Puffin’s Place

There is not much hopeful or good that can be said about the right wingers in the U.S. They are without vision, without humanity, without ethics, without a sense of history, without an interest in the present and the future, and wholly absorbed by themselves, their own wallets and tight-assed convictions, and frightened to death of any one or any thing or idea that reflects joy, determination, responsibility, and concern.

The pathetic hash-slinger in Temple Georgia who greets patrons at the front door with a sign calling President Obama’s health care plan “nigger” rigged is repulsive and startling. It does, however, make manifest the paucity of taste, thought, and humanity of what so many now call wingnuts. Between the rampant racism that Obama’s election has unleashed, a racism orchestrated by some very intentional, clever, and loathsome public figures, and the violent underpinnings by much of the right’s actions and speech, a US citizen can no longer pretend the situation is not threatening. And revolting.

If the reasonable people in this country—those who turn away from politics or trash all politicians fretfully or nod off over local gossip on the assumption that a single moron in Georgia is not the world—the US will become a nightmare for any of us not out to destroy someone else. It IS possible for the nasty and the vile to consume the good and well-intentioned.

Just look the other way and see what will happen.