After Sandra Fluke,
a 3rd year law student at Georgetown University, was prevented from
testifying at Rep. Darrel Issa’s Capitol Hill Hearing faith-based hearing, she
was finally allowed to testify at a Democratic hearing arranged by Rep. Nancy
Pelosi. While Rep. Issa’s hearing was held under the guise of discussing
religious freedoms, the Rep. Pelosi hearing appears to have been convened as a
more open discussion on Democratic Policy. If you are so inclined, ABCNews’ online
article is here,
and you can find the text of Ms. Fluke’s testimony at this Democratic hearing
linked in the article or here.
Enter the conservative attack
machine. You can find a pretty good timeline
article on the events following Ms. Fluke’s testimony, on the “The
Week” website. I have yet to find a
reliable transcript of Limbaugh’s comment on his radio show, but, it appear he
was piling on from articles published at CNS News and Hot Air with
incendiary titles such as; "Sex-crazed co-eds going broke
buying birth control, student tells Pelosi hearing touting freebie mandate"
and "Georgetown co-ed: Please pay for us to have sex...
We're going broke buying birth control." Good Ole big mouth Rush jumps
on in radio broadcast with comment like, claiming that she is asking the government to subsidize her sex life. "What does
that make her?" he asks. "It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a
prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she
can't afford contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her
to have sex” and "If we are
going to pay for your contraceptives, thus pay for you to have sex, we want
something for it, and I'll tell you what it is: We want you to post the videos
online so we can all watch."
Regardless of the
fact that nowhere in her testimony before congress can you find any reference
to Ms. Fluke sexual activities or frequency, CNS News, Hot Air, and Rush
Limbaugh (I’m showing great restrain to avoid name calling here, though find
some of my Facebook posts to find them) chose to enflamed their readers and
listeners with of the most vile, vitriolic, and inaccurate accounts of her
testimony. I don’t think, as Sanda Fluke
has declared, this attack was design to silence her specific, but rather to
discredit her and discourage others from speaking out. These are clear examples of Conservative
movement and current GOP’s attack bullies, no different than schoolyard bullies
around the nation and which we are trying to combat today. I include the GOP in this essay because, the
current Speaker of House had to “encouraged” to disavow Limbaugh’s comments,
and when the current group of GOP Presidential candidates were given a chance
to comment, they either soft-pedaled a response or choice to deflect and use
the chance to instead make negative comments about our current President.
Yes, Rush did apologize… But, like the schoolyard bully, not until he
was hauled into the Principal’s office and made to apologize with his head held
low and toe stabbing and the floor, did Rush offer his apology, and with the
same sincerity of the schoolyard bully. I
have long held that an apology – sincerely given – is more for the benefit of
the person giving it, a chance to express and acknowledge true regret. And… In my experience, once said, words can
never be unsaid. You can apologize
forever, but you can never take it back.
Whether Ms. Fluke accepts his apology is of little consequence, as long
as she allows herself to forgive. For
you see, forgiveness is, like an apology, more beneficial to the giver. But, there is one thing about forgiveness,
just because you forgive someone, it doesn’t mean you need to forget what has
been done or said, nor accept the transgression prompting the forgiveness. It only mean that you bear no malice to the
individual it is given too.
Now, what about the right
to ‘Free Speech’? Yes, it is Rush’s right
to say whatever it is that he deems appropriate, however, he also has the right
(or responsibility) to accept every consequence for his speech. While the Constitution grants him the right
to free speech, it only exempts him from government sanctions for that speech,
not the wrath or rebuke of a society repulsed by it. While
I am not generally given to violence, if Rush Limbaugh had made such comments
about one of my daughters of the same nature as Ms. Fluke and I met him on the
street, I’d be inclined to punch his limits out, and then… Gladly accept the consequences for my
actions. I have heard a few right
leaning commentators that this is uproar is a double standard, and that when
left leaning ‘pundits’, like Bill Maher (who I don’t watch because I find his
rhetoric largely distasteful), make comments like those of Rush’s, it is
largely ignored. I monitor a broad
spectrum of news sources, and I haven’t seen any material like this one. Point me to them I and will read them and
respond, as I believe anyone spewing the vitriolic tripe that Limbaugh
unleashed on the airwaves. I am not
against anyone speaking out about their view, opinions, and convictions, but,
this Limbaugh diatribe was a blatant personal attack on a young woman given the
opportunity to express her views. And… It
is obviously to me that he did so with malicious intent. He either did not read, or didn’t care about
the content of the opinion she expressed, he chose to attack her character
simple because it suited his purposes, and because that is what his supports
expect. So, ask you; Who is the real slut and or whore here?
As with any right or
freedom, they all come with certain explicit expectations that they be exercised
responsibility. I have known about Rush
Limbaugh for many years, he really started out as a comedian with a bent for
political commentary years ago. He has
mistakenly started to believe his own press that he a now a powerful GOP pundit
and leader, and forgotten that what is accepted from the comedian, is not appreciated
or accepted from our leaders, real or perceived. I have similar issues with Bill Maher, though
he doesn’t seem to be garnering the press coverage of Rush Limbaugh and the
ultra-conservative media. Yes… I know it
all the fault of that nasty liberal media machine.
My next piece will
be the essay I was working on before this entire media firestorm made itself
known. It will be expanding on some of
my thoughts expressed in this essay.
Your comments or questions
are always welcome, and I have added an email address for those not wishing to comment
openly in this forum. Emails can be sent
to recoveringcathcon@gmail.com.
However, please know that if this account is used to flood me with trash and
hate mail, I will shut it down.
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