Lemming Tracks: Assumptions, Change, and the Tucson Two-Step

Ever have times when you think the news couldn't get any crazier - and it does?

The Lemming's been through that: more than a few times. Remember: There's a birth certificate saying the Lemming was born during the Truman administration. Since then, McCarthyism changed from a real threat to a sitcom joke before entering semi-retirement as a political cliche. The Vietnam war ended - finally - and became an example used to illustrate why micro-management is a really bad idea.

The Establishment and the Lemming

From a post in another of the Lemming's blogs:

"...A brief review: in the fifties, 'the establishment' seemed to be focused on

• Looking for commies
• Pursuing 'the American dream'
• Maintaining conformity

"After the seventies, campus radicals of the sixties were older: and many were settling into academic and/or political careers....

"...I noticed that 'the establishment' now seemed to be focused on

• Looking for racists
• Being afraid of global warming
• Maintaining conformity
  • Ever hear of political correctness?

"And I still didn't particularly trust 'the establishment.' I haven't changed all that much, but boy, has 'the establishment' ever changed...."
(A Catholic Citizen in America (January 12, 2010)

Tucson: They Got This One in Time

Tucson was in the news again, over the weekend.

Like the Lemming said, just when it looked like it couldn't get any crazier - it does.

This time, God be thanked, nobody got hurt. James Eric Fuller is a victim of the Jared Loughner shootings. Mr. Fuller seems to believe that the Tea Party and Sarah Palin said something like 'kill liberals.' And that Palin was a traitor.

The Lemming thinks that Mr. Fuller's taking a photo of a Tea Party leader and yelling, "you're dead" is what encouraged Pima County law enforcement to take him in for psychiatric evaluation.

Disagreement isn't Treason

The Lemming remembers the 'good old days,' when red-white-and-blue-blooded 'regular Americans' popularized the slogan, "America: Love it or leave it." The 'good old days?' You can have them. The Lemming's got too good a memory to get very nostalgic.

Back in the 'love it or leave it' days, the Lemming didn't think that disagreeing with America's policies was treason - not even if it meant contradicting the President.

The Lemming still doesn't.

It's not, in the Lemming's opinion, just 'those people over there' who assume that any who disagree with them are either demented or evil. When political correctness was in flower, anyone expressing unapproved ideas was promptly identified as intolerant - which seems to be as close as the ideologues in charge could come to the concept of evil.

America: It Could be Worse

No hand-wringing about how American is collapsing, the center cannot hold, and all that.

Back in the '60s, folks who had gotten used to having their ideas accepted were upset. They didn't like what was happening to America. The Lemming isn't happy about everything that came from that social upheaval. But from long-overdue redress for 19th century treaty violations to diaper changing tables in men's lavatories, the Lemming thinks it's better now. Not perfect, but better.

Today, folks who have gotten used to having their ideas accepted are upset. They don't like what is happening to America.

Change Hurts. And change happens.

Related posts, with mini-micro-reviews:

• "Jared Loughner, Sarah Palin, James Eric Fuller, and Getting a Grip"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 18, 2011)
  • A long, long post, in which the Lemming opined that
    • Assumptions aren't facts
    • Disagreement isn't treason
• "Rambling About Tucson, Sudan, and Prudence"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (January 9, 2011)
  • Just what the title says it's about
• "Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords Shot: Utterly Unacceptable"
  (January 8, 2011)
  • Recap of shootings in Tucson, Arizona, with an opinion:
    • The Lemming thinks killing public officials is a bad idea