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Tue. Nov 13, 2012

Embarrassed by Georgia Secessionists & Bandwagon Patriots

Well, it’s been one week since the election, and some people are handling it better than others. Some are calling old friends idiots and saying “please unfriend me now.”

Some are literally running down their spouse:

A Mesa woman was arrested Saturday after she allegedly chased her husband around a Gilbert parking lot in an SUV during an argument over the presidential election. The woman finally ran over her husband, leaving him with critical injuries.

But most amazing to me, tens of thousands have decided that the country which a mere week ago they claimed they were fighting to save … should now be destroyed via secession:

But rather than simply deal with the results, however, thousands of Georgians have decided that they would rather secede from the United States.

The White House’s website, which added a petition section earlier this year to “to take action on a range of issues,” has also received petitions from over 20 states. That includes more than 13,500 Louisianans and 18,000 Texans.

When I checked this morning, just shy of 30,000 people had signed one of the two petitions for Georgia, though a significant percentage of them are not from Georgia.

Once upon a time, some liberals would proclaim that if Candidate X wins, they will move to Canada. Few ever did, but it was a statement that “this country has changed so much I must move to a new country.”

Those who call for secession are saying “this country has changed so much it must be destroyed via a breakup.”

That is skin deep patriotism, or what one might call “bandwagon patriotism.” As long as things are going my way electorally, America is Great! Love it or Leave it! But let “my side” lose just one election, and I’m ready to bust the whole thing up.

That also says, “I have so little faith in this country, and in ‘my side’s’ ability to effect change in this country, it’s just time to end this experiment.”

Frankly, it’s a selfish & cowardly attitude of sour grapes, and it’s embarrassing to live in a state where so many apparently hold it.

Tue. Sep 11, 2012

11 Years On

Today is for the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001. To this day, half of these families never received even a shred of remains of their loved one. Comparatively, the rest of us mean nothing today.

Ten years ago I wrote about just on of those lost, photographer Bill Biggart: ‘I’m OK, I’m with the firemen’: In Memory of Bill Biggart.

“The photographer was Bill Biggart, who was killed at the age of 54 when the North Tower collapsed. This long convoluted essay is meant to honor him, and to tell how his story powerfully affected me, in detail. Because only by telling it in detail can I get out the demon: that he made choices that I would have made had I been in his place, he did things I would have done because they seemed the safe thing to do. And he died, doing what he had to do, as I know I would have died.”