I pity the hatemongers

By Libby

It's taken me a full week to be able to address the vicious attacks on the Frost family with a civilized response and by now everything that can be said about this instant matter, has been, and quite eloquently by many, including our own Shamanic, but I can't stop thinking about it. Maybe because my initial response makes me cringe. I read what I said and I feel icky and embarrassed because I sound like -- them. It makes me realize what a fine line there is between righteous anger and brute savagery.

My anger has dissipated into resignation. They are what they are and surprisingly, I'm left with pity for the hapless horde that blindly answer Malkin's siren call to willing dash their humanity on the rocky shoals of hate. How pathetic an existence must it be to measure your self-worth by your ability to gang up and terrify a fellow citizen, and for what? Simply it seems, to curry an approving glance from a intellectually bereft and morally bankrupt blogger who might throw you a link and boost your traffic count for a day or two? If there's a higher purpose to their rage, I can't see it.

When they took down Rather, they felt powerful and important. They had singlehandedly hounded a journalist out of his life's work and the eyes of the world were upon them. They've been trying to recapture that moment ever since, but after Jordan Eason, they began to set their sights on ever smaller victims. Now no target is too insignificant to satisfy their bloodlust. The ability to destroy became more important than the issues.

Look at who they have destroyed since then. They got minimum wage tele-clerks answering phones at WalMart and CNN fired for making a single exasperated remark in response to a flood of crank calls they generated themselves. A quartet of 18-20 year old college kids endured a deluge of death threats for daring to dissent against the war. A photographer was similarly frightened and intimidated for doing her job, accepting an assignment to photograph Cheney's home. Jamil Hussien may be dead for all we know for simply speaking to the press. Scott Beauchamp, an active duty soldier in Iraq, currently lives in hell for telling a story that is mild compared to the documented atrocities contained in official Pentagon records. And now a working class family, struggling to make ends meet while dealing with the serious injuries to two of their children are under attack for daring to accept government assistance rather than lose what little security they they managed to accumulate over 15 years of hard work. These are your neighbors, your brothers, your average Jakes that are under attack, not influential political players.

Malkin deserves nothing but derision. Her lame refusal to answer Ezra's challenge proves her ignorance, her arrogance and her cowardice. Personally I think she should be indicted under the hate speech statutes for inciting mobs. But her useful lemmings who have been seduced by her malice and dutifully assemble under her command, deserve our pity for their empty existence. They apparently still believe they're in the majority and apparently can't see that every time they fall into rank behind her to attack ordinary Americans, they only make their words more irrelevant and render their lives ever more meaningless. How sad is that?