I am very sorry to say this, but I think Melissa Harris Perry is a twit.

[No Elephants]

Maybe her heart is in the right place, but she babbles on and many of the things she says make no sense.

Worse, she doesn't get that what she is saying makes no sense.

This morning she very grandiosely said words to this effect: "Whatever you may think of the U.S. military, you cannot deny that dying in a war for your country is the very embodiment of American citizenship." (The body language was chin up, shoulders going proudly/defiantly from side to side. Even if what she said made sense, the body language was silly. )

What does what she said really mean, if you think about it?

If you want to say that be willing to die for a country, if necessary, (war or not), is the biggest sacrifice anyone can make for a country, I can understand that. If you want to say that being willing to die for your country is the very embodiment of heroism, I can understand that.

But that is not what she said.

First, most U.S. citizens never serve in the military, let alone die in war. Is something about their citizenship defective?

Four kids died in Kent State, peacefully protesting against a war they thought was evil. Was something about their citizenship defective?

Second, dying in a war is not the objective of any member of the military, nor should it be. The objective is to do your duty and come home alive and as sound of mind and limb as possible. Does anything about that mean their citizenship is somehow defective?

Third, dying for the U.S. really has nothing to do with American citizenship.

In the Revolutionary War, no one died for the U.S., which did not yet exist. They died to throw off what they saw as oppression and a very just cause, after, again in their minds, exhausting all other possibilities. To my mind, that is far preferable to dying for lines on a map. Dying for a just cause, great. Dying for a country that you believe is doing something that is morally wrong, though? Is that the "very embodiment of American citizenship?"

In the Revolutionary War, Frenchmen fought with the colonists against the British. Today, we have people in the U.S. illegally, fighting for the U.S. in wars, knowing that they risk death and knowing that we might deport them or their parents. To me, that is more patriotic and heroic than dying for the country in which you were born, simply because you were born there.

And what the hell do the words "very embodiment of American citizenship" mean, anyway? I always thought the very embodiement of American citizenship was a birth certificate showing birth in the U.S. or naturalization papers.

Isn't it bad enough that we glorify the military beyond anything that matches reality? Now, we are going to glorify dying in some abstract war, moral or not, by equating with "embodiment of U.S. citizenship" (whatever that means)? Is that going to lead us to any good place?

I never expected serious analysis from her. But shouldn't she at least say things that at least make sense on their face? And its not even as though she has to figure out how to fill air time every night. She's on only on the weekend.

[No Elephants]

1. Ok, later in the same show, she discussed the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade

with some advocates of reproductive choice.

As the discussion neared it logical end, MHP opined, "Women always have a connection to a pregnancy. I think the mistake we make is saying it isn't life. It is life, but sometimes life requires you to make hard decisions."

:banghead:

Did she think it was important to read Roe v. Wade before discussing it on television? Did she not see the pains the SCOTUS took about when life begins? Why did she think the Court did that?

Because, whenever the state infringes on individual liberty, especially a Constitutional right, and there is a lawsuit, the Court has to first decide whether the state has power to regulate in that sphere. No one questions the power of the State to forbid murder, aka, the taking of a life.

Yes, sometimes a hard decision is involved in not murdering someone. But, if we are sane at that moment, we either stay our hand or prepare to be arrested and tried for murder.

That is why the Roe v. Wade court agonized over when life, as most people understand it, actually begins.

The other women just looked at her dumbfounded (no pun intended) and, after a brief word, the one with the most presence of mind tried to wrap up the discussion with something like, "The important thing is that we recognize that women have a right to make the decision without permission from politicians."

MHP also opined that there is always both joy and sadness in the decision to have a child. That even if you choose to carry a child to term, every parent regrets that decision. Huh?

A man on the panel said that his parents were "the" exception to that rule. Again, huh?

To which MHP replied "Not even at 4 a.m.?"


Which, of course, mades it sound as though people regret not aborting simply because babies wake them up in the middle of the night. I cannot believe that every parent who chooses to have a baby seriously regrets not having an abortion because newborns don't sleep through the night. I don't think MHP herself every had that regret.

As I said in the OP, she seems to babble with little advance thought and thinks she is dropping pearls of wisdom.

[formercia]

2. Not exactly pearls of Wisdom

She could eat some foil and make little chocolate kisses.

[Enthusiast]

3. I cannot watch her.

We tried. Can't do it. Nice hair, but. Too much of a BO cheerleader for one thing. And, as educated as she is, she somehow seems to have missed out on some fundamental wisdom along the line.

[No Elephants]

4. Chris Hayes who precedes her on Sunday mornings is so much more intelligent

and better informed.

I wnnder if anyone in the NBC brass has ever actually watched her show.

[Enthusiast]

5. We will watch Chris.

I think the NBC brass like MHP just fine. She carries the corporate water.