To the Left and to the Right, Beware the Radicals

Beware the radicals, for they shall destroy the world.

Take a look around . . . I mean way around . . . and you’ll see radicals everywhere . .  on the left and on the right. Now these people, of course, don’t consider themselves radicals, but it seems to me that if we apply our reasonable eye to them and their beliefs, they fit that radical bill.

Whether it’s Orthodox Jews throwing rocks and spitting at a school girl in Israel, a Palestinian walking on to a bus and blowing himself up, a whacko blowing up a women’s clinic, or a man gunning down dozens of kids at a camp in Norway, they believe they are the arbiters of right and wrong . . . and of life and death.

I know it may not be fair to apply our sense of reasonableness to other countries or regions, but what the heck . . . we live in a place where we can voice our views and opinions without getting thrown in jail. It’s a freedom we too often take for granted.

We take for granted cartoonists can mock whomever they please, or comedians can step over lines most of us dare not tread, or some idiot can stand up and declare the end of the world is coming next week. We take for granted that women can wear whatever they wish and not get beaten on the street by religious thugs, or that we can peacefully protest without being shot.

Sure there are plenty of things that may bug us . . . who is paying for those Occupy protests around the country? . . . why does an artist create a sculpture of Christ with elephant dung? . . . And we may get pissed off. But what makes us great, the core of our country, is to allow those types of protests and conflicts and even defend people’s rights to voice those views, no matter how much we disagree.

That’s a view lost on our current crop of politicians occupying our buildings down in Washington D.C. They forgot those buildings don’t belong just to them. They forgot we pay them a lot of money to run the government . . . and even run it well (if such a thing is possible). They forgot there are people starving in this country and people unable to pay for their medicine or put gas in their cars.

And they forgot, in this election year, that turning themselves into radicals serves no purpose other than to fool people into voting for them. It’s a great argument for limiting the number of times they can run for office. Somewhere there is a middle . . . a balance between too much or too little government . . . a balance between too many regulations and too few . .  sit down and work it out.

So take a hard look at them. Radicals? Indeed some are . . . they may not be out in the streets beating people, but their proposals and speeches peel back that veil of reasonableness and exposes them for who they are . . . panderers to the most narrow-minded of their supporters, and haters of those who differ from them . . on both sides of aisle.

In the long run, it won’t work of course. We see what we see and hear what you say . . . and you are just as much a coward as that thug overseas beating women because they aren’t covered head-to-toe.