THE SEEDS THEY ARE
        A-SPROUTING

        Overnight talk radio, like daytime, exhibits a predominant Conservative bias. Guests are carefully controlled in what they are allowed to say and are rebuked if they slip something in that is negative to Bush.

        Here one can experience less of the raunchy crap heard during the day and more of the supernatural -- especially prophets of the Bible Code, Edgar Casey and the like. Fervently pro-Bush, they are the religious rychus.

        Also increasingly obvious are the militants who spew hatred with all the force of a fire hose. These are the enforcer wing of the religious rychus. They attract converts who yearn for status so they can intimidate and bully.

        Targets are women, Liberals, immigrants, homosexuals and especially any person who does not wear their religion on their sleeve but keeps it in their heart and mind; in short, anyone who does not proselytize like they do.

        The prophets on these programs are jubilant in their prognostications. Despite what polls may show, they predict that Bush will win all the states in November and be entrenched for four more years.

        Predicted also for this period are catastrophic incidences that will occur in the United States. Their take is that of course Bush will be elected because he is the only person that can deal with them.

        Our take is somewhat different. Think about this scenario. What would happen if voters (or Supremes) give Bush four more years to further his merger of church and state that he began with inroads on charities, marriage and abortion controls?

        School prayer will soon be mandatory as will enforced prayer in every workplace. Religious symbolism so loved by Middle America will be in every public place and de rigor for every homestead.

        For awhile, a restive populace will be kept in check by the Patriot Act. The Act will be further enhanced with severe penalties that enforce compliance under threat of incarceration without legal representation.

        However a rising tide of resentment in a free people will rebel against forced religious compliance. It will not be contained. At first there will be minor skirmishes but soon a full blown gorilla war will break out.

        Since the National Guard and most of the military is still in Iraq, civil war will ravage the country. The bullies of the religious rychus will roam unchecked. Sibling will take up arms against sibling and blood will flow in the streets.

        Before everything sugars out our besieged country will be invaded by hoards of al Quaeda. Impossible? But perhaps it's already started. The seeds they are a-sprouting.

        A controversy in a California high school started Dec. 3, 2003 when a Conservative Club, organized by 17-yr-old Tim, posted an inflammatory poster announcing a "Conservative Hotline" where students could report examples of "un-American" comments by their teachers. "Let's take a stand against the liberal traitors who call themselves teachers."

        A "Liberal Hotline" was proposed by a faculty member to counter the Conservative Club. "Have you heard any un-American comments expressed by your reactionary students lately? Let's take a stand against the neo-conservative wing-nuts who call themselves American."

        Tim responded with a Conservative Club newsletter: "Liberals welcome every Muhammad Jamul and Jose who wishes to leave his third world state and come to America -- mostly illegally -- to rip off our health-care system, balkanize our language and destroy our political system."

        Tim's response was a direct quote from radio host Michael Savage. Tim listens to him for three hours every day. "It's almost like a drug to me. I have to listen to him."

        At home Tim basks in the praise of his father as he tells of the dozen or more radio and television talk shows he and his activities have been featured on. He glories in the laudatory and supportive statements from the hosts and listeners. Among them is Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

        Savage is only one of many rychus hosts that daily cross the line, embolden by the present administration's religious conservative stance that might makes right. Inciting and training our youth to hate and to be intolerant is hardly the mark of most Christians, but it is the hallmark of the rychus ones.

        The irony of the firestorm going on in this high school and other places is that hate talk is now considered "free speech" protected by the Constitution. But A.G. Ashcroft has ruled that opposition to the Iraq war is not free speech; rather it is unpatriotic and treasonous.

        twanda@sover.net

        2004-006

        Copyright 2004 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@sover.net.

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