{"id":14969,"date":"2014-07-10T10:51:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T17:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=14969"},"modified":"2014-07-10T10:51:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T17:51:58","slug":"sanity-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=14969","title":{"rendered":"Sanity Check"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my previous post<\/a> I revealed two aspects of my personality I’m not particularly proud of, but which I have come to accept: elitism and authoritarianism. I characterized\u00a0the Murrieta, California protestors\u2014the ones turning back buses attempting to bring immigrant children to a Border Patrol holding\u00a0facility\u2014as a pack of mouth-breathing racist morons\u00a0who\u00a0should be ignored by the media\u00a0and frozen out of the national debate over immigration.\u00a0I went on to suggest President Obama send in federal troops to clear the rabble off the streets, not just in Murrieta but at the Bundy Ranch as well.<\/p>\n

Really, I don’t know how\u00a0anyone who’s ever read a word I’ve written\u00a0could be surprised at my hostility toward know-nothings, and yet at least one reader at\u00a0Daily Kos<\/a>, where I cross-posted the entry, pretended to be. I’ve never made a secret of my disdain for the willfully ignorant, nor have I concealed my military background\u00a0and the authoritarian impulses\u00a0that come with it. Like I said, not proud, but there it is.<\/p>\n

I was in a black mood when I wrote yesterday’s post, but\u00a0I’m in a better mood today. This thanks to Rachel Maddow, who\u00a0last night featured\u00a0a long segment\u00a0titled “Help for Immigrant Children Grows Amid Border Furor<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

People all over the country, even in\u00a0deep-red Texas, are offering help: food, shelter, clothing, legal representation, even education and training in the form of classes and lessons for kids held in holding centers. Some of these good people are acting individually; some are working through church, charitable, and\u00a0professional groups. Some\u2014like the\u00a0Dallas County judge Rachel interviewed during the segment\u2014are working within the government. These people began to mobilize not after learning of the shameful actions of a handful of white power vigilantes\u00a0in Murrieta, California, but weeks ago, when the first waves\u00a0of child immigrants began to cross\u00a0the Rio Grande.<\/p>\n

I needed reassurance that the Bundy Ranch and Murrieta types are a marginal minority, and Rachel Maddow gave it to me. Most of us, regardless of how strongly we feel about\u00a0immigration and border security, combine compassion with our support for\u00a0the rule of law.\u00a0As much as it pains me to say it, the rule of law in this case is being represented by the Border Patrol and ICE\u2014not the vigilantes\u00a0screaming for immediate deportation,\u00a0shooting border crossers on sight, or introducing piranhas\u00a0into the waters of the Rio Grande.<\/p>\n

My only remaining question now is, where are the other major TV news anchors? Is it just going to be Rachel reminding us we’re not all mouth-breathing racists? As far as I can see, the other media outlets are totally focused on\u00a0the protestors in Murietta, just as they are on\u00a0the gun nuts still hanging out at the Bundy Ranch. This isn’t balance; in fact it is the opposite of balance.<\/p>\n

Thanks, Rachel. I needed a sanity check, and you delivered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I needed reassurance that the Bundy Ranch and Murrieta types are a marginal minority, and Rachel Maddow gave it to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,250,10,16,2,8],"tags":[1599,1600,1596,1598,140,69],"class_list":["post-14969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-brother","category-culture-wars","category-current-events","category-media","category-personal","category-politics","tag-bundy-ranch","tag-compassion","tag-immigration","tag-murrieta","tag-rachel-maddow","tag-racism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14969"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14977,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969\/revisions\/14977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}