Socialized Rant

I don't recognize the world I live in anymore. The trappings are all there, Christmas and Easter come every year. I go to work and church, see all the same people, but something is different. Maybe it's in the water. Maybe it's me.

But I have noticed that we seem to have lost the ability to agree to disagree. That civil discourse of allowing our differences to pull us into the middle of an issue. I have always said that I have strong opinions, but the are not set in stone. Because I know that I have strong opinions, and because I know that I don't know enough to be "right" all the time, I try never to impose my opinion on others. I do exect, when talking the same respect. But respect is in short supply.

To be completly honest, I do have some pet peeves on the intolerant side. I am sick to death of fundamentalist - any- fundamentalist ideology, which sees evil in the other sect, group, clan. Come on! In my opinion, the fringe right fundamentalist yahoos and the fringe fundamentalist muslim yahoos have much more in common with each other than they do with me.

Have you ever noticed how the language of intolerance, no matter who is speaking, all sounds alike? Have you ever noticed that whether you couch the jargon as "states rights" or "family values" it's the same warmed over argument? I mean, look at this, in the intolerant handbook, "someone" has to be elected as the other, that elusive icon to be feared above all others. Think about it, there have been Witches, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Pagans, Blacks, Gays, Women, Liberals. Each one of these groups, has at one time in history been classified as other - the group it is alright to hate.

The current crop of right-wing, neo-conservative christians parading around in their sheets and hoods make me want to scream. Because it is all the same hatred that has existed tricked out to look acceptable for todays audience. The Right and all of its intolerant yammering is reheated KKK, Neo-Nazi Bull-shit - and I don't know if anyone sees beyond the tag-lines and the emotional phrases.

Please, can we all wake up now?????