Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Martin Luther King, Memphis,TN on April 3rd, 1968, the day before his assassination.
When I think of death and of dying it isn't the fact that there is nothing afterwards that disturbs me. It isn't the fear of whatever pain may accompany the event. It is the idea that a million wonderful things will come that I will not live to see. Now I can say that I have lived to see the fulfillment of the promise upon which our country was founded. I have lived to see a time when all men are allowed the pursuit of happiness.
There are a great many more things I hope to see: a country where protection under the law is not dependent on sexual orientation; a victory over sexism like last night's victory over racism when a woman becomes our president. I'm pretty sure the Martians will land in Times Square after I breath my last, but I have lived to see this and truly, it is enough.
I mourn though, for the men who dared to dream of this day. What a pity that neither Martin Luther King nor Coretta Scott King lived to see this day. But their children did. And that's why they sacrificed what they did. Some time ago in a fit of feminism I reminded my goddaughter that there was nothing a man could do that she couldn't. Her reply? "Who doesn't know that?". And while it saddened me to think that she has no clue about the struggle that came before to grant her this optimism now, I was grateful that she would never know the oppression that had been overcome. Some day, the poor or black or Hispanic or Asian child will never remember a time when a black man couldn't be President. There will come a time when racism will be the exclusive and anachronistic province of provincials and the ignorant (although I believe it already is for the most part).
Somewhere, I hope, in a heaven I don't believe in, on this day there is joy for Medgar Evers, Malcom X, Emmet Till, the murdered voter registration workers, Rosa Parks and the countless millions who came in chains to build a nation which rejected them and their children. On this day I say "thank you" not to God, but to all the brave who came before. This is indeed the promised land of which Martin Luther King spoke. And this day proves it. Perhaps at last, we Americans, black, white, male, female, gay and straight, We the People have overcome.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
What Dreams May Come...
I am absolutely giddy so you'll please excuse any bad grammar or improper verb agreement. Today is not a day for my OCD. I write this early on the morning of the most momentous election day ever. I hope I'm writing this on the morning of the day when America really lived up to its potential and elected her first black president!
This isn't a racial thing in the way you may be thinking. I'm not saying that if John McCain were black I would have voted for him just as a thank you for 400 years of oppression. I wouldn't vote for a person based on race anymore than I voted for Obama when I still had Hillary as a choice. I'm rejoicing at the idea that Martin Luther King was right: the day really has come when a man is judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.
Imagine what this means! That someday, if a qualified person were to appear, we could have an Asian president, a gay president, a Hispanic president, a Jewish president or any combination/permutation thereof. I used to call presidential elections on the number of vowels in a candidate's name-anything too ethnic would never make it. Remember Dukakis? Or Ferraro? Guiliani? Yup, neither does anyone else. And with the notable exceptions of Kennedy and Eisenhower how many names can you recall that didn't sound like something out of the social register? I know "McCain" is an ethnic, Irish name but "Obama" is parsecs further away from middle-America's comfort zone.
Of course this means that we must stop counting on rich white folks to educate their kids properly just so we end up with a Chief Executive who has half a brain (the Bushes tried, I'm sure). We're going to have to start pumping real money into our public schools because maybe, just maybe, the poorest Dominican in Washington Heights really does have the same chance as the richest member of Skull and Bones.
Don't misconstrue: I always love my country. For the past eight years I loved her like the brain damaged trauma victim she's become. But today I feel something more. Pride I think it is. Pride in the ideals that make us different from every other place on the planet. The fact that reason, intellect and common sense beat out fear and cronyism and racism. Our founding fathers were nothing short of gods (albeit with clay feet) and perhaps we have finally lived up to the challenge of E Pluribus Unum-out of many we are one. And this is proved by the fact that we've chosen a person who exemplifies the diversity which makes us great. For the first time our president won't look and sound like a standard bearer for the priviledged few. We've gone and picked a black man with a funny name to represent us all and the world will take note that perhaps the teenage schoolyard bully has finally matured into its power. And to think it only took 232 years!
I've always believed that all people are created equal-I just don't think they stay that way. But this one event will do alot to level out the playing field in terms of how it will inspire a nation and generations of people heretofore marginalized. Today I believe that truly, anything is possible.
That having been said, if McCain wins I'm going to Mexico.
This isn't a racial thing in the way you may be thinking. I'm not saying that if John McCain were black I would have voted for him just as a thank you for 400 years of oppression. I wouldn't vote for a person based on race anymore than I voted for Obama when I still had Hillary as a choice. I'm rejoicing at the idea that Martin Luther King was right: the day really has come when a man is judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.
Imagine what this means! That someday, if a qualified person were to appear, we could have an Asian president, a gay president, a Hispanic president, a Jewish president or any combination/permutation thereof. I used to call presidential elections on the number of vowels in a candidate's name-anything too ethnic would never make it. Remember Dukakis? Or Ferraro? Guiliani? Yup, neither does anyone else. And with the notable exceptions of Kennedy and Eisenhower how many names can you recall that didn't sound like something out of the social register? I know "McCain" is an ethnic, Irish name but "Obama" is parsecs further away from middle-America's comfort zone.
Of course this means that we must stop counting on rich white folks to educate their kids properly just so we end up with a Chief Executive who has half a brain (the Bushes tried, I'm sure). We're going to have to start pumping real money into our public schools because maybe, just maybe, the poorest Dominican in Washington Heights really does have the same chance as the richest member of Skull and Bones.
Don't misconstrue: I always love my country. For the past eight years I loved her like the brain damaged trauma victim she's become. But today I feel something more. Pride I think it is. Pride in the ideals that make us different from every other place on the planet. The fact that reason, intellect and common sense beat out fear and cronyism and racism. Our founding fathers were nothing short of gods (albeit with clay feet) and perhaps we have finally lived up to the challenge of E Pluribus Unum-out of many we are one. And this is proved by the fact that we've chosen a person who exemplifies the diversity which makes us great. For the first time our president won't look and sound like a standard bearer for the priviledged few. We've gone and picked a black man with a funny name to represent us all and the world will take note that perhaps the teenage schoolyard bully has finally matured into its power. And to think it only took 232 years!
I've always believed that all people are created equal-I just don't think they stay that way. But this one event will do alot to level out the playing field in terms of how it will inspire a nation and generations of people heretofore marginalized. Today I believe that truly, anything is possible.
That having been said, if McCain wins I'm going to Mexico.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
If you're gonna drink the Kool-Aid, read the label
Here are some biblical fun facts for those who think Palin et al have a clue:
There is but one mention in the entire bible about homosexuality. And that is in the old testament. "Man shall not lie with man as with woman". Maybe that's the Isrealite way of saying "you might be able to leave the Missus unsatisfied but Bruce from the leather bar is gonna want his!". Jesus Christ is never quoted as having said a word about it, one way or the other. We do know he never married and he hung around with 12 other dudes. No word on where he stood regarding Fire Island vs. the Hamptons.
Jesus Christ was a Socialist or at very least he believed in a welfare state. He fed the hungry without asking them about their personal responsibility or lack of financial acuity; he overturned the merchant's tables in the temple as a desecration of God's altar. Apparently, capitalism, when not in the service of the people, offended him. He even supported taxation and big government-"give to Cesar what is Cesar's and to God what is God's". Krikey-Jesus is a Democrat! I'd put that man on Obama's ticket but a Jew and a black man will get elected together exactly N-E-V-E-R!
Christ neither judged not gave anyone permission to stand in judgment of anyone else, e.g. "Judge not lest ye be judged" and the ever popular "He who is without sin, cast the first stone". Oh my, your lord and savior was a liberal to boot!
God must be a humanist: "whatever you do to the least among you, you do to me." Nice, next time you burn a cross on someone's lawn or desecrate a funeral chanting about 'fags" or refuse to help the poor because you feel they should have known better, you can remind yourself that you've just done the same to God's only son. Ouch!
I know I'm preaching to the choir. If you're reading this, chances are you're either an atheist or at least agnostic, but surely a liberal minded thinker. Let me at least share with you what I wish I could with those who've drunk the Kool Aid.
If you are going to believe in this stuff and shove it down everyone's throat then for the love of your God, at least know it well yourself. Christ had a beautiful philosophy and it has nothing to do with the agenda of the Christian right. If you are going to quote the bible don't forget the bits about women remaining silent (see Corinthians and half of the old testament), multiple wives being OK (hey, the Mormons didn't make it up out of whole cloth), killing your sons if they grow their hair long and let's not forget the rules on the proper punishment of slaves! How deluded are these people really? How much must they loathe themselves that they spend their lives in judgment and condemnation of others? Which, by the way, is in complete opposition to the philosophy they claim to espouse.
I get that ignorance really is bliss. But abdicating control of your own life for the panacea and protection of a myth is a devil's bargain; it takes so much more effort to deny reason. All I'm asking is that if you are going to drink the Kool Aid of religion at least read the label and get the directions right. It won't be as much fun as looking down on others from the heights of your self-proclaimed moral superiority, but you'll do less harm and might even actually do someone some good. Including yourself. Because if there is a God and he sees what a mess his followers have made of the instructions he left behind-he is gonna be pissed!
There is but one mention in the entire bible about homosexuality. And that is in the old testament. "Man shall not lie with man as with woman". Maybe that's the Isrealite way of saying "you might be able to leave the Missus unsatisfied but Bruce from the leather bar is gonna want his!". Jesus Christ is never quoted as having said a word about it, one way or the other. We do know he never married and he hung around with 12 other dudes. No word on where he stood regarding Fire Island vs. the Hamptons.
Jesus Christ was a Socialist or at very least he believed in a welfare state. He fed the hungry without asking them about their personal responsibility or lack of financial acuity; he overturned the merchant's tables in the temple as a desecration of God's altar. Apparently, capitalism, when not in the service of the people, offended him. He even supported taxation and big government-"give to Cesar what is Cesar's and to God what is God's". Krikey-Jesus is a Democrat! I'd put that man on Obama's ticket but a Jew and a black man will get elected together exactly N-E-V-E-R!
Christ neither judged not gave anyone permission to stand in judgment of anyone else, e.g. "Judge not lest ye be judged" and the ever popular "He who is without sin, cast the first stone". Oh my, your lord and savior was a liberal to boot!
God must be a humanist: "whatever you do to the least among you, you do to me." Nice, next time you burn a cross on someone's lawn or desecrate a funeral chanting about 'fags" or refuse to help the poor because you feel they should have known better, you can remind yourself that you've just done the same to God's only son. Ouch!
I know I'm preaching to the choir. If you're reading this, chances are you're either an atheist or at least agnostic, but surely a liberal minded thinker. Let me at least share with you what I wish I could with those who've drunk the Kool Aid.
If you are going to believe in this stuff and shove it down everyone's throat then for the love of your God, at least know it well yourself. Christ had a beautiful philosophy and it has nothing to do with the agenda of the Christian right. If you are going to quote the bible don't forget the bits about women remaining silent (see Corinthians and half of the old testament), multiple wives being OK (hey, the Mormons didn't make it up out of whole cloth), killing your sons if they grow their hair long and let's not forget the rules on the proper punishment of slaves! How deluded are these people really? How much must they loathe themselves that they spend their lives in judgment and condemnation of others? Which, by the way, is in complete opposition to the philosophy they claim to espouse.
I get that ignorance really is bliss. But abdicating control of your own life for the panacea and protection of a myth is a devil's bargain; it takes so much more effort to deny reason. All I'm asking is that if you are going to drink the Kool Aid of religion at least read the label and get the directions right. It won't be as much fun as looking down on others from the heights of your self-proclaimed moral superiority, but you'll do less harm and might even actually do someone some good. Including yourself. Because if there is a God and he sees what a mess his followers have made of the instructions he left behind-he is gonna be pissed!
Save a Pig-Boycott Lipstick
My wonderful, brilliant friend Claire just forwarded me an article by Richard Dawkins, a noted Atheist writer. In this article Mr. Dawkins decries the VP nomination of Sarah Palin as potentially the most dangerous nomination in the history of elections. Here's a link, read it for yourself http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080/page/1. Of course I agree with Dawkins, however the question he leaves unanswered is the "why" of it. To whit, I pose the following questions to all of you:
Has the entire Republican party lost their minds and so completely drunk the Kool Aid that no one on that side of the fence is going to stand up and take their party back from the religious freaks that high-jacked it during and after Reagan?
Where, oh where, are the Masons when you need them? Or is this all a plot by some secret intellectual organization to cull the herd of humanity by allowing the stupid to run the show until they obliterate half of us?
Or worse, is this a plot by some very evil but very smart people to feed the cud chewing masses a exemplar of their own mediocrity and thus stultify the public and run the country themselves behind the scenes?
Can things really be as broken as they seem, with the extremes of both sides having completely road blocked any discourse between the middles?
Is anybody going to call Palin on her ideological mind-fuck of a statement that her daughter's pregnancy and the continuation of same was (and I quote) "HER CHOICE"! What the hell? This woman would deny every woman in America not only the right to choose but the right to be informed. Yet she applauds that her daughter has availed herself of the very rights she seeks to destroy? It simply baffles the mind!
Is the temporary numbing that religion and faith provide people like Palin, really worth the price of having to pretend for the rest of your life that you have no doubts? And if you have no doubts, then what about having relinquished responsibility and ownership of your own existence in trade for the protection of a beneficent despot?
There are defining ideological differences between the parties. Most simply put, Republicans want government out of your wallet and Democrats want it out of your bedroom. For the record, I do not think that the Democrats and the Republicans have become the same shit. I do agree that they have become shit-but very different flavors. However, I still believe in a 2 party system. Don't agree? Check out Latin America. Stay in Argentina too long and you might get elected-they've got shit loads of parties and a new president every 5 weeks.
My argument against this woman is not about the political differences, it's about competence. I fear for a country where a party that once couched their misanthropy in logic now throws common sense to the wind and accepts the lowest common denominator as it's representative. This woman is stupid, uneducated, uninformed, hypocritical, an extremist, a liar, and what frightens me most of all is this: who is waiting behind the wings to pull this puppet's strings if she manages to get into power? She's going to turn to someone for answers and it won't be a think tank or a brain trust. It'll be her moron pastor or worse-all the cronies that gave us 8 long years of Bush!
Some would say that a people gets the government it deserves. For the longest time I thought this unfair as I NEVER voted for Bush. But then I realize that so very many of us who have a mind, who get it, never vote, never speak up. The intelligent have ceded the floor to the defectives. The football players are running the debate team. We are like Rome in the final years of the empire. We have perverted the brilliant gift of our founding fathers and corrupted the beautiful experiment. We are now fat, dumb and unhappy. Hot Pockets are the new bread and gossip is the new circus. But bread and circuses, then and now, are the distraction of choice for a population reluctant to admit that their ignorance has opened the barbarian's door.
Has the entire Republican party lost their minds and so completely drunk the Kool Aid that no one on that side of the fence is going to stand up and take their party back from the religious freaks that high-jacked it during and after Reagan?
Where, oh where, are the Masons when you need them? Or is this all a plot by some secret intellectual organization to cull the herd of humanity by allowing the stupid to run the show until they obliterate half of us?
Or worse, is this a plot by some very evil but very smart people to feed the cud chewing masses a exemplar of their own mediocrity and thus stultify the public and run the country themselves behind the scenes?
Can things really be as broken as they seem, with the extremes of both sides having completely road blocked any discourse between the middles?
Is anybody going to call Palin on her ideological mind-fuck of a statement that her daughter's pregnancy and the continuation of same was (and I quote) "HER CHOICE"! What the hell? This woman would deny every woman in America not only the right to choose but the right to be informed. Yet she applauds that her daughter has availed herself of the very rights she seeks to destroy? It simply baffles the mind!
Is the temporary numbing that religion and faith provide people like Palin, really worth the price of having to pretend for the rest of your life that you have no doubts? And if you have no doubts, then what about having relinquished responsibility and ownership of your own existence in trade for the protection of a beneficent despot?
There are defining ideological differences between the parties. Most simply put, Republicans want government out of your wallet and Democrats want it out of your bedroom. For the record, I do not think that the Democrats and the Republicans have become the same shit. I do agree that they have become shit-but very different flavors. However, I still believe in a 2 party system. Don't agree? Check out Latin America. Stay in Argentina too long and you might get elected-they've got shit loads of parties and a new president every 5 weeks.
My argument against this woman is not about the political differences, it's about competence. I fear for a country where a party that once couched their misanthropy in logic now throws common sense to the wind and accepts the lowest common denominator as it's representative. This woman is stupid, uneducated, uninformed, hypocritical, an extremist, a liar, and what frightens me most of all is this: who is waiting behind the wings to pull this puppet's strings if she manages to get into power? She's going to turn to someone for answers and it won't be a think tank or a brain trust. It'll be her moron pastor or worse-all the cronies that gave us 8 long years of Bush!
Some would say that a people gets the government it deserves. For the longest time I thought this unfair as I NEVER voted for Bush. But then I realize that so very many of us who have a mind, who get it, never vote, never speak up. The intelligent have ceded the floor to the defectives. The football players are running the debate team. We are like Rome in the final years of the empire. We have perverted the brilliant gift of our founding fathers and corrupted the beautiful experiment. We are now fat, dumb and unhappy. Hot Pockets are the new bread and gossip is the new circus. But bread and circuses, then and now, are the distraction of choice for a population reluctant to admit that their ignorance has opened the barbarian's door.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Is this election over yet so the emails can stop?
My friend's mom is wonderful person. She is bright and caring and raised one of the most brilliant people I have ever known. We are, however, diametrically opposed when it comes to politics. Recently she sent out an email with a bunch of "facts" about Obama. Her daughter promptly let her have it. Here's what I added. (I had to be nicer 'cause she's not my mom and I don't want to piss her off . Remonstrance or not, I was raised in Brooklyn dammit and we respect our elders).
Political emails are a minefield. I'm not against political discourse but muck racking is pointless. As is the idea that you're going to change someone's mind with an email full of half truths and innuendo. At a minimum, I'm guessing that no one on this list is less than 30 and probably has already formed some pretty solid ideas about where they stand. I'm sure the liberals and the democrats could come up with some pretty choice stuff about McCain but would it matter? I could tell you real but disturbing facts about him and his supporters would probably not blink an eye. On some level we all have the courage of our convictions. It is naive to think that the other side doesn't as well. As Claire said, the issues are point of the exercise-where does a candidate stand and do you agree with his/her position? That's the discussion we should be having. If you are anti-abortion it wouldn't matter if his name were Ben Franklin-you'd still not vote for him.The personal baloney is useless. Not many of us could run for office if our personal lives were examined closely enough. And those who could clearly don't have enough life experience to qualify. Nobody here is running for sainthood. Clinton was an unapologetic philanderer and the economy soared. Nixon was a thief but he got us out of Viet Nam and opened China (although we might regret that one). Jimmy Carter is pure as the driven snow and let's face it; while a super nice guy, not the most effective president we ever had.What's his religion? Who cares! Anybody remember separation of church and state? As for me, I'm holding out for an atheist. I appreciate the earnestness of those who forward these things. I appreciate that you believe your world view to be correct and care enough about the people on your list to share it with them and try to bring them into the fold. Clearly the intentions are good. And the exchange of well formed ideas is one of the best parts of living in a democracy. But when we send out emails that haven't been properly vetted, simply because they support our position, we do a disservice to the recipient and to our own beliefs.
Political emails are a minefield. I'm not against political discourse but muck racking is pointless. As is the idea that you're going to change someone's mind with an email full of half truths and innuendo. At a minimum, I'm guessing that no one on this list is less than 30 and probably has already formed some pretty solid ideas about where they stand. I'm sure the liberals and the democrats could come up with some pretty choice stuff about McCain but would it matter? I could tell you real but disturbing facts about him and his supporters would probably not blink an eye. On some level we all have the courage of our convictions. It is naive to think that the other side doesn't as well. As Claire said, the issues are point of the exercise-where does a candidate stand and do you agree with his/her position? That's the discussion we should be having. If you are anti-abortion it wouldn't matter if his name were Ben Franklin-you'd still not vote for him.The personal baloney is useless. Not many of us could run for office if our personal lives were examined closely enough. And those who could clearly don't have enough life experience to qualify. Nobody here is running for sainthood. Clinton was an unapologetic philanderer and the economy soared. Nixon was a thief but he got us out of Viet Nam and opened China (although we might regret that one). Jimmy Carter is pure as the driven snow and let's face it; while a super nice guy, not the most effective president we ever had.What's his religion? Who cares! Anybody remember separation of church and state? As for me, I'm holding out for an atheist. I appreciate the earnestness of those who forward these things. I appreciate that you believe your world view to be correct and care enough about the people on your list to share it with them and try to bring them into the fold. Clearly the intentions are good. And the exchange of well formed ideas is one of the best parts of living in a democracy. But when we send out emails that haven't been properly vetted, simply because they support our position, we do a disservice to the recipient and to our own beliefs.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Maybe there is a God after all?
TOPEKA The Topeka Fire Department is investigating a small fire outside of a church whose members protest at soldier’s funerals.
A fence and garage at Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church became engulfed in flames early Saturday, according to the Topeka Capitol-Journal Web site. The fire did not spread to the church building.
Topeka Fire Marshal Greg Bailey said the cause of the fire has not been determined. However, a spokeswoman for the church, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said she believes it was deliberately set.
Members of the church frequently picket military funerals, arguing that the deaths of U.S. troops overseas are part of God’s punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Bailey said damage is estimated at $10,000.
Associated PressSigh.....
If I were a "joiner", (which I am not) I would consider myself an Ethical Humanist. This belief system (religion, if you will) is based on the concept of "deed, not creed" meaning that no stock is put in the mystical. Faith, especially in a deity, is not part of the program. The secular humanist believes in the ethics of loving one's neighbor for the sake of doing so and not for biblical reasons. That "doing the right thing" prevents, for instance, Mookie flinging the garbage can through the pizzeria window.
That having been said I am in the throes of a moral quandry because as a secular, ethical , humanist I forbid myself from taking joy in any other human being's sorrow. And yet...
You know that kid on the Simpson that always beats up Bart? Read this in his voice and direct it at Rev. Phelps: HA HA!
If you didn't get it from the AP clip above, the Westboro Baptist church has taken it as their mission in life to (in the name of a peaceful loving god) desecrate the funerals of US servicemen and women by holding up placards that say lovely god-like things such "God hates Fags" and "Your Son's Death is God's Retribution for Homosexuality". Then there's the Reverend himself. Some days, ain't it great to be a Catholic? Sure our guys are pederasts. But they are pederasts with degrees from accredited colleges. What seminary cranked out that freak? And Baptist? I thought they were the happy protestants what with the big hats and pastel suits and the clapping in church. Man, the Methodists will never let them live this one down.
On Saturday, a garage on church property caught fire. According to reports the cause of the fire hasn't yet been determined but if Occam had anything to say about it, I wouldn't go looking for zebras, ya know? This guy has managed to offend, insult, and injure everyone from the gays to the gun nuts, from the bikers to the priests. The question isn't "who set the fire". The question is "what took them so long?"
But the best part is that this close minded, first class hate monger has the audacity to go running to the government because he may just be the victim of a hate crime. Screw Allanis Morissette. That shit is ironic.
My husband is a former Marine, I have loads of friends in the Navy, some still active, some overseas. There are wonderful people in my life whom I adore and respect and admire who, alas, love Liza with a Z more than me. So you can see why this guy offends me on every level and I don't offend easily. To my very core I want to LMFAO! in capital letters three feet tall. But what does that make me if I do? If I allow him and his screwed up view of the world to make me hate as he hates, to make me feel schadenfreude instead of sympathy.
Yes, it is pleasurable when the universe aligns itself in such a way that people who richly deserved to get screwed actually do get screwed. In this case I am taking the moral high road and trying really, really hard not to enjoy it quite so much. For the first time ever, I am actually hoping for a case of divine retribution.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Celebrity Oblige
Once upon time in this great city of New York and in all the metropolises of the world there existed a class of people we shall call, for lack of a better word, "society". In some countries access to this social strata was limited by birth, in others by finance. But regardless of how they got there it was understood that, as the adage says, to whom much is given much is expected. Hence, nobles fought wars, grande dames and dowagers did charity work, robber barons played philanthropist. Somewhere along the line all that changed and so died the concept of noblesse oblige. Gone are the days when power, prestige or wealth carried with it an implied responsibility to maybe give a crap for one's fellow man (even if that fellow man was your victim to begin with). Or at least pretend. People now are famous for the stupidest, emptiest reasons conceivable. And even though their grip on this adulation is faint at best they still refuse to do anything that might in some way make them worthy of what they've gotten for nothing.
I refuse to think that anyone owes anyone anything (barring the notable exception of parents to their children under the age of 18 but we all know how well that usually turns out). And so I'd never say that the rich are responsible for the poor or the talented for the useless. It's just that it doesn't seem sporting when celebrities don't have the kindness in them to throw the teeniest bone at the imbeciles who worship them.
The Kennedy family, for all their faults, have a history of public service. The eldest son died in the war (he crashed after volunteering for a suicide mission-and he was the lucky one). Two sons murdered while in or on their way to the presidency. We'll get to Teddy later but really, did Massachusetts need one more pregnant Polish girl? I think not. Imagine the sacrifices of some of the next generation of Kennedy kids (just like Star Trek TNG, just not as good). All kidding aside, imagine having to fly out of an airport named for your dead father. Jeez. Poor J.F.K. fils had to be cremated and buried at sea so that he would finally have some privacy and peace.
What the hell have the Hilton's done with themselves? Philanthropy?-well they saved a lot of people a lot of money on hookers but other than that, not so much.
I refuse to think that anyone owes anyone anything (barring the notable exception of parents to their children under the age of 18 but we all know how well that usually turns out). And so I'd never say that the rich are responsible for the poor or the talented for the useless. It's just that it doesn't seem sporting when celebrities don't have the kindness in them to throw the teeniest bone at the imbeciles who worship them.
The Kennedy family, for all their faults, have a history of public service. The eldest son died in the war (he crashed after volunteering for a suicide mission-and he was the lucky one). Two sons murdered while in or on their way to the presidency. We'll get to Teddy later but really, did Massachusetts need one more pregnant Polish girl? I think not. Imagine the sacrifices of some of the next generation of Kennedy kids (just like Star Trek TNG, just not as good). All kidding aside, imagine having to fly out of an airport named for your dead father. Jeez. Poor J.F.K. fils had to be cremated and buried at sea so that he would finally have some privacy and peace.
What the hell have the Hilton's done with themselves? Philanthropy?-well they saved a lot of people a lot of money on hookers but other than that, not so much.
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