And you know what? I did feel guilty about the fact that I was getting all outraged about something I heard about on a comedy show. I figured maybe it was being spun. I figured maybe if I saw it on some other network, it would be explained more rationally, so it wouldn't seem like total insanity. EXCEPT for everywhere I saw it on news.google it was talking about how Jon Stewart was the main force bringing up this fucking outrage because the networks are all asleep about it.
I'm not about to get on my high horse and bullshit about how I have some sort of longstanding commitment to 9/11 First Responders health issues, because other than when I see the posters on the subway asking you to call in if you've been having health problems due to, say inhaling massive amounts of toxic ash, hazardous materials and the ash that was once human beings, I don't honestly think about it on a daily basis.
But you know what? I haven't been part of a political party that did everything in its power without the slightest shred of shame to try to associate itself with these people's example to push its own agenda, to lead people into a war for crying out loud, and to duck all possible criticism for the consequences of these actions. I'm not in charge of whether or not this passes, and I'm not holding it up because I want to make sure that the richest two percent get to keep their goddamn tax cuts.
Like we haven't all seen an instance or two where a Republican in answer of a question about the war, or about civil liberties or even about the economy wraps themselves in 9-11 in order to avoid any serious questioning.
And all this time while Republicans were using the specter of this tragedy as a shield, the people who had actually been digging through the rubble, spending hundreds of man-hours putting their bodies, their organs, their lungs in the company of the harmful byproducts, of say, the combustion of a couple planes, a couple skyscrapers, and some thousands of human beings, started to, good lord, have health problems?
While these people were actually dying as a result of 9-11, the Republicans used this country's mourning of that day, and their fear that there would be another to run smears against anyone opposing them, and when this bill comes up, they're too busy defending people who totally don't need this kind of assistance. Not the way that people who are terminally ill from the effects of being at Ground Zero need to know that their families won't be left in debt because of hospital bills. Not the way that someone who may just be starting to be sick from it needs the reassurance that they won't be given the run around and will be given the respect and help that they deserve.
It would almost be appreciable as a perfectly fitting symbol of how these worms actually work, almost goddamn art or a joke, if it weren't so fucking tragic.
Just a few months ago, the right-wingers wanted us to get all up in arms about the possible horrors that would develop if a Muslim community center (That's right. It's not a mosque. It's a community center, freakin' deal with it.) was built near Ground Zero. The horror. The callousness. The disrespect that would pose to the NYFD and the NYPD.
Gee, well you've really got your priorities straight, dontcha?
Who needs a drink?
The only thing that will soothe me right now. This awesome band from Detroit in the 1975, just recently rediscovered. I guarantee that when you first hear it, you'll be like "goddamn, this existed BEFORE Hardcore?" And the first track I'm putting on Politicians In My Eyes. Yup. Some things don't change.
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