Thursday, April 27, 2006 | by nathan

Minorities Joined Together Make A Majority

President W is speaking at Oklahoma State University’s graduation this year. Erica’s fiance, Alex, is getting ready to graduate, and so she and I had a hard core hate-on of Bush on the phone yesterday.

I remember how, when I was at Wake, the speaker lineup for graduation went something like this:

2001: Barbara Bush

2002, my graduation: John McCain

2003: Colin Powell

They broke the streak in 2004 by having Arnold Palmer speak, but still - are Democrats just not doing graduation speeches? Because I, for one, would love to hear this one.

What is the President going to have to say, anyway? "War on Terror blah blah blah strategeries blah blah blah deserving poor blah blah blah."

A woman at work hates Bush more than I do, which I honestly did not think was possible. She suggested we protest the speech with signs that say "OSU Sucks…And So Does Bush."

I’m thinking that when the revolution comes, it needs to be all about politeness and good manners, because if we really want to change the way we feel about the people we dislike, we should change the way we treat them, and there has been far too much scolding, and yelling, and fear-mongering, and co-opting of the name of God, and "othering." Is there a way to have an inclusive, nonviolent, polite revolution? Or is rioting the only thing that’s going to get it done?

Either way, I don’t know whether to join in the planned protests of OSU’s graduation, or stay at home and watch the speech on C-Span. I do know that Bill O’Reilly is on one of the TVs in the lab right now, and he is lambasting NPR for having a "misleading report" on one of its shows. On Fox News. Fox News is going to call NPR to the carpet on accuracy. Really? That’s special.

I continue to be amazed at the obvious, glaring contradictions in the neocons’ philosophical viewpoint - or rather, the true and honest lack thereof. Especially the one that says "We most closely represent the political manifestation of a Christian worldview in the world, but we are powerful, and we can make up the truth to fit our ideological agenda."

The Republicans use religious rhetoric to much greater effect than any other political party in history. By doing so they have convinced good religious folks in middle America that what matters theologically is that they oppose stem cell research and gay marriage, that they believe that Jesus wants us to be in Iraq, and probably Iran too.

The problem is that, no matter the religious convictions of the individuals in the ruling party, power corrupts; power demands more power. There can never, ever, ever be enough. For all their use of Christian language to attract voters, this is the most postmodern rulership this country has ever had. They have made it abundantly clear that they do not believe that the truth matters. The truth is that there were no WMD in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11; this did not matter so much as their desire to wage this war. They needed us to believe that everything was going great in New Orleans, even though it so clearly was not, and so that is what they told us, and expected us to believe. They tell us the war is going well, when far too many people are dying.

They cannot even really be called liars; lying is nonexistent when you don’t really care what the truth is. Actually now that I think about it it kind of reeks of Nietzsche: the will to truth is not so important as the will to power.

Either way, it’s not Christian. Let’s not even mention the total lack of compassion for, say, the poor. Or gays. Women. Iraqis.

I was listening to Margaret Cho’s new book on my iPod last week, and while I like a lot of what she says, and certainly laughed my ass off, I disagree that hating the haters is the way to proceed. We must be willing to do what our enemies have not; namely, to transcend our hatred and turn it into something useful and transformative. I am completely unsure what this looks like, partly because it has been done so rarely. Dr. King and Ghandi may be a good place to start looking.

In the meantime, wonderful art is being created about all of this, and I do believe that if we act in redemptive ways, redemption will happen. After all, if you want to change the way you feel about someone, you have to change the way you treat them. Call it Forgiveness, Step 1.

Step 2? Not sure. I really wish it was "Throw Rocks at Bush’s limo as it drives by through Stillwater," but somehow I just believe that this cannot be the answer. So I’ll show up in Stillwater with signs and slogans, not necessarily believing they will work, but I will try not to be mean, and I will try to have faith that my voice is audible, even if I feel like a Who shouting at big, stupid Horton.

Light the candles, pass out water, bring some fruit and some money. Make sure you are registered to vote and that you do so, early, and often.  

Living In America