honored our Campaigner-in-Chief.
And we are supposed to be cowed into being "nice" or we're blamed for hatred. I don't know about you, but I refuse to be labeled or inhibited by what those who faithfully follow their talking points have to say about conservatives.
Conservatism is still ascending - that's why they're so afraid, so calculating, so desperate to exploit anything they can to pretend they are still in charge. But guess what? We're not going along with the program and we're not going to sit down and shut up.
Like the little boy in the fable The Emperor's New Clothes, we are not going to pretend that Wednesday night was a memorial service. It was a cold and calculated pep rally and those who dishonored the dead should be ashamed.
Further reading:
PJ Tatler - Richard Pollock on religious secularism
Michelle Malkin's Liveblogging of Tucson "memorial"
Posted in 2012 elections, Liberal Hypocrisy, Media Bias, Obama Nation, Tucson Shooting | Permalink
Comments
Thank you for posting this Barbara. You continue to be a voice of common sense. The whole time I was watching, I kept thinking is this a memorial or a pep rally? I felt so sorry for the families of the victims.
Posted by: Jill | January 14, 2011 12:54 PM
I was horrified by what I saw. I thought about how I wouldn't want to be there and how I would speak out if it was my loved one but...the grief would be very hard.
Posted by: Sue from Buffalo | January 14, 2011 2:33 PM
Thank you so much for your post. My husband and I watched the opening of the service but refused to watch anymore when the audience applauded the opening music. I have never been to a memorial service where applause took place. My heart goes out to these families who have been caught up in the middle of a political pep rally. Shame on the administration for taking advantage of the grief of these families.
Posted by: Susan | January 14, 2011 7:50 PM
