Liberal Tolerance or Choosing Sides

Been too busy to write lately, so I am posting an article by J.D. Pendry.

J. D. Pendry

Often I sit here with many random thoughts vying for time. When that happens, I don’t know what I’m gong to write until it’s written. I’ve told you before that these Sunday ponderings are self-chats that I have while trying to get a grasp on our world and my tiny spot in it. When I consider the scope of human history and the vastness of the universe, my time here becomes less than an eye blink and my contribution mostly insignificant. Still, I think I need to try to sort out things so that at least any contribution made during my eye blink represents my best efforts at critical thought. This is one of those essays that might take you somewhere or nowhere, stimulate thought or not or cause anger or not…. It will cause me to get mail from bogus Hotmail accounts. Everything else I write does.

"It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know." – Linda Ronstadt

Welcome to America today. Unfortunate isn’t it. A person representing the part of our society that most preaches diversity and tolerance is the antithesis of both. Say what you like about political parties, it’s an unfortunate part of our great experiment. Is it acceptable, though, to belittle an entire group of people because of the lifestyle they choose?

What if Linda said: It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Democrat or homosexual. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know? Would the media and public reaction have been different? Well, would it? I’ll try not to offend you Linda by buying any concert tickets.

I’m curious about why people such as Linda are so down on Christians. I saw a funny cartoon, Johnny Hart’s B.C, in the Sunday comics. It illustrates Linda’s liberal tolerance. Yes, there is much editorializing in the Sunday comics, but that’s not why I read them. I like comics – they’re often more real than life.

Jake the Ant: Thank you for your creation, providence and grace and thank you for watching over my family.

Friend Ant: Who you talkin’ to Jake?

Jake: God.

Friend: You’re kidding.

Jake: Don’t you ever talk to God?

Friend: I don’t believe in God.

Jake: Who do you think made you?

Friend: Queen Ida.

Jake: He made her too.

Friend: Yeah, yeah, yeah – with all due respect, Jake, I’m mad at your God! He doesn’t even exist!

Jake: Have you ever even tried to talk to him?

Friend: How do you talk to someone you’re mad at?

Jake: How can you be mad at someone who doesn’t exist?

Linda, please spend more time critically examining your lifestyle.

How about the rocker’s for Kerry? Their concert tour is funded by Moveon.org, which is largely financed by billionaire George Soros. Millionaire rock stars on a tour funded by a billionaire, supporting a millionaire candidate with a billionaire wife and a millionaire running mate calls Republicans the party of the rich. Kerry and the rockers do have something else in common. War protests.

What do you think about the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth? I’d truly like to know. The media is trying hard to discredit them and label their ads and book as political dirty tricks. I find it all quite interesting. It’s alright for that great American servant Michael Moore, embraced by DNC chairman Terry McCaulliffe, to produce a feature length political ad and call the President a deserter, but it’s a dirty trick if honorably discharged Vietnam veterans question the service of Senator Kerry. Can we reflect a bit?

I enlisted into the Army in the fall of 1971. By the time I completed training the Army was starting to draw down in Vietnam. I never made it there. I lived through the era though. Imagine how you’d feel as a twenty-something soldier returning from Iraq today and being met at the airport by people holding signs that called you a murderer and baby-killer? That would be your welcome home. Period. Exclamation point! How would you feel if a well-known American movie star met with the enemy in Iraq? Had her picture taken with them while calling our POWs criminals? How would you feel if someone you served with came home, protested the war along with that famous American movie star, and took the Purple Hearts he’s now so proud of and threw them in the dirt. Then, he sat in front of the Senate and told them that you were a murderer and rapist that committed many atrocious acts. Later, you learned that what he said was false and based in part from testimony of people who never served in the war. Then, how would you feel if the same person years later decided that he was actually a war hero now and that you should forget about his antics and make him President because of his stellar war record? Shouldn’t his entire war record be open to critical examination?

What America did to Vietnam veterans is deplorable. All of us who stood by while the Fondas and Kerrys of the country did what they did are complicit. We put young men into a political war with the political deck stacked against them. When they came home, we blamed our failure on them. Folks, my empathy is with the veterans. With any kind of luck, the Democrats will experience a political implosion over their choice to re-fight Vietnam. Maybe then, as a nation, we can finally stop fighting that war.

I find one more item odd. General Tommy Franks wrote a book, American Soldier. This man led us through two wars. If there is anyone with first hand insight on what we faced, what we face now and what we’ve accomplished, I believe it is General Franks. What is odd to me is that (unless it happened in the last day or two) General Franks (unlike Clinton and the lineup of Bush bashing books) has not appeared on any mainstream media talk shows to promote his book. Could it be because it is pro-America, pro-military and pro-Bush?

It’s Sunday afternoon. My dinner is settling. I’m heading for the back porch to take a nap.

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Read Paul Schneidmill's Weekly Devotional

J.D. Pendry is author of The Three Meter Zone, Random House/Ballantine.
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Copyright © JD Pendry, This article may be electronically shared, republished or reprinted if in it's entirety with original credit given.