Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle said there was a special place in hell for Ronald Reagan over the War on Drugs. The usual flying monkeys freaked right out, and she apologized for her “inflammatory” remark. Blah blah par for the depressing course, she had the temerity to be right in public, etc.
“Reasonable people can disagree on the Reagan administration’s drug policies,” the Sun-TImesopines. “Reasonable people can believe, as we do, that he took too much of a punitive law enforcement approach, rather than a public health approach.
“But we can disagree on policies without – quite literally – condemning the man.”
By all means, let’s not condemn the man. That would be so impolite. He condemned the lives of so many others, but he did so with civility and we should return the gesture.
You know why people think newspapers don’t matter anymore? You know why people think traditional media don’t matter anymore? Because news organizations, every single fucking day, tell the world exactly that. We don’t matter. We won’t use strong laguage. We won’t react with righteous fury. We won’t get het up about anything, and if anybody else does, we’ll gently herd them back into line.
Once upon a time editorials thundered. Now they raise their hands meekly, ask permission to speak, and then sit back if their words cause too much trouble.
There are times rage is called for. There are times rage is necessary. There are times when rage saves human souls.
Why are we so afraid to get upset about anything? Why have we positively lionized not giving a shit? What is the fucking problem? Are we scared to get it wrong? Getting something wrong is not the worst sin in the world. Raising your voice about something is not the worst sin in the world. Sitting placidly while the fucking earth caves in, that’s much worse. Why does passion scare the crap out of us these days? Jesus, get off the fucking couch already.
A.