Writing From "The Lunatic Fringe"

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_timothy__070624_writing_from__22the_lu.htm

Writing From "The Lunatic Fringe"

by Timothy V. Gatto


snip//

Am I a member of the “radical left” because I want our country out of a war that we should have never started? Am I a member of the “radical left” because I believe in universal health care? Does being pro-choice make me a member of the “radical left”? How about wanting real and concrete answers on why all of those Federal Attorneys got fired? I guess being a little pissed off about the Patriot Act, The Insurrection Act, The Military Commissions Act of 2006 that strips away Habeas Corpus, and the end run around the FISA Court with electronic eavesdropping on American Citizens, makes me a far left wacko too?

To tell you the truth, if this kind of thinking makes me a far left fringe member than I guess that’s exactly what I am in the eyes of people that really don’t care about these things. I know that the “news-people” on CBS and NBC and FOX along with all the other so called “news-people” must not care about these things because they never mention them. I don’t hear Wolf Blitzer or Bob Scheiffer or anyone else except Keith Olbermann bringing these things up on a regular basis. I think I would have a heart attack if I heard someone like Glenn Beck bring up a question on why we need to curtail American citizen’s rights to fight a so-called “War on Terrorism”. Glenn Beck as a matter of fact, is the most obnoxious example of an empty headed political pundit that I have ever seen. Is that what I’m supposed to resemble so that I won’t be called a member of the “lunatic fringe”?

That’s another label that the right and their lackeys drop on us, “The Lunatic Fringe”. Are we really so crazy when we wanted to know who exposed Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent? Are we lunatics because we believe we are fighting this war in Iraq for Bush and his oil connections? I don’t believe that these are observations made by lunatics. So far this man we call our President has lied and has hidden facts while bringing us to war for no clear reason, and is now doing his level best to bring us into another war, this time with Iran. Am I a lunatic because I don’t believe we have the moral authority to go to war with Iran?

I also believe in the Constitution of the United States. Does that make me a far-left wacko? I believe that unless we declare war on another country we have no right, according to our own laws, to be fighting in another country for five years. I guess this makes me a “radical”. I guess believing in the Bill of Rights does too. I guess anyone with my background could be looked at with suspicion. I did belong to a group that carried weapons and shot at people for 21 years. It is true that people that served in the military are looked at very strangely. Sure they give you all of these “benefits”, and even have a special day for veterans, but in the long run, not very many people actually like us.

So I have decided that the mainstream media of this country has fallen to the very bottom of journalistic integrity. To call people that don’t agree with our government “far left radicals” and the “lunatic fringe” brings to mind the novels 1984 and “Brave New World”. The media I believe, has actually become the tool of the war making cult that permeates our society and they truly cannot be trusted. All of my life I have wanted to be a journalist, so when I got out of the military, this has been my chosen path. I know this now; that the mainstream media, even though they pay the most money and get the most exposure, is not the place where I want to write.

I would rather write for nothing than to write for the organizations that will never ask the hard questions or report on the news that people want to know about. In the last five years every citizen in our nation has lost precious rights to a far right group of elitists that want to rule by decree. They have allowed this to happen with hardly a whimper coming out of our so-called “fourth estate”. They should be ashamed to call themselves journalists. If that makes me a far-left wacko on the lunatic fringe, so be it, at least I’ll be with good company.

[DamnYank]

1. Count me in, too

The "radical left" is anyone who refuses to fall into lockstep with Der Bushler.

[OHdem10]

2. Right ON Point. Yay------

The Media is so confused and lazy. They do not know
Green Pary Member from A Lefty from CenterLeft Dem
from a Little Left of Center Dem.

It is easier to throw us all in a barrel and genuflect
to the RWers and call us all Far Left.