Be Nice! Be Polite!

I have heard from some people, both friends and people that have visited my site, that I am too strident. That I should not offend people with calling members of this Administration liars.

It seems that Liberals should talk softly and be nice. That we should never offend! I am not sorry for calling those who tell lies liars. I am sorry that Liberals and Progressives think that we should always in the political arena be nice and polite. Being nice and polite is great when you are with your friends and family. It is good to be nice and polite to the people who you meet on the streets, on the job and the people who wait on you when you are out shopping or dining. It is not good to be nice and polite toward people that are doing wrong. Who are hell bent on destroying America.

Would you be nice and polite to someone who has broken into your house to steal? To a murderer? To a rapist? To a torturer? To an enemy who has invaded your country?

I cheer the very few times that one Democratic Senator tells the truth and calls the Republican’s out on a lie. A few days later, after the whining from the Right has been non-stop, the apologies come out. Not for lying or distorting what the Republican has said, but for hurting the Republican’s feelings. Such cry babies. If they can’t win with lies, they use tears and whining.

Changes do not happen in this country by being nice. Change comes when the people rise up, shout, march, write and show that they do not approve. Change is noisy, messy and definitely not nice and polite. There has never been a change in this country without the people being loud and abrasive. I want change! I will be noisy! I will call a spade a spade. I will point out the lies, the distortions and the wrongs as I see them. I will not apologies, unless I have stated something which is not true. I will not be nice and polite about those I see as just plain wrong about America.

Most Republican party members are not a bit polite. Read what many of their preachers and pundits and other blathering media darlings, (Ann Coulter comes to mind here) has to say about Democrats. They are not nice or polite.

As I see it, where has been being nice gotten us? Where did being nice get the African’s in America? Where did being nice get the Jews in Nazi Germany? Where did being nice get the women in this country? The Irish, the Catholic, the Chinese, the Japanese? Being nice in politics does not help change this country. Being noisy, marching, writing and protesting the wrongs have been the only way to change what has always been.

Here is the complete list of the beginning of the women’s movement from around the world. Interesting, we could stand for election thirty-two years before we could vote. What sense did that make? Oh, without the women voting for other women, they would never get elected. Give them a right, but it really is bovine excrement.

1788 United States of America (to stand for election)
1893 New Zealand (to vote)
1902 Australia*
1906 Finland
1907 Norway (to stand for election)*
1913 Norway**
1915 Denmark, Iceland*
1917 Canada (to vote)*, Netherlands (to stand for election)
1918 Austria, Canada (to vote)*, Estonia, Georgia1, Germany, Hungary, Ireland*, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russian Federation, United Kingdom*
1919 Belarus, Belgium (to vote)*, Luxembourg, Netherlands (to vote), New Zealand (to stand for election), Sweden*, Ukraine
1920 Albania, Canada (to stand for election)*, Czech Republic, Iceland**, Slovakia, United States of America (to vote)
* Right subject to conditions or restrictions
** Restrictions or conditions lifted

1954: The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned “separate but equal” segregation of the races, ruling that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” This only took fifty-eight years. All this time, the African American’s were polite and nice. Waiting patiently for equality to come.

1964: The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote.

1964: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.

It took ten years of struggle, of marching, of talking, of writing, of being noisy and not a bit polite to make this change, by many Americans. Americans of different colors, faiths and political parties. Do you think that the Supreme Court would have changed it’s vote or that Mr. Johnson would have signed the Civil Rights Act? Have you ever heard or read the transcripts of his talking in private? The man seemed to be a rabid racist. Since I don’t know the man personally, I can only judge him by his speech.

These two examples give us the answer to the question of should we be polite and nice? No! Change only comes with agitation. So let’s be impolite, noisy and not nice! The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
~Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.~ (1900 - 1965)