Dear Tell All: Thank you for standing up for civility and reconciliation in Wisconsin in the midst of the divisive recall election ("Where Are Wisconsin's Manners?," 6/14/2012; and "Screw Manners," 6/29/2012). When things are going our way, it is easy to spout off bumper-sticker sayings such as "Let peace begin with me" or "Be the change you want to see in the world." When things go the exact opposite of what we want, are we willing to put action behind our platitudes?
As a state and a country, we have a long, difficult road ahead of us. We can either "do unto others what we would have them do unto us," or we can fight. The political pendulum will continue to swing right and left, but let's not let it destroy our relationships with each other.
Give Peace a Chance
Dear Tell All: You can spend as much time as you like insisting that Gov. Scott Walker isn't a dictator, as you did in your column about Wisconsin civility. But political philosophy tells a different tale. The Walker administration clearly exhibits 10 of the 14 characteristics of a fascist regime, tends towards an 11th, and will add a 12th to its repertoire if it completes the church-state link by enacting "moral" legislation dictated to it by Wisconsin's "pro-life" groups.
It's instructive to browse through the reader comments linked to articles in the German press about American political activity. More and more Germans are beginning to express the hope that Americans will take back our political system before we have to learn the hard way, like their parents and grandparents did.
Unfortunately, it seems that Americans are slumbering quite complacently, secure in the bizarre understanding that democracy will be alive and well as long as corporate capitalism remains unfettered by governmental regulations designed to protect human and environmental rights. It would seem that we are doomed to fall squarely into the fascist abyss long before we collectively wake up.
I Hope I Can Secure Legal Employment in Some Other Country Before It's Too Late to Get the Heck Out of This One
