Mudslinging in a Virtual City I Love

I had decried the HRC team's race baiting in a virtual city I love and gradually became aware of another kind of slur being slathered about -- anti-Appalachian snickering and classist slander, showing pictures of poor people, laughing at their attire and lack of teeth. A tad creepy to have the perfect healthy lovely ones slandering the chronically depressed. So I slipped some comments into the site and a fellow denizen quoted my words beneath a brazen thread title of their own. And said they hoped I didn't mind. Here's my reply.

Actually I was sort of shocked by the headline you used. I get afraid that our internal squabbles will be picked up by unfriendly sites. So calling out the controversy with such a bold headline would not have been my choice. I'll tuck my critiques into ongoing discussions. Because I'm embarrassed to see fellow democrats slinging stereotypes at one another. Tried not to notice that before. Sorry to learn it's an ongoing trend. Hope it's just a temporary aberration. Hope we can shake it off. Si se puedes !

I thought we were at least trying not to insult one another as people, but to debate various means of reaching our shared ideals. I thought more of us Democrats would have read or heard the stories collected by Studs Terkel of great American characters and heroes from all across our country. They'd know there are Democrats in all kinds of terrain and communities that share our aspirations. That we have a lot of in common that we want to get on with -- we share the need to address environmental and public health care emergencies and to shape more efficient self-defense services, less privatized, more accountable to the people, and more actively respected for their service. And we all want funding for the arts – each community has its own musical heritage to cherish. We know we’ve all got to wise up quickly together to address major problems we ourselves have created and to fashion less destructive ways of being.

Joking about other cultures is an art it takes comedians years to perfect -- and that usually happens after they've learned to love certain aspects of each culture they mock. It's almost self-deprecating then, because they've listened enough to empathize with the group they're teasing. I saw Robin Williams live recently and that's what he had managed to do. Brilliantly teasing many cultures yet showing threads of admiration for each throughout his routines. Shimmering.

Careless callous bullying is no fun at all. I want to say -- Cut it out guys. There are people all over who are quite wonderful. Yes, there are the opposite. But we need friends all over. Let's look for them. Much more fun! Si se puedes.