It's Elaine again. Still with you while Rebecca's on vacation.
Thanks to everyone who's written and thanks to C.I. for forwarding the e-mails. (I don't have Rebecca's password so if you need to write me, please write care of common_ills@yahoo.com and C.I. will forward it to me.)
A few of the e-mails coming in have asked for personal details which I'm really not comfortable doing. But some ask why the posts go up in the evening? That's a valid question. I work during the day and I also help out a local college group. I think Rebecca's noted here that I'm a psychologist so I'm fine putting that out there. That's why you may hear me use words like "clinical." I try to catch that when I can and I try not to turn this into some sort of debate on various strands of therapy.
A lot of the e-mails ask how Rebecca, C.I. and I all met. Actually, I know C.I. from my brother.
I'm not sure if I met Rebecca before C.I. or around the same time. But they were my two closest friends and you know how that goes, you introduce friends to each other and hope they hit it off. They did hit it off but they're much closer these days.
And if you've been in that situation before, you know it can feel a little odd because you go from being the mediator bringing two people together to filling left out. And there have been times when I honestly did feel that way. Rebecca is always on the phone. It's nothing to get three to four calls from her a day. Fortunately, they're quick calls or I'd be on the phone all day too. But once she started blogging, it stopped being her asking me how C.I. was to her telling me how C.I. was. And that was a little weird at first.
I got over it but I really understand it now because, like Rebecca, I'm calling C.I. several times a day and floating ideas. I've also gotten to know Kat and Mike pretty well while I've been subbing. Mike wrote this really supportive e-mail after my first attempt at substituting went up and included his phone number. So we've spoken a great deal and exchanged ideas. With Kat, we've talked about the two albums she's been reviewing and I've asked her for tips on how to say something effectively because I really think she captures each album she reviews in a way that you grasp immediately what the album has to offer or doesn't have to offer.
(And let me link to Mike's favorite post by Rebecca because he was talking about this yesterday and I forgot to do it then.)
And let me thank C.I. Our friendship predates blogging, predates the internet and we're always e-mailing or calling so I didn't think twice about ringing to say, "Okay, I told Rebecca I'd do this but I'm in way over my head."
C.I. and I talked about the "moderates" who condemned Jane Fonda this week. (This was an on the record talk.) It's interesting that they feel they know so much as they trash her for her Christianity or make jokes that maybe Ted Kennedy can drive the bus. All the while claiming not to be Republicans. They're disgusting.
They're too scared (or stupid) to do anything themselves, so they want to trash her. And they somehow missed that she's not doing the tour alone.
They claim she's doing it to promote her book. The book already spent three weeks at number one, "moderates," it's a hit. C.I. pointed out that she could be sitting her butt the way so many others are but instead she's putting herself out there. While whiney little moderates (who link to the Drudge Report, no less) do nothing.
When we were in Boston on election night, or when we were at the inauguration protesting, or when we go around speaking out against the war, C.I. and I do stuff. But these "moderates" stay safe in their own comfort zone.
People are dying and Jane Fonda's putting herself out there to speak out. She knows that the right will attack her. It's interesting to see that the "moderates" will as well. But they need a Fonda to prove how "reasonable" they are.
They're ahistorical idiots. The fright wingers at least have the excuse that they've suckeled so long from the fright wing that they have no idea what reality is. The moderates have only deluded themselves. They have only themselves to blame.
They can't speak out against the war because there's no belief that they won't sell out to appear "moderate." Or maybe they just have no beliefs?
They're disgusting. Clinically, they're something's very self-hating when they claim "Democrat" and link to The Drudge Report. Every link adds to that idiot's visibility. Some even link to the Free Republic.
And they want to question Jane Fonda's motives?
They're fake and they see others as fake because they can only see themselves in others.
Usually, those types are stunted early on in their adolescence. I find it much easier to treat someone suffering from a trauma than to try to reach these types in my practice.
They need a Fonda or a Dixie Chicks or a Susan Sarandon (they need them, really need them, to be women) so that they can say, "See, I'm not one of those lefties!" No, and you're not a righty.
You're just a nothing going through life doing nothing and accomplishing nothing.
While the Fondas, Howard Zinns and others inspire, the "moderates" have about as much to offer the world as Cokie Roberts as they teeter on the fence, never able to committ to anything. It's honestly sad.
"Peace Quotes" (Peace Center)
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Bishop Desmond Tutu
