Socio-Political Ghetto
July 28, 2002
Much of the most recent and recurrent insanity surrounds issues of perceived security, and how much privacy and control the sheep are willing to give up. While I have reasonably high hopes that the Orwellian (or, more to the point, fascistic) T.I.P.S. program will be kept from reality, the current administration continues to back it as a sensible move. The concept that it's okay to turn phone, cable and postal workers, to name three groups, into thought police for the new Office of Homeland Security because the agency says they won't keep a centralized database of the information is such blatant idiocy as to insult the intelligence of both those who espouse it and those asked to take this seriously. Saying that they'll just pass them along to the appropriate agencies (local law enforcement, FBI, etc.) and then dispose of it locally would be bad enough, but consider that while the administration is saying this out of one side of its mouth the other side is calling for this new Homeland Security office to be a coordination point for all of these agencies. I find it difficult, at best, to reconcile these two propositions.
Fortunately even the current, horribly Right-leaning House of Representatives (knowing that a good deal of their current base of support lies in keep-government-out-of-our-lives people who would be voting Libertarian if they could ever shrug off the brainwashing that there are only two viable parties) seems intent on keeping this plan buried, so I'll keep a wary eye on the fresh grave for signs of movement.
The idiocy over the right and proper (though quickly and spinelessly frozen for "review") removal of "under God" from the Pledege of Allegiance came up in late June, while matters more truly of life and death (see main entry for today) were on my mind, and temporarily made it almost impossible for me to listen to a newscast without feeling my blood pressure peak and the urge to yell at the radio grow. The shoe-horning in of that phrase in 1954, during the Red scare, was bad enough. Having it come up as an issue now only further underscored how much like the McCarthyist 1950's the current "War on Terrorism" era is. The race by both the Republicans and the Democrats to out-patriot each other by making public shows of the Pledge, and shoving the word "God" into as many speeches as they could manage, entered the realm of black comedy and has presented me with yet more reasons why I cannot vote for either of these parties in the future and retain any semblance of a clear conscience.
That same day the closely-divided U.S. Supreme Court came down in favor of school voucher programs, which are so hideously wrong as to almost defy description, which added to my having to make a decision in favor of my health by turning off the usual flow of news programming I listen to most days. Again, this is a huge, multi-faceted issue, but besides the very real danger it poses to the public school system it's another easement in the direction of funding for "faith-based initiatives." With private "magnet" schools being able to pick and choose their students, and most truly private, non-sectarian schools having tuitions that rival those of colleges, if the public schools are abandoned by the federal government what choices do the remaining parents have? Leave their kids in (figuratively if not literally) crumbling schools, home-school, or sending them to the local branch of Mother of the Holy Inquisition - where, I assure you - they do have an agenda aside from reading, writing and arithmetic.
On faith-based initiatives: They do marvelous work, in general, and are an obvious boon to many. However, to claim that they're not proseletyzing is ludicrous. If finding union with Jesus Christ is what it takes to get some people off drugs, alcohol and/or otherwise turn them into reasonably law-abiding, employable and employed taxpayers, well, then that's what it'll take. To federally fund such programs, though, and thereby gradually make them the "official" and eventually only free-to-the-public means of getting help in rehabilitation.
Such faith-based programs should be funded and otherwise supported by the faithful and those who have benefited from those programs.
Before leaving this topic - and mercifully closing this section entirely for now - I want to mention one more, related item: Some months ago I read of a program in some state whereby prisoners were had an option that could put them on a fast track to work release programs and more favorable parole hearings. Even a casual look into the program demonstrated that prayer sessions and biblical/salvation rhetoric were integral to the program. To say that I was appalled would be to put it mildly. The only way that could have made it more offensive would have been to offer time off the sentence of prisoners who agreed to have lobotomies.
I could - and probably will in time - track down the details to this program online, but if anyone is familiar with it and can either give me some or the specifics (which state was involved, and what the program was called - they generally give these programs euphemistic acronyms) I would appreciate it if you'd refresh my memory. Thanks for that, and otherwise thanks for taking the time to read this.