Rampage du Jour

I’ll irritate some people today. I don’t care. I’m in one of my “plague on both sides” moods. So stay out of my way.

There are movements in history that started out with the best of intentions, justified in many ways, unarguably benign and understandable, at least by many folks. Then those movements went to hell or found themselves being subverted by the Law of Unintended Consequences. At worst they became monumental tragedies. At best they became fodder for the opposition.

Fodder? Yes fodder. There is an old sports adage among coaches that you never present the opposition with something they can attach to their locker room wall.

Back to good movements that went astray. I think of the French Revolution.

I think of Prohibition in the United States.

I think of the American labor movement.

And maybe I even think of the sexual revolution each time I have to “fast-forward” through increasingly vulgar, tasteless, trite, and gratuitous sex scenes in any mystery novel with which I try to relax, or movie I try to watch.

Well anyway, here comes the “piss-off” part.

I fear that justified movements like “Black Lives Matter,” and “Me-too,” could charge into an overzealous rampage that becomes counter-productive.

I mean, Monica Lewinsky as a victim, for goodness sake.

Now don’t get me wrong. What Bill Clinton did was beyond stupid. Among other things, by letting his “little head” rule the “big head,” he tarnished what may have been, in my opinion as one who enjoyed and profited from his eight years of peace and prosperity, one of the greatest presidential administrations in our country’s history. How could he have been so stupid? His picture will forever grace the locker rooms of conservative opponents who believe the poor deserve poverty, the rich deserve to inherit wealth, and women should keep their damned mouths shut.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should attend his foundation and practice both reticence and celibacy, be more Jimmy Carter and less Donald Trump.

But, Monica Lewinsky?

I’ve never worked for state government, but I’ve worked around it a lot. Let me tell you, I’ve known dozens of individuals like Monica Lewinsky. They are seduced by, and obsessed with, power. It is an addiction as strong as alcohol and drug abuse. They deserve treatment, not aggrandizement. They cast a restraining shadow of resentment over the efforts of every hard-working female trying to overcome the systemic prejudice toward and oppression of their gender. This includes the political arena, the job market, and American mythology.

They hang around the seats of governmental power like hyenas waiting for a meal. They grin and drool and show themselves ready like some wild creature needing to expand its species with the most powerful male around. They would chase after and have sex with a rabid skunk if that skunk held high enough elected office. An additional layer of tragedy is that they have the talent to enter the halls of power but not the desire to increase the respect and elevation of their gender while they are there.

Ah. I’ve taken a few deep breaths. Let me just finish by saying, we need, in order to defeat the plans of a fascist government to destroy our democracy, to choose our heroes carefully, not provide matter for the opponents’ postings.

Rosa Parks was a hero. John Lewis was a hero. The Little Rock Nine were heroes. The firefighters and police officers who charged into the bombed buildings on 9-11 were heroes. Michael Brown was not a hero, a sad victim of his own demons and an explosive environment perhaps, but not a hero.

Medgar Evers was a victim. Emmet Till was a victim. Martin Luther King, Jr. was, as many others, both hero and victim. The women hanged in Salem were victims. The Central Park Five were victims, as were all those now represented in the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice (the Lynching Museum) in Montgomery. Every slave in America was a victim. The children being torn from their parents by our government are victims. Workers killed or wounded in the labor wars were victims. The list can go on and on. No thinking person, particularly those who claim the guidance of Christianity, could cast doubt on true victimhood.

But Monica Lewinski? Give me a break.

The progressive side of love, understanding, and fairness has an unending litany of heroes, none of which could offer fodder for the locker rooms of the vile and mendacious. We must choose carefully.