Paying Attention

I wish that some people would pay attention. Seemingly there are enough folk around that are glad that some people don't.

Take for instance a woman who came in the store the other day who needed help in the rug aisle. She needed a piece which had become unnecessarily buried by an associate who was too darn busy to pay attention when he was stocking that particular rack. The customer and I started one of those conversations based on "the good old days". Within about 30 seconds, she had turned into a recording.

"I belong to a 'tea party' group."

"Really? Are you aware of the reason for the original Boston Tea Party?"

She launched into the whole "... taxation without representation..." routine which isn't quite what really happened. Had she been paying attention, she would have known that the original "Partiers" were smugglers who were dumping less expensive English tea (the tax was taken off well before the party, you see) in order to protect their business interests developed during the relatively short time that the tax had been in effect. No altruistic motives, here - just sort of eliminating the competition. Today's partiers? Well, I'm willing to make a small wager that if the money trail were followed it would lead back to people and organizations which would stand to lose if the status quo were to change. When the alternative view of what happened in advance of the Revolutionary War was presented, the other person decided that it was time to abruptly change the subject of the conversation.

"We need to find different politicians to put into office - except, of course, the people who represent us here in North Texas..."

God forbid that the local politicos should have the letter (D) instead of the letter (R) behind their names as they do now. Oooops, let's change the subject again....

"It's all the fault of the lawyers and those activist judges..."

I know, am related to and have known a few lawyers in my time and most of them are relatively decent people who try to uphold the laws of the land. As far as the judges, well, if they made decisions that you liked, you wouldn't be upset at their activism, would you? Start again.

"... The Constitution..."

Great document. Living, breathing... if you don't like the way it's being interpreted now, wait a few years. Wait a minute, how about...

"Liberals..."

Insert the word "Jew" every time you sneer the word "Liberal" and you'll start to sound like that Austrian with the funny moustache who caused so much trouble in the last century. Besides, Jesus was a liberal Jew...

"The media..."

I'll presume that you are including Fox in your rant?

And so it went. Any answer not in her 'script' was met with a sharp change in subject. Same thing with the "conservatives" on my e-mail lists. Send 'em an answer contrary to what they think it should be and by golly, they counter with a different subject.

What's really scary is that this trend isn't just between people who do the e-mail thing here in the United States - It's seemingly the same with the radical Islamists who are giving us so much trouble whenever the heck they feel like it. I started this morning quite early and found that there was wall to wall coverage of the crisis in Haiti. Those who pay attention to things will note that every time there is some sort of catastrophe, it is the people and the government of the United States who are there trying to pick up the pieces, to do the search and rescue, to feed, to care for and help those in need. You just have to pay attention to what's going on to appreciate it.

In amongst the coverage today of the catastrophe in Haiti were reports that Al-Queda is seriously considering another attack on the U.S. In amongst the coverage today of the catastrophe in Haiti was a report that Pat Robertson had declared the disaster the fault of a "Pact with Satan"... and he wasn't the only conservative talking head trying to get attention instead of paying attention. I don't know which is sadder, the plight of the Haitians or those attempting to make political or religious points at Haiti's expense. I rather suspect the latter.

Al-Queda, Pat Robertson and this so-called "Tea Party" would much rather people not pay attention and stick to the scripts that they write for their own purposes. Doesn't that make them all rather much the same?


***** Quick addition; before going to the hospital this morning for some adjustment, Carol paused for a few moments to jump on line to make a donation to the American Red Cross to help the people in Haiti. If she can do that at 5:15 in the morning after having had to put up with my snoring all night, you, dear reader, have no excuse not to do the same.

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