Instead of Self-loathing We Need to Buck Up I reported earlier on MoveOn.org's New York Times ad which called General Petraeus a traitor. Well, yesterday, the US Senate Votes to Condemn MoveOn for Ad Attacking General Petraeus. The courageous Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden made sure they were not on the Senate floor for the vote which went 72-25. As shown in the link, these are the Nays and Not Voting (Absent)...

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting - 3
Biden (D-DE)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)

I've put the presidential candidates in BOLD because I think it was because of MoveOn.orgs money or supposed influence that they voted in this way. Well, I guess it is the best way to look at it because otherwise they'd have to actually believe that General Petraeus is a liar (Sen. Clinton did say that, didn't she?) and a traitor.

Anyway, I'm surprised that they don't get it that this is self-defeating, perhaps they aren't really smart enough to be in the positions to which they've been elected, much less President of the United States.

It would be better if more Americans realized that sometimes life is tough and we need to swallow our natural disgust with violence and do what we need to do to get the nation through this long time attack. Perhaps a bit of Robert W. Service (courtesy of my friend Jim Taylor) will best illustrate my point of view:

THE QUITTER
by Robert W. Service

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child,
And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and . . . die.
But the Code of a Man says: "Fight all you can,"
And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . .
It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard.

"You're sick of the game!" Well, now that’s a shame.
You're young and you're brave and you're bright.
"You've had a raw deal!" I know — but don't squeal,
Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
So don't be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit, it’s so easy to quit.
It’s the keeping-your chin-up that’s hard.

It’s easy to cry that you're beaten — and die;
It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight —
Why that’s the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and battered and scarred,
Just have one more try — it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

I hope, no, pray that Americans will buck up, do their damnedest, and fight.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by The Editor 7:41 AM