Having said the same thing over and over myself, (4.00 / 2)

all I can think to say now is Amen! (The Hallelujah! part having been unavoidably detained, this is the best I can do for the moment.)

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by: William Timberman @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 14:49:06 PM UTC

Detained for Questioning, (4.00 / 3)

no doubt.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 14:51:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think it's a Lenten joke. (4.00 / 1)

You aren't supposed to say "hallelujah" during Lent. Yes, really.

Montani semper liberi

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by: Sadie Baker @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 16:02:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ah Me! (4.00 / 1)

There's just got to be a comeback joke in there somewhere, around the theme of re-lenting, but I repent for even thinking about it.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 16:12:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Full disclosure (4.00 / 2)

I was thinking of End Times, not of Lent. (I was raised a Protestant, after all.) When my grandmother lived with us, she -- being an Anglican -- used to come home around noon every Ash Wednesday with her forehead marked, and was never without a palm branch on Palm Sunday. The rest of the family, being Presbyterians, looked upon her as a misguided idolater, although they were kind enough, somehow, to refrain from telling her so.

Nowadays, I try to save the jubilation for occasions which merit it. I felt Jesse Jackson's tears of joy very deeply -- for his sake -- but knowing what I knew, I couldn't share in them.

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by: William Timberman @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 16:22:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hopefull folks will realize (4.00 / 3)

that marches like this will not, on their own, do much to advance these two important causes. But if they can be used as a mechanism to produce a movement, they can be truly powerful.  

I remember hearing Naomi Klein talk about this the day of the Freedom Park arrests - if we do nothing more than converge on DC occasionally, we have no power. If we take that energy back to our own communities to build something more lasting - that is a different story.

Thanks for putting the spotlight on these events.

Politics is the art of the possible, but that means you have to think about changing what is possible, not that you have to accept it in perpetuity.

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by: David Kaib @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 15:13:30 PM UTC

I think Open Left will be whatever the staff directs it to be (4.00 / 2)

You choose the stories and we respond as we find interest.  But to look at the recent discussion it is very easy to see why health care became obsessive to your readership.  Health care is the one issue that effects every person in a deep and individual way.  It directly effects how well and how long we enjoy this singularly significant gift called life.  Virtually every thing we enjoy or endure during that life is dependent on our health.  Other issues, they are cognitive choices.  So don't be surprised as our ability to obtain that which has always been a pride of Americans, obtaining the BEST health care, is openly confronting us that we deviate into an obsessive battle.

The other issues you bring up are less significant to many if not most Americans.  When you live in a society that wages war without taxing it's people or allows the wealthy to illegally import foreign workers without regard to regulation, don't be surprised that people pretend it isn't happening until it takes the bread off their table or takes the life of their loved one.  This doesn't mean I don't support your goals of enlightening what you see as progressive goals.  I'm trying to say that certain issues affect people more deeply and more immediately.  

All that said, I have always enjoy your economic and constitutional treatises more than health care because I've spent the last forty years being a part of the events and consequences while the state of our national health system deteriorated.  I would much rather read about that which I don't know than that which I believe I have a fair amount of knowledge and experience.  Perhaps, however, I'll be a little less adamant in my expressions.  

"Oh. My. God. .... We're doomed." -- Paul Krugman
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c...">http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c...">http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c...

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by: WorkingClassDemocrat @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 16:18:24 PM UTC

Right On! (4.00 / 2)

Let's talk about breaking up the big banks.  Or reigning in militarism.  Can you believe that a motion to cap military spending (Pelosi's position) LOST at my local Democratic county convention?!

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by: JRD--Iowa @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 18:27:40 PM UTC

Hmmm. (0.00 / 0)

That's pretty depressing, considering that even a majority of self-identified conservatives since 2006 on the General Social Survey thinks that we're either spending "too much" or "about the right amount" on the military:

NATARMS Question text: 68. We are faced with many problems in this country, none of which can be solved easily or inexpensively. I'm going to name some of these problems, and for each one I'd like you to tell me whether you think we're spending too much money on it, too little money, or about the right amount. i. The military, armaments and defense.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 21:39:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]