Such complete reliance on APPEARANCES is evidence of WEAKNESS and the scary thing

[patrice]

about that is that it is SOP Amerika:

- Do not speak the truth;
- Punish and ostracize those who do;
- Appearances are more important than the truth.

This is where WE are right now, at this profoundly important crossroads in the history of our land.

For how many of you out there is Shirley Sherrod's story, or some degree thereof, your story?

When appearances are the law, buffoons and liars run everything, not Presidents.

We lost.

I'm very sad about this. There is no triumphalism for me in the failure of America, no victory in what this story reveals about how much trouble we REALLY are actually in, as evidenced by the Obama administration's frightened response to the necessity of defending a good person for having spoken the Truth.

All of this event, past, present, and future is just as sad as the poet T.S. Eliot's words in The Hollow Men.

We ARE the hollow wo/men,
We ARE the stuffed wo/men,
Leaning together,
Headpiece filled with straw . . .

This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang, but a whimper.

[phleshdef]

1. OMG. A low key,state level official got fired for erroneous reasons, its NOT the end of the world.

Holy shit, people are acting like we just started bombing Iran or something. You'd think we just had 3 more simultaneous deep sea oil blowouts.

Can you people calm down before you end up giving ME a heart attack along with ya?

[patrice]

2. This event reveals an important truth about who/what "we" are.

[phleshdef]

7. Only if you are trying way too hard to be a total political emo.

[vaberella]

10. !

:rofl: Oh God...so funny.

[Political Tiger]

14. That "we" are human and make mistakes from time to time?

Yes, it's true, people are humans, and humans make mistakes. I've never met anyone who is perfect and who hasn't fucked up every now and then, have you?

[pscot]

4. You seem a bit overwrought this morning

Why don't you smoke a joint and get outside for a while.

[alsame]

3. 'Guilty until proven innocent' is a big change to our principles, IMO. nt

[SunsetDreams]

5. +1, no matter who it is

[phleshdef]

6. Who exactly was on trial?

Guily until proven innocent situations have taken place when people have gotten fired since this country existed. Its not a "big change in our principles", its a mistake that both good and bad intentioned managers make all the time. Christ, people have gotten fired over misinterpretations of their Facebook pages at this point.

[alsame]

8. She didn't even get a trial or a chance to explain. The fact that it

has happened 'since this country existed' doesn't make it right. It DOES go against our principles
as I was taught them.

There was no excuse for this, it wasn't a 'mistake' by a manager - it was the third time (at least) that this Admin has been played by the same RW players.

And an innocent woman lost her job and was accused of a horrible thing. It's a BFD.

[patrice]

9. Agreed. Anyone who says it isn't, very probably has a stake in the status quo, i.e. don't tell the

truth.

[phleshdef]

11. Meanwhile, in the real world...

To act like its a "fundamental change in our principles" means you must buy into the bullshit that this country practices all these great principles to begin with.

Yea, of course its bad, its definately not the seismic shift of epic proportions some are making it out to be.

[alsame]

12. In the real world, I hope you are

never falsely accused of anything without the chance to prove yourself innocent. Because that's how it should always work, even if there are times the system fails.

[phleshdef]

13. In the real world, its all ready happened to me. And thats NOT what happened here...

...because she has gotten the chance to tell her side of it and Vilsack has apologized to her and is discussing the next steps.