I refuse to listen to Rush. Ditto Hannity, Beck and the either/both Lauras.
I will not watch O’Reilly. I will not read anything by that aneorxic harpy Ann Coulter.
I make this choice for the same reason I do not shoot heroin into my veins.
It is toxic, addictive, and will destroy my soul.
[In the interest of unbiased fairness, I do not watch Olberman or Rachel Madow either. Although, my shower-dress-breakfast routine is accompanied by Morning Joe.]
I mention this because reading the op-ed/letters page of my Sunday News is as close as I dare to dip my toes in the ongoing left-right war.
Most recently the sorry state of our once-mighty auto industry has been the subject of some fulmination.
I get it, times are tough. I’m not some over-schooled, ivory-tower white collar living in a bubble. I worked in a factory for 33-1/2 years. I’ve lived the ‘Murrican Dream.
And because I worked with the lunch pail stiffs, I also know that when times get tough, we get tough … on those who aren’t us.
And so we read letters bashing the Japanese for the decline of General Motors. Chrysler. Ford. Because, if I’ve got it right, the Japanese fought us in a war over 60 years ago!
Using that logic 100 years ago we, as a nation, should’ve cast a jaundiced eye on our neighbor to the south, Mexico, because they took up arms against us in 1845!
[Come to think of it, we did send “Black Jack” Pershing over the border to chase Pancho Villa.]
Other than building cars Americans wanted, the Japanese did nothing to Detroit that Detroit did not do to itself.
While Toyota-Nissan-Honda et. al. were building, and promoting, quality small vehicles, Detroit was saying it could not be competitive. And with the crap they ran out there (Pinto anyone? T-1000? Valiant?] it was a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Quit looking overseas [where much of our jobs have gone, by the way] for scapegoats.
And stop beating on the Japanese.
We did enough of that 60-plus years ago.
