Web Posted: 07/22/2005 12:00
AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
Last week some readers'
responses to my previous column were rough. The Express-News
provided me with copies of their letters. These, along with direct
e-mail sent to me by furious readers answered a few important
questions in my mind.
I also got a number of voice
recordings on a friend's machine whose wife was disturbed and
frightened by what she heard. I have no idea how the messages got
there, but the individuals who left them for me took the opportunity
to degrade all Arabs, Mexicans and other Latinos.
According to these
feeble-minded racists, we are beyond redemption and are the cause of
all of America's ills. I decided to keep the recordings and play
them to my students to remind them that racism and intolerance
although disguised are very much alive and are on the rise.
A couple of readers were
elated their nastiness and lack of manners "got under my skin." Ill
manners do get under my skin, and I have accumulated enough letters
from such individuals to demonstrate the sheer, unadulterated hatred
displayed by some toward me, Arabs and Muslims.
More worrisome to me are the
e-mails I received from readers who are afraid to speak up. The
prospect of having their homes "egged" or their lives threatened
cows them into silence. Many feel ashamed and guilty for allowing
themselves to be intimidated. It is so incredible that in a country
that claims to be "the land of the free" such intolerance and
hostility to dissenting voices should exist.
The current killing and mayhem
in the Middle East are presented as the cost of imparting "democracy
and freedom" to the Iraqis. I have neither the time nor space to go
into a long exposé of what freedom and democracy mean to those
advocating this view. Perhaps it will suffice to ask: Shouldn't we
remove the façade and align our rhetoric with our actions or vice
versa?
Shouldn't charity begin at
home? And shouldn't we encourage divergent points of view and
attitudes at home before we tell others they must do it?
Polls conducted by a number of
public opinion outlets during the past few weeks indicate President
Bush's approval rating has dipped to 42 percent, and over 60 percent
of Americans do not approve of what Congress is doing. These polls
also indicate there has been little shift in party affiliation,
which leads me to believe that in addition to the independents, some
Republicans are having second thoughts about the state of the union.
Why the shift?
Unfortunately, to stay in
power this administration and its supporters inflate insecurity and
the threats of terrorism, and to silence any opposition diligently
promote fear and intimidation. Simply stated, therefore, I believe
the fear factor is beginning to wear off and the stark realities of
screwy policies are beginning to bubble to the surface.
Reliance on fear as a control
mechanism in democratic societies has its drawbacks. Primary among
these is the emergence of a legitimacy paralysis. This results from
a situation where voters endow legitimacy on a government out of
fear and irrespective of other important political, economic and
cultural considerations.
But with the fear factor
declining, many are beginning to see a wide gap between what they
legitimized and what they really want. Indeed this group is not
hampered by the belief that God anointed the government.
Those who believe are
convinced that nothing the government does is wrong and must be
supported at all costs, including at the expense of civil liberties.
Hence, it is not so strange to
see popular opposition to Bush's political, economic and cultural
agendas. The Democrats are already referring to the current
administration, less than one year into its second term, as a lame
duck presidency.
Republicans who hold a
majority in Congress are also beginning to see the writing on the
wall, and although they do not say so, they act as though it already
is a dead and buried duck.
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