Awareness and nuance in the News-Sentinel?
Hold on to your wigs -- the Knoxville News Sentinel has published a letter to the editor which exhibits nuance, awareness, literacy, and (dare I say it) enlightenment. I know this strikes like a bolt of lightning here in East Tennessee, but get a load of this:
We come from different generations. One of us is thinking about retirement, and the other is just beginning his adult life. One of us is a Vietnam era draftee, and the other has watched relatives and friends deploy to Iraq.
We grew up in different times and places, but we share a deep concern about what's going wrong at this time in this place.
Both of us are mystified that the American people - young, old and in between - are standing idly by while those in charge are sacrificing the integrity of the United States on an altar of greed, aggression and self-righteousness.
One of us cannot believe that the people are not taking it to the streets like they did in protest to similar escalating death tolls during the Vietnam War.
The other is wondering how long his generation is going to continue waiting on the world to change.
One cannot believe that the media have been largely silent about the devastating effects of an unprovoked invasion on the lives of thousands of American soldiers and their families.
The other is convinced that the media conspire with the administration, big business interests, and other power brokers to sway public opinion in support of ill-conceived military, domestic and economic policies.
[...]
We both agree that Voltaire's 18th-century maxim remains true today: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
Go ahead: read the rest of it and tell me there's no hope for the South. The fine people of Knoxstantinople never cease to amaze me. They're even quoting Voltaire.