“I want my America Back”

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll has been on a roll for days, and today he hits it out of the park again:

We’ve all seen the video images of the health care town hall meetings that have been disrupted by organized mobs attempting to shut off debate…. One image in particular struck me: A middle-aged blond woman holding a sign that said “I Want My America Back.” As Jon Stewart remarked, “Tell that to the Indians.” I understand her plaint to be, basically, “I want the old homogeneous America back, where people who mattered were white and Christian and heterosexual, and if they were something else they at least had the courtesy to keep it to themselves and live in another part of town.”

Later:

It would be nice to have mountain lakes you could swim in without worrying about toxic pollutants, and mountain streams you could drink from without worrying about disease.

It would be nice to live in a time before corporate America had an absolute grip on American politics, and advertising was used to sell soap and toothpaste rather than politicians and political ideas. It would be nice to live in a time when foolish bankers and investment brokers couldn’t bring the economy to a standstill.

And so on. Please read the entire column, and pass it around.

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