DURING THE DEMOCRATIC SIT-IN led by Representatives John Lewis (D-GA) and Katherine Clark (D-MA), I posted an article from the BBC on Facebook with a comment of “Bravo and Brava for the Do-Something Congress!” A comment from another person allowed me to address the issue of how Democrats are taught from childhood to sit on the floor to get their way instead of beating up others or shooting people.
So, in an act that can easily be interpreted as adult petulance, the Rep*blican Majority actually turned off the CSPAN cameras that run 24-hours-a-day (if necessary) broadcasting the doings (and the not-doings) of Congress to the American public.
“We have turned deaf ears to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation. We are blind to a crisis.”
And the Dems reacted by turning the tables around and using their cellphones to tweet and text and broadcast and actually do live interviews with news outlets. It was a day to remember!
There were transmissions via Periscope and Facebook Live that were picked up by C-SPAN, which provides continual coverage of Congress. Democratic Congressman Scott Peters provided a feed, admitting that the sit-in was breaking House rules anyway.
One of Peters’ tweets asked, “So why not turn on the House cameras so the world can see what’s happening here? What is Paul Ryan afraid of”
Yes, Democrats sitting in the street and blocking traffic is a pain-in-the-behind. And they do it to people they don’t know! But believe it or not, they are taught that it’s preferable behavior to shooting people they don’t know. So Dems can brag that the total number of people killed by Democrats sitting on the floor or in the street in the past fifty years is zero!
Shooting people is a definite no-no
Titled “Gun-control protest sparks chaotic scenes in US Congress,” the BBC article acknowledged that there were different ways to look at the scene:
“Depending on one’s perspective, the sit-in was either a shameless publicity stunt in advance of a dangerous piece of legislation or the purest expression of democracy and civil disobedience since the 1960s.
But as Democrats chanted, waved signs and sang in protest, there was no debating it was a historic break with congressional traditions that has little precedent in modern times.”
A friend of mine with political views that are sometimes in accord with mine and sometimes not, chimed in. To keep her (or his) secret identity intact, I will refer to him (or her) below as EMCEE. My responses will be equally shrouded in secrecy as I refer to myself as ENEWE (think sheep).
EMCEE: The whole thing is pure photo-op. A publicity stunt.
ENEWE: Of course: everybody who wants their photo online sits on the floor for 20 hours without a shower. Hell, I do it at home every day!
EMCEE: Not everybody—just Democrats.
ENEWE: Well, yes, that’s true, and it’s really no big secret. Young Democrats are taught at an early age that when they can’t have what they want, but they truly believe in it, they are not to beat others up, nor are they to shoot them!
Shooting people is a definite no-no! Instead, we are taught to sit on the floor for long hours without a shower.
In most Democratic households, it’s the Father’s role to teach the children, although Mothers are usually part of the learning process. Traditionally, it’s done on the first Saturday after the young Democrat’s 10th birthday. That way they don’t miss school, even if they do miss Saturday morning cartoons.
In the late ’60s, middle-aged, conservative Americans confused liberal sit-ins and hippie ‘free love’ with bed-ins while wife-swapping. These weird bed-ins and partner exchanges wreaked havoc on their middle-class values and so confused these people that they actually saw Richard Nixon as a sort of savior of the moral high ground and voted for him. Twice!
We’re all strangers in a strange land
ENEWE: I still remember the day my Father made me sit for twenty-four hours on the floor without a shower.
It was 1961.
I hated every minute of it!
I hated my father for making me do it!
I hated my Mother for allowing it to happen!
But dang it, when my daughter turned 10, I did the same thing to her! It was a Saturday morning and she couldn’t watch Rugrats or Doug or Hey Albert! Nope, I made her sit on the floor without a shower for twenty-four hours.
If anything, her Mother was even more adamant about the lesson than I. But when Mom went to work that day, I slipped my daughter a copy of Stranger In A Strange Land.
Now it’s her turn: she’s pregnant and has already talked to me about my grandchild’s first sit-in, ten years and six months down the road . . .
EMCEE: Enewe, if you were just some Facebook phantom that I didn’t know, I’d get a chuckle out of that. But knowing you as I do—you just might be serious! Maybe that’s the difference between Dems and Reps: I can’t sit for 24 minutes, much less hours!
ENEWE: Emcee, you know I’m always serious. I have no f*cking sense of humor. And, like a Rep*blican, I have no sense of irony. Nice weather we’re having doncha think?
FEATURED IMAGE: Here is a photo of several Democratic Congresspersons flooring their opinions regarding the unwillingness of their Rep*blican brethren to address the horrifying spectacle of never-ending gun violence in these here United States. Mr. Lewis has the blue tie, while Ms. Clark wears the blue top. A roused Lewis declaimed, “We have turned deaf ears to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation. We are blind to a crisis. Mr. Speaker, where is the heart of this body? Where is the soul? Where is our moral leadership? Where is our courage?”
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
As a sidebar to learning to sit on the floor, one of the few “things” that was saved from the Flood of 1972 is my timeout chair. It is a constant reminder not to fail to anger or fear.
Where was your chair during the Flood? Not at your Mom’s place? Above water?
If I could rehardwire my behavior, I would make it so that I didn’t respond to a verbal cue (question, taunt, insult, etc.) for ten seconds—especially when it’s from a woman I love and live with . . .
It was at my ‘rents! Somehow survived intact and didn’t float away. Some of the stenciling is still there.
I’d ask for the same gift. My tells are very readable by Laurie, while she remains almost inscrutable in her feminine way.