Grab and Keel

Yesterday a friend sent me an e-mail in reference to the Emergency Stabilization Act (Bail-Out Act). My friend is a good man, and he maintains an open interest and mind in current events. When he sent me this email I saw it as open inquiry to the sad state of affairs in which we find ourselves regarding the current economic crisis. We are all looking for answers and understanding. How did we get here? What do we do now?

National economic decisions and events aren’t just based on money. They are a function of political motivations; which are in turn, can be broken down into social, and at the bottom, personal motivations. 

They are also layered, deeply textured acts piled atop one another in the long history of our nation, and the world. So, in trying to formulate an answer to my friend, I was very pleased to see someone had posted a Wikipedia page called the “Subprime Crisis Impact Timeline”. (Timeline)

Now I will be the first to say that Wikipedia is not always neutral. Articles are disputed and changed. They often wind up being non-inclusive of difficult or disparaging data, in an attempt to modify history. However, this activity is ongoing today in many places, like schoolbooks, especially as right wing rabid bat behavior, or left wing, win at all costs, NetRoots. My friend’s email is another example.

In any event, the Wikipedia Timeline, once preserved to PDF, as currently written, is an excellent place to start to understand what has happened within the USA.  The makers began with 1968; so this begins the context or framework around which we might understand.  The makers have included a great number of links to other events and activities, which are helpful. If you read them, be sure and preserve them to pdf as well. As I said, Wikipedia changes, a strong sense of having been gaslighted occurs when you search for information that is no longer there. 

This Timeline Framework is a tree, however, to which we must supply branches, twigs and leaves. Three good examples of branches would be the cost effects of the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the War on Terror (ism). Budget deficits are after all, part of any equation where we bond money out to finance our economy. Think about where those costs fit into the tree.

As we thicken this tree we must use critical thinking. One example of critical thinking is a verification of whom it is that is providing us with information, so that we may understand their motivation and factor that in our decision. In this instance, if the information has not been scrubbed, the Internet is our friend. So here is my friend’s email:

There are among us, people who will never accept those unlike themselves. Sometimes, they simply dismiss or shun the “Other”. The ones who have hate, will work to dispossess, destroy, undermine or corral the others whom they find do not fit their mold. However, without personal experience, it can be hard to see that at first. If you search out Donald E. Wildmon a pattern emerges. Here is a Southern Poverty Law Center data point:

The Thirty Years War

 Page 3

 1997

Ellen DeGeneres’ character on the TV sitcom “Ellen” comes out as a lesbian, initiating protests and boycotts of sponsors led by Donald Wildmon and Jerry Falwell, who calls the actor “Ellen Degenerate.”

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=868

Here is another data point from MediaMatters:

RESULTS: for DONALD E. WILDMON

Sort by: Latest Items Video Clips Audio Clips

After calling for ABC to fire Rosie O’Donnell over religious comments, conservatives silent on disclosures of Bush White House contempt for Christian conservatives 

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

AFA’s Wildmon proposed a hypothetical tour of gay bathhouses, repeated misinformation on average gay incomes 

Thursday, March 16, 2006

American Family Association opened its airwaves to advocate for executing gays, adulterers, abortion doctors 

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

AFA’s Don Wildmon: If ADL’s Foxman criticizes religious right, some of them “won’t support Israel anymore” 

Thursday, December 8, 2005

American Family Association’s Tim Wildmon backed caller’s warning of “evidence of homosexuality and lesbian people on programs like HGTV and Animal Planet” 

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Radio host Tim Wildmon: Liberals “don’t have the kind of family responsibilities most people have, and certainly not church responsibilities”

Friday, May 20, 2005

Don Wildmon’s American Family Association Journal linked Judaism to criminality, hostility toward Christianity

Wednesday, April 13, 2005http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=Donald+E.+Wildmon

http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=DONALD+E.+WILDMON

Now, in fairness I will say that the right wing believes these references are liberal leftist organizations. However, in reviewing these data points we can see there is a pattern of activity against the “Other”.  The very least it could be said that Wilmon’s intentions in distributing this kind of e-mail is divisive. In fact, it appears to have a familiar tone as a planned campaign of hate. Wildmon is counting on the fact that we are too young, or have forgotten, or were not involved, and did not know this kind of history.

To summarize then:

To explore a complex problem, establish a framework or tree with a timeframe.

Verify who the actors are and their motivations.

Use Google, or other search sources, like the SPLC, SourceWatch, MediaMatters, FactFinder, etc.

Attach your chosen information to the tree at the appropriate time. Examine it in relationship to the other branches, twigs and leaves.

In Part Two I’ll discuss Wildmon’s referenced article of 1999 from the NYT. Is this a legitimate article? What to make of it?

I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal