12 Steps

After watching the antics of the past week by the GOP, I couldn't help but think of the 12 Steps. The GOP/Teabagger/RWNJ's are all in need of some serious therapy. The main stream media have become enablers and co-dependents for these groups.

The GOP rely on not only Fox for their voice, but also some of the other media outlets. They depend on the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, et. al. to get their message of hatred and rebellion out. They bring out the worst in the extreme right and they make money from it. Yes, clearly co-dependency.

The media and the GOP leadership have enabled the extreme right nut jobs (the ones who are cutting gas lines, ramming into the backs of cars with Obama bumper stickers, sending fake anthrax in the mail, threatening Senators and Congressmen, carrying guns to rallies, yelling "baby-killer" at a Congressman on the House floor, etc.) by not denouncing and encouraging them to stop. Yes, they have hit a new low and it appears to be going lower. When will it be their "rock bottom?" Will someone have to die before anyone listens and stops?

The likes of Palin and Bachmann are fanning the flames by encouraging their followers to start a revolution and to pick up arms or re-load. No matter how you paint this with your red lipstick, it still stinks and isn't pretty. These women are in love with the attention, there isn't any love for our country. They represent the face of hatred under the veil of beauty. White men who are angry on the far right fall for them because they "appear" to be one of them. The real truth is that they represent the seedy underbelly of the snake whose head has yet to be unveiled.

Step One:

Admit that you are powerless over your emotions and that your lives have become unmanageable.

Step Two:

Come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. (I am particularly fond of this one being applied)

Step Three

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him (Everyone's God, not just yours)

Step Four

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves (this one should be quite extensive)

Step Five

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our WRONGS.

Step Six

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character (there are a lot)

Step Seven

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings....

Step Eight

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all....

You get the picture.....

The only way to combat this is to shine a light on it, call them out, educate, write, call, etc. Don't sit idle; otherwise you condone the behavior. The media failed us after 9/11 and they are failing us now. It's time to stop the escalation in any way that you can.

The following needs to be kept in mind:

To criticize is a serious business and sometimes an awesome responsibility. before you speak, make sure that your intention is to help with a problem, and not to humiliate, manipulate, or exact revenge.~Civility by Dr. P.M. Forni, Johns Hopkins University