hontonoshijin

hontonoshijin
Location
Eureka, California, U.S.A.
Birthday
May 08
Company
self
Bio
Born 1944 in Alligator, Mississippi. Son of a Southern Baptist preacher. Eight books, last two with Knopf. Novelist, poet, painter, mathematician. No humorous self-deprecating comments because if you knew me you could supply them yourself.

MY RECENT POSTS

Hontonoshijin's Links

Salon.com
JANUARY 11, 2011 11:23AM

The Cockroaches

Rate: 3 Flag

It took a couple of days, but I have figured out what the right-wing apologists remind me of, those who are so busy claiming that their murderous rhetoric had no connection to the killings in Tucson.

 (Just incidentally, I would like to see them quote some example of equivalent rhetoric on the left besides the president's bringing a gun to a knife fight metaphor or the "dead to me" comment by someone on the DailyKos, or forty-year-old evocations of leftist militants--in case no one remembers, there were not many such and they were widely disdained by most war protesters--or lies about all the terrible things Democrats did to Bush.  Why, a reasonable person would almost think they were having trouble coming up with examples.)

 I lived in a southern city for many years, one which Dorinda Fox knows well but which I will not name.  The whole area was infested with cockroaches.  It didn't matter how much money you had or how upscale you were.  You could shroud your house in an exterminator's tent and poison them all, and a week later they would be back.  They lived in grass and trees, and as soon as the house was clear, they would be back.

 As I say, no matter what you did, they took over.  Move a painting on the wall, and behind it you would find a discolored square dotted with cockroach feces.  Their fetor was everywhere.

 When I would go into the kitchen at night and flick on the light, hordes of vermin would scuttle for cover behind the refrigerator, the stove, cabinet doors, whatever, and hordes of others would drop fluttering from the walls.  The sight always made me shiver with disgust.

 That's what the apologists remind me of.

Author tags:

political hatred

Your tags:

TIP:

Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Recipient's email address:
Personal message (optional):

Your email address:

Comments

Type your comment below:
J.

Dorinda Fox cockroach expert chiming in here. Borac acid will hold them back for awhile. However no state grows cockroaches like Florida where those suckers fly and land on one's head. I once walked into a barn with a Coleman lantern on after nightfall and hundreds of them swarmed at me. Felt like I was in a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds but it was WORSE. Interesting the folks who are being compared to cockroaches here often reside in unnamed city's state or Florida. Boric acid. It helps ;0)
When prominent conservatives call for "second amendment solutions" to the outcomes of fair, open, democratic elections it's pretty clear what they're saying. I don't think it's possible to reasonable interpret that kind of statement as metaphor or hyperbole. They're saying that armed insurrection is an appropriate response to an election that didn't go their way. I believe that's called sedition, and I believe it's a crime.
PS: I really wish we could edit comments on Open Salon. I meant "reasonably interpret." I have GOT to stop responding to your posts when I'm half in the bag! :)
Ah yes, the inimitable cockroach. Sadly, if we manage to kill off our species, even if it is with poisonous radiation, the cockroach will survive us. Could it be that they are merely biding their time, waiting for the day, that dreaded day when they rule the joint?
As a generalization (and, yes, I know the issues with such), the cockroach metaphor is good. It strikes me that those who are protesting so loudly that their rhetoric has no cause for blame AT ALL are the same ones who are never wrong. They completely ignore the old saw "what's good for the goose. . ."
Dorinda: Thank you. I did not pose you as a cockroach expert, by the way, but as a Little Rock expert. Though I can see how one might lead to the other.

Randy: Many thanks as well. I often make typos like that in my letters and postings, and they bother me, too. Not to fret.

Mal: Thank you, and good to hear from you again. What continues to surprise me, though it shouldn't, is how the very people who strive to be the most offensive hasten, when something bad happens, to claim that they are not responsible. Me, when something bad happens, I wonder what I did wrong, even if I was not involved at all.
Yeah, I can only seem to work myself up to visit this site once every few months, anymore. I stick around for a few days then disappear.

Anyway, it's not surprise at how they continue to act, but moreso the bafflement that they can't think critically when it comes to self-critique. As for wondering what we might have done wrong (myself tilting similarly), I sense a bit of that southern baptist preacher influence, no? It's the sirens' call of judeo-christian morals. ;-)
Mal: You nailed it. I don't think my guilt-prone maunderings are advisable. I think sanity should prevail. I was just remarking how different my reaction was from all the denial.
Cockroaches??? In Little Rock?!? How dare you slander the "City of Roses!" In what end of town were you people hanging out? Some degenerate precinct known for harboring creative types, college professors, and other social dregs -- somewhere near the Capitol, no doubt.

I will admit to seeing some mighty big critters down around South Ringo during my misspent youth. They may have been roaches. They may have been lobsters. It's hard to say. But they were nothing compared to the rats I've seen across the river in Levy on a Saturday night.
I certainly wasn't complaining about your POV; in fact, I tend to embrace such myself. More people, not less, should be so introspective and soulful--we'd have far fewer shootings and Dubya would never have been president.
Hey, Randy. Yeah, I have it in for Little Rock. Just ask anybody. We lived in the Heights, actually, something like eight blocks from the country club (which we were never classy enough or wealthy enough to be invited to join).

Mal, I understood your meaning, and appreciated your comment. I was making fun of my own religiosity, though I agree that if more people were that way, this would be a more civil society.
LOL! My wife and I lived on the corner of Brentwood and University next to the old Finkbeiner house the first year we were married. Until we moved to our house in Dover, it was our favorite place. We never had any problem with roaches, though. I'll bet they get worse as you get closer to the CCLR. ;)
BTW, I do remember those big monster roaches that used to come out the trees all over the Heights and Hillcrest. When I lived on Johnson Street, we couldn't keep them out of the apartment. We finally decided to call them "tree roaches" and that seemed to make it easier to live with them. Maybe if we start calling the conservatives in question something like "tree roaches" they'll be a little easier to take.