Grab a chair and a couple of root beers...

OH, I'm so pissed off right now that I could... I could... oh, I don't know but give me a few minutes, and I'm sure I'll think of something suitably vile!!

My parents... my DAD specifically, sent me one of those... emails.  You know, a chain email?  Yeah.  This one, though... it just... royally pissed me off.  Normally, I skim it so I can say honestly that I saw it, and then delete it.  Well... if I can stomach it at all, that is.  Some, I just delete, period.  But this one...

*snarl, snarl, snarl...*

I love my parents.  Well, I definitely love my mom.  My dad and I, well... we've got issues, but for the most part... okay, I love him.  It's complicated.  I mean, there's a REASON he lives in Houston... and I don't.  It's a lot easier to love him from a distance, if you know what I mean.  And they tried to raise me to be a good person.  They taught me to question things, to never accept something just because I read it in a book, or saw it on the news, or somebody told me it was true.  They taught me patriotism is complex, and never black and white.  They taught me to look beyond a person's appearance, to not judge them by color, creed, or so help them, fashion sense or lack thereof, but... by their actions.  You know, basic rules of living.  Same stuff I'm trying to teach my spawn.  

Granted, Dad is 84, and Mom is 80.  And being human is a changing, evolving process.  Heck, I don't believe stuff I believed ten years ago.  So, I guess it makes sense that my parents' views can change.  But this?

They sent me this chain email, "You might be a True American," and it went off to spout things like, "you might be a True American if you don't get upset when you see the Ten Commandments in a public space," or "You might be a True American if you can say what you believe is right, and don't care who hears it..."

That didn't bother me.  I was already heading for the delete button, when the last line caught my eye.  "We sing the American National Anthem in ENGLISH!!"

WTF???

Okay, most Americans can't even sing the FIRST VERSE correctly!!

*takes a deep breath for patience*

That was just the straw that broke the camel's back, y'all.  I was completely infuriated, because not an hour earlier, I was at a local shop, and saw a jar on the counter by the cash register asking for donations.  Donations.  For what?  For a bunch of folks from our area who are deploying to Iraq.  And why?  To buy body armor.  Because apparently, the body armor they are being issued isn't trustworthy.  Well, think about it.  It was supplied by the LOWEST BIDDING CONTRACTOR!!   Would you trust your life to that??  

Maybe you don't see the relationship between the two events, but believe me, it's there.  Here's an email, basically ESPOUSING the deterioration of the Bill of Rights, in favor of WHITE CHRISTIANS, asking us to support this... ridiculous war that we went into for entirely the WRONG REASONS... and then, on the other hand, a donation jar asking for money to help troops buy adequate body armor.

I think Molly Ivins was right.  We need to grab our pots and pans, hub caps, cymbals, WHATEVER... we need to go knocking on our neighbors doors and goad them into grabbing THEIR pots and pans, and we need to march out in our streets, banging on them for everything we're worth, shouting, "ENOUGH!!!  ENOUGH ALREADY!!  BRING OUR PEOPLE HOME AND STOP THIS STUPID WAR!!  STOP WASTING OUR SOLDIERS' LIVES ON SOMETHING YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE STARTED, AND HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO END!!!  STOP SACRIFICING OUR CHILDREN, BROTHERS, SISTERS, HUSBANDS, WIVES, ON YOUR GOD-DAMNED PRIDE AND END IT ALREADY!!"

*pant, pant, pant*

I think I need to go hug my kids.