Where Is The
Outrage?
Original op-ed (in blue)
published in Wall Street Journal 080808)
A Libertarian Reply To A Conservative View (libertarian
response in brown)
Ed note: What is
painfully obvious is that a dangerous divide has been nurtured
in this country. The right is more often than not these days
hard pressed to not police itself beyond party lines and talking
points (see David Vitter), while the left appears more apt to be
objective to a greater degree, in most instances. (see Elliot
Spitzer ) We need to find truth among common ground or we are
doomed as a nation. We're Americans First Folks. This
political discourse has to be moderated or we will kill
ourselves from within. It would seem that is what some group
wants from us all. Remember the civil war?
This letter
was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa
Wilson, Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills , CA . in response to the Wall
Street Journal article titled "Where's The Outrage?" that
appeared July 31,2008.
Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is
here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class
woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no
voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am
I?
I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire
political movement.
I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the
attention of the press to promote political candidates.
I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can
deliver misleading movies to the public.
No, you
are a human resources consultant who has earned her way into
Beverly Hills by cannibalizing the manufacturing base of this
nation and adding your finger prints to the greatest financial
debacle since the Great Depression.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/946/551
The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I
don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to
effect change.
Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United
States of America , is in a state of moral and ethical decline.
There is no right or
wrong anymore, just what's fair.
Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and
borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by
the government and lending institutions to stave off
foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the
consequences for their poor judgment?
No, what is not fair is the incessant onslaught of junk
mail,
telemarketing, TV and radio commercials, financial networks,
magazine articles, news features, cable TV, and talk radio
propaganda. So that when those of us with relative common sense
balked at any of these obvious scams, we were met with a tsunami
of irrational "popular myth" and summarily marginalized by those
whose ignorance was consistently being validated by people like
you, who personally profited from it!
When my
husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase
only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger,
much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But,
taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with
the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not
afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died
in our country.
Yet, I notice that you are not a proud resident of Compton or
Watts where the wheel of property owners has spun so many times
within the past 30 years that the average slum-lord is now in
debt for his dilapidated property as much as you would have paid
for your Beverly Hills digs before this all started.
(And how many of these deregulated concepts did
you
support?)
I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an
immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and
her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with
illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal
immigrants.
And if she were still alive today, would likely be ashamed that
what you write resembles so much of what she once escaped!
I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here
illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in
such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to
private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you
want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call
the bank, the phone company , or similar business, I hear "press
1 for English or press 2 for Spanish". WHY? This is America ,
our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or
multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those
who cannot communicate in English.
See paragraph above. Otherwise, riddle-me-this; When has any
part of Beverly Hills, ever been any part of the L.A. public
school district?
I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new
threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week,
Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have
Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I
missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working
at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee. The last I checked, Tennessee
is still part of the United States. If Muslims want to live and
work here they should be required to live and work by our
American Laws and not impose their will on our long history.
I guess that "Freedom of Religion" only applies if it's the
religion that you dictate. On this, I kind of agree. But, let's
not stop with Eid-al-Fitr. Why not Easter or Christmas, since
archeologists and astronomers agree that these events,
(if they did actually happen)
occurred at different times of the solar year than when they are
celebrated. Better yet, Columbus Day! Since world history
(except for that, written strictly for American consumption),
and now archeological evidence has disproved that myth, and
shown it to be an out-right lie. Why not celebrate "Erik the Red
Day" ??? Since there is ample physical evidence of his presence
on various parts of the Eastern Seaboard of the North American
Continent some 500 years before Columbus?
In the same week, Random House announced that they had
indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by
Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha
due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we
become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups
want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather
than stand proudly on the principles that built this country.
Look how long it took anyone to publish "The 27th Wife", by
Irving Wallace. A book on the life of Ann Eliza Webb-Young.
Technically the 19th wife of Brigham Young. But the one who
openly divorced him for the fraud and evil man that he truly
was!
I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a
political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly
what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published
recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years
of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue
to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue
to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to
detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear
program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews
- one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end?
It is obvious that foreign policy is not what your doctorate is
in !!! NO ONE has mentioned anything about "Appeasing" Iran by
establishing diplomatic communications. Unless you are one of
those ignorant Morons who considered Richard Nixon a "liberal"
for his diplomacy of detente with Brezhnev, with Mao Zedong, or
Ronald Reagan for his diplomatic policies with Mikhail
Gorbachev.
Then, there is the Wall Street Journal. Once deemed the
pinnacle of financial journalism, now mostly dismissed by a
growing number in the Financial Sector due to its contributions
of disinformation leading to the past three financial crisis'
and the incredible slant on reporting that it shares with other
entities of Rupert Murdock's News Corporation, such as Fox News,
The New York Post, The Weekly Standard, and Britain's "The Sun"
tabloid.
As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the
Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they
want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California; to
eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as
the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the
environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an
energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where does
the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map,
the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants,
and the United States of America no longer knows right from
wrong, good from evil. So what does California do? Tax grocery
bags.
Congratulations, you hit every one of the Pavlovian Bells that
will get any right wing-nut slobbering uncontrollably, all over
themselves!
So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one
middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is
powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my
vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree
with me.
Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills , California
Face it, it's called democracy! Something that in the past eight
years of control by those you support was not practiced, and
therefore as a true Minority, you have a right to your
own opinion. You do NOT have a right to your own facts. Minority
rule has once again been safely relegated back to solely within
the borders of the state of Utah. Where it will hopefully stay
contained until the next incarnation of the "McCarthy Era".
(Around 35 years from now)
Mid-Lifer, I can see. Well educated? That's what they said about
MBA's, and we've all witnessed those morons. upper-middle class,
in Beverley Hills? Isn't that an oxymoron in the class of Fox
News?
Richard C. Edwards, M.F.P.S.
There are a
lot more out there who think just like, Alisa Wilson, the only
difference, she put her thoughts in an email that will reach
thousands. I would like to keep this going and see how big it
gets. (Op-Editor Wall Street)
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