I’m actually writing this a couple of days before December 25. Two things are in my mind right now. One is the recent article by Orly Taitz saying that the US government is hopelessly corrupt and suggesting that Arizona should hold a secession referendum. The other is a December, 1961, quotation from Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International: “it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”
Here in the northern hemisphere December is the darkest month of the year. We celebrate light with candles and lighted trees. Many towns feature a Festival of Lights. It is a time when we express our longing for the return of warmth and love and light at a time when it is most absent.
I’m thinking about offering the quote from Benenson to the birthers because it seems to me that they are consumed with cursing the darkness of their own world view. One of the reasons birthers have failed to achieve standing in their lawsuits is that they cannot show any specific injury to any of them. The federal courts have told the birthers that their grievance is tenuous, hypothetical and generalized. They are cursing what they perceive as the darkness in their lawsuits.
Have birthers lost their job? Are they losing their home to foreclosure? Have they lost their health insurance? That didn’t happen because Obama was elected. Birthers may be afraid and anxious, and they may be facing hard times, but demonizing the President and calling him a usurper or blaming the government is nothing more than cursing the darkness, and cursing the darkness doesn’t make it any less dark. I suggest that the birthers would be better served by helping their neighbors and working to improve the political process by running for office or contributing to candidates they believe in. If they are in business, hire someone rather than hoarding capital. Take a positive step to make the country better rather than complain.
For those who oppose birthers, I offer the Benenson quote as well. Light a candle rather than curse the birthers. Lighting the candle can be volunteering in a public school or adult literacy program. It can be getting involved in the political process as well. Work to address the alienation and anxiety that underlies the birther phenomenon. And I guess publishing a blog with good sources and reliable argument lights a candle too. Here at the darkest time of the year:
it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness
Mele Kalikimaka from Hawaii Doc. Warmth & love & light remain easily obvious here in Hawaii right now, even though some folks further North might not be able to share that right now. Orly Taitz’s traitorous & demeaning view of her American neighbors & fellow voters just can’t be allowed to stand unchallenged. She is a suspect American citizen herself, with mixed loyalties, mixed citizenship. Yet she questions a NBC, born in Hawaii/USA, …. our President???
Orly tacitly admitted that the courts consider our President Obama a NBC but she continues with her charade. More entertainment to come….
Wise words Doc! Thanks for reflecting & sharing with us.
If we’re talking in theoretical terms, “lighting a candle” would have been for the US (despite its First amendment) to retain the fairness doctrine and if, not stop entirely, but effectively keep out of the national debate the vile propaganda which, from Fox up high to Orly the bottom feeder, has polluted your national discourse and, frankly, eroded your society. The sad and dreadful spectacle offered by the Republican primaries is an illustration that keeping the darkness at bay can’t be done with just lighting a few more candles.
“As long as one person lives in darkness then it seems to be a responsibility to tell other people.”
“Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we’re the imagination of ourselves” . . . “Here’s Tom with the weather.”
– Bill Hicks
The birthers have cursed the darkness for four years and likely will continue for another four.
It’s hard to keep a candle lit in a wind tunnel.
Merry Christmas to one and all
This is why I am afraid of Orly and her coterie:
Man Is Sentenced for Arson Protesting Obama’s Election
Read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/us/massachusetts-man-is-sentenced-for-arson-protesting-obamas-election.html