SHARKWATER

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Really Good Writing

A few posts ago, I praised the writing of blogger Glenn Greenwald. It's rare that I find true eloquence in a blog, but I found some more tonight at Truthout, written by William Rivers Pitt:
It isn't an excess of outrage that plagues this nation today, but an abject lack of it. Instead of castigating those who take an interest, who have gotten justifiably furious over all that has happened, I suggest you take a moment within yourself and ask why you don't share their feelings.
I think this may be one of the reasons I started a blog. I'm angry. I probably haven't shown that here, but having a forum (even if I'm the only one reading it!) is helpful in putting a finger on the feelings. Read Mr. Pitt's open letter to Richard Cohen of the Washington Post. It's worth it.

And feel free to be angry.

Update: I just noticed that Glenn Greenwald covered some of the same ground on his blog today, too. That's what I get for working instead of reading all day....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear. It's really bad around here (Washington DC), where everyone seems to be of the opinion "I'm not hurting anyone, so whatever."

My personal peeve: People parking in fire lanes. They block traffic, they're generally a pain, and they're just so much better than everyone else that they can't be bothered to put their car in a parking space 20' from the ATM instead of parking at the curb.

I once asked someone, trying to be civil and calm, why he did that, and he just said, essentially, "Because I want to. I'm not bothering anybody." Well, clearly he was (he really ticked me off, obviously), so not only was he a jerk, but he was demonstrably an idiot, too.

But what ticks me off most, and I think you were getting at this, is that I seem to be the only one who cares. The more we accept this sort of idiocy, the worse it'll get, and as long as nobody else ever complains to these people, they'll just keep on doing this.

(Another story, probably my "favorite" -- a lady in a minivan, in a fire lane, tells me she has to stay there while her son's in the store because he has a drug problem and they sell drugs in the back of the store. But obviously she's not concerned enough to go into the store with her kid. Again, idiots.)

Chard said...

Ouch. I had that problem at my bank (people parking in the fire lane). The bank is in a too-crowded shopping center. So I closed the account and moved my money elsewhere. I should probably have told the bank why I was doing it.