2009: The Year the Pretense Died?

alvaro

What happened? When did I become such a cynic? How can it be that my immediate reaction is skepticism to people, organizations and/or movements that outwardly seem to be selflessly asking for my support to help the less fortunate. Who are these people and what are they really after is my first thought these days. Why? How did I get here?

Could it be I don’t trust readily because in my country a young woman, Carrie Prejean, was publicly humiliated and branded a hate monger because she dared to answer a question honestly that was asked by that bigoted buffoon, Perez Hilton, who would a short time later call a recording artist a “faggot.” All year we watched as Sarah Palin and her entire family, including her disabled infant son, were excoriated because she had the audacity to accept her party’s request to run for vice president. In her case, no lie was too small to repeat. Remember how another woman, Hillary Clinton, was called a racist when it became expedient to get rid of her? Where were/are the feminists?

We have the story about a couple of young filmmakers who exposed ACORN, which used to be an advocate for poor families and today is little more then a front for voter fraud and intimidation. In the past these young reporters would have been called whistleblowers and applauded for their efforts, today they find themselves being investigated and they fear for their safety. We have the SEIU sending out union thugs to beat up civilians and they’re getting away with it! We have the National Endowment for the Arts enlisting artists on a national scale to promote a political party’s agenda. We used to call that propaganda for the state and we studied about its effectiveness in Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China and other fascist, dictatorial and totalitarian countries. I can’t even believe climategate. These are but a few examples, there are hundreds more. Where’s the outrage about this from my fellow artists? Where are our heroes? I don’t care what party they belong to — where is the stand up, outspoken outrage from our representatives at what is taking place in this country on their watch?

There is no pretense anymore about the total and complete mass media bias. The journalists and news producers of this country, through their own repeated actions, have exposed themselves. Their only recourse now is to stop wasting time defending and pretending and to get on with their agenda ASAP. They have resorted to outright lies and distortion/spin or they ignore stories altogether with no apologies. When that doesn’t work and when it comes back to bite them in the ass, they attack the journalist, the news organization and/or the person responsible for the exposé in a way that would make Joseph Goebbels proud.

Is that it? Was it all a lie that liberals cared about people and conservatives cared about money? Yes, it is a lie. I never changed. I absolutely care about people and that’s why I have changed the way I believe it’s best to help those who need help. “Give a man a fish and he will not be hungry for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will not be hungry for a lifetime.” is a Chinese proverb that is timeless because it is…wait for it…TRUE!

I may be far from perfect, but my mom did not raise me to question one when asked for help, but to try and help, period. Granted, that’s what my mom did. She always gave no matter how much we needed ourselves and she was not alone. Everyone I can remember did the same. But that was a lifetime ago. I was young and it was a time when I took people at their word and I believed journalists reported the news truthfully. That made it easy to believe people and organizations that asked for help as well. Now, I check them out first. Sorry Mom.

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