Evil and the fight to stop it

There have always been bad people in this world. There's no question about that. There have always been political divides in our country, as well. Even so, when someone gains a national following sufficient for his or her words to show up in major news magazines and that person is, by any civilized measure, truly twisted, then something has gone seriously wrong.

Part of this is clearly the fault of the various news media, virtually all of which have cast aside journalistic integrity in favor of scoring easy ratings points from chasing sensational stories. All in all, this gives me great concern.

The particular piece of sensationalistic fecal matter that has me out of sorts at the moment comes from the evil mouth of Ann Coulter. Before I share the lovely words here, let me pause to ask when "conservative" came to mean "hate monger"? As deeply troubled as I am by the current state of the Republican party, even worse are those who identify themselves as "conservative", for they aren't the conservatives of decades past. Instead, they are these closed-minded hateful individuals like Ann Coulter who aren't even worried about spouting their narrow-minded views in public. That's what really worries me--these people always existed, but now they feel fine spouting their trash publicly.

So here's what Ann Coulter recently said (in what apparently is her idea of an appropriately loving holiday message), addressed to Islamic peoples around the world: "Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders, and converted you to Christianity, you'd all be opening Christmas presents... about now."

People like this just handed George W. Bush a second term in the White House. They won, and that's that... but the fight goes on. I'm ashamed of people like this, making many in this world think that Americans are dangerous, hate-filled people.

I will NOT let the proud legacy of my nation be turned into this kind of trash. The fight goes on, and those of us who respect the differences distinguishing each of us will win this fight. Maybe not today, but the day will come. It will come legally, appropriately, through the electoral processes of this proud republic, perhaps over the course of years, but it will come.

This post is dedicated to the work of People for the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign and every individual and organization that continues to fight for the real values of our Founding Fathers and Constitution. If you're not already in this fight, join with us. We have a country and a world to protect!