Managing Editor Scott Wright has been with The Post since 1998. He is a two-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade Award for humorous commentary. He is also the author of "A History of Weiss Lake" and "Fire on the Mountain: The Undefeated 1985 Sand Rock Wildcats."  He is a native of Cherokee County.

The Wright Angle
April 19, 2010

Been there, done that

By Scott Wright

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Attention to all tea baggers, right-wing nuts, Obama bashers, Palin enthusiasts, and Fox News automatons: Put a sock in it, will you? Geez.

For Pete's sake, when folks start shouting the “N” word at African American United States congressmen in broad daylight, and spitting on elected officials, and calling the office of a United States senator (Patty Murray of Washington) and threatening to “blow your f---ing brains out,” it's way past time to dial down the hatred. In fact, it's high time to take a long, hard look at what's going on in America and make absolutely certain that all this commotion is warranted.

In a couple of words, it's not.

What's wrong, folks? Does health care coverage for sick children really grind your gears this badly? Or are you angry because the president speaks in complete sentences and pronounces words (NU-clear) correctly?

My goodness, but you'd think Barack Obama was running around clubbing baby seals on prime-time TV instead of trying to make sure that 32 million more of our FELLOW AMERICAN CITIZENS have adequate access to health care.

Health care. Not something ridiculous or otherworldly or utterly unattainable. Just a healthier, longer life for as many people as possible.

I believe it is time to take a deep breath. Calm down, you'll live longer.

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that President Obama was to make some perilous, crazy-as-a-cockatoo decision – something we could all legitimately get mad as hell about — like, for example, running roughshod over the United States Constitution by giving government agencies illegal permission to spy on millions of phone calls and email transmissions.

Oh, wait. That was the last guy, wasn't it?

Well then, let's consider another absurd scenario that might adequately explain all this uproar. What if, at some point in the future, President Obama repeatedly lies to the American people, starts an all-out WAR based on a trumped up “weapons of mass destruction” accusation that turns out to be complete B.S. and gets tens of thousands of American soldiers killed and maimed in the process?

OK, OK. Let me try one more. I'm really going to let my imagination run wild this time. I know! Let's say that there is a disaster in the United States caused by, oh, I don't know, a hurricane, perhaps, and President Obama is so neglectful of his duty to protect the American people that he has appointed some nitwit fund-raising flunky who used to – I'm really going to stretch it here – judge Arabian show horses for a living to run the federal agency charged with making sure that thousands of residents of this devastated city are not forced to endure several days without necessities as simple as a blanket and a bottle of water.

I suppose if a string of events as unbelievable and unforgivable as these were to occur, then it would be OK to wish harm the guy who was responsible. But we're talking about health care for everyone, and the folks who are trying to get that done are in fear for their lives? That's a damned disgrace.

Believe it or not, I can sympathize with all you Chicken Littles out there, because for eight long, exasperating, excruciating years I was just as unhinged as you are now. A few weeks before President Obama's inauguration, I became absolutely convinced that Dubya and his fellow dipsticks in D.C. would declare some phony-baloney terrorism-related emergency just prior to Inauguration Day as part of a Romanesque plot to maintain control of the government.

Sounds crazy, right? Yeah, well, so do you.

Knock it off. Relax. If you're lucky, maybe one of these days your new health care coverage will allow you to spend a few extra years sitting on the front porch with family and friends, laughing at yourself for acting so silly back in 2010.