It keeps coming in waves.
Campus police pepper spray a group of students sitting on the ground linked arm in arm. Newt Gingrich arrogantly tells a forum, at which he was the guest speaker, that the OWS protesters have no right to protest and should take a bath and get a job as if the issues we face today were that easily solved. Then last night on the news, in an effort to distinguish the current OWS protesters from those who protested against the Vietnam War 30+ years ago said, “This group (meaning OWS protesters) are not just a bunch of dirty hippies.” I was offended. There were, I am sure, some hippies in the late 60’s and early 70’s who needed a bath, but all those whom I knew who protested against the Vietnam War were thoughtful, compassionate, intelligent and, many of them, faithful people.
A thoughtful discussion is desperately needed, but in this highly charged, highly partisan, disgustingly dysfunctional political climate in which we live the chances of that happening are nil which, I am afraid, will only ratchet up the tension and the chances for violence. All we can do, it seems, is point fingers at each other.
I was not planning on writing about this again today, but this article by Arianna Huffington pulled thoughts and feelings that I had pushed aside back to center stage. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to return to my original plan and take a few moments to think and to write about Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent which, once again, quietly push their way into this crazy and wonderful world in which we live.
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