The Bullets of the False Revenge

This week saw the premiere of the Phil Ochs documentary, There But For Fortune. Due to winter conditions and lingering colds, my husband and I were unable to make it to IFC in New York City to view the film. I loved Phil Ochs when I was young and I still do. To me, he was the most relevant voice of his time. To Billy Bragg, he was everything that Bob Dylan should have been.

One of his songs was written after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and it begins with the words, "Oh the bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again.." and they have.

What happened in Tucson is not a surprise. I have been to Arizona twice and it is a state that oozes hate and hatred in every breath and breeze that covers it. The present governor of the state has allowed people who were approved for transplants to die because it wasn't in the budget. I guess the Republicans have begun their own death panels.

The young man who rushed to aid Congresswoman Gifford was Hispanic, Daniel Hernandez. I wonder if the governor wants to see his papers and does she already deem him to be illegal because his skin coloring is a bit darker than hers.

The right wing immediately started their cacophony, especially that drug addict, Limbaugh, that none of this was their fault. And yes, we have had our share of fanatics in our history but we have never had radio, internet sites or television networks that broadcast hate everyday, every hour, every minute, 24/7. In whatever co-universe there is, George Orwell must be following all of this with great interest or, perhaps, he already knows the outcome.

And never have we had a more misinformed electorate that believes every note of hate that screeches into their ears. On the same note, we have never have had a Black President and the one thing that no one seems to desire to admit is that rascism is as part of our DNA as apple pie.

I want the right wing extremists to name one president in recent history who has reached out so many times to the opposition party with greater civility and been as rebuffed in so many ways and times as President Obama. He was called a liar during the State of the Union message. The Republicans did not honor a meeting with him at the White House because it was a conflict in their schedules. And the minority leader of the Senate has only one goal and that it is make certain that the President is not re-elected in 2012. All the problems this nation faces and his one stupid objective is an election.

From Virginia, where the Attorney General, wishes to re-introduce nullification (as if that act of treason had ever gone away) to Texas, where the governor keeps babbling about secession (well, you have my permission to go), we have the South preparing to honor the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. They are saying it is to honor their culture (slavery?) but I call it treason.

And this brings us to what 2011 really is.

The death of the child in Tucson is an omen. She was born, almost ten years ago, on September 11th. We had the opportunity to make something remarkable out of that tragedy, something that had never previously happened in history. We could have shown the world our greatness by responding with good and not evil. Instead the death of all those innocent people was used as an excuse to engage in two wars, one for oil, and the other one, for undetermined reasons, which shall never be over and will bankrupt this nation, both spiritually and economically.

Violence breeds violence and hate breeds hatred.

I live in a small town and have seen old people standing at the post office, (federal government property, incidentally) with pictures of the President, in white face and with swastikas on his sleeves. When I called the local police and told them that such a situation might cause trouble, they took no notice and did nothing about it although the hate mongerers had no business being on federal property.

It is almost ten years since that day and we are not a better nation. We are as divided now as we were in 1860 and the weapons of hatred that we have at our disposal are far more powerful.

We do not debate. We scream. We do not discuss. We lie and twist history. We have taken words, like compromise and civility, and made them into profanities. We refuse to learn anything from the past and we have no thought for the future. The present has deteriorated into the worst form of capitalism: survival of the fittest.

There was a time, once, in this country when we believed in equality and tried to bring it where it did not exist, that is, in our own country. We thought that we could all stand together under a banner, a big banner, that simply stated "Americans".

We have lived through much violence and political assassinations. Like a dormant plague, the hate that causes this violence waits and waits and finds entry to destroy all that is good about us.

So this week the House of Representatives, out of a new found but temporary civility, will not introduce a bill to destroy Obamacare. I guess it can wait for a week. Perhaps, we can see the Speaker of the House shed a tear as he votes "Nay" on health care for the millions who do not have it. I have not seen his outrage or his tears for the innocent killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or Tucson.

Phil Ochs died of a broken heart. He knew that all that he believed in would never come to pass and with his death, an era passed.

The words and the music have remained, however, and the bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again.