ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>Barry Lank's Teeny Tiny Brain</TITLE> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR=#99CCCC LINK="#CC3333" VLINK="#CC3333" ALINK="#FFFF99" MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0 LEFTMARGIN=0 TOPMARGIN=0> <!-- ImageReady Slices (BARRU.jpg) --> <TABLE border="0" CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0> <TR> <TD> <IMG SRC="images/BARRU_01.jpg" WIDTH=110 HEIGHT=46></TD> <TD> <IMG SRC="images/BARRU_02.jpg" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=46></TD> <TD> <IMG SRC="images/BARRU_03.jpg" WIDTH=474 HEIGHT=46></TD> <TD> <IMG SRC="images/BARRU_04.jpg" WIDTH=50 HEIGHT=46></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_05.jpg" WIDTH=110 HEIGHT=23></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_06.jpg" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=23></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_07.jpg" WIDTH=474 HEIGHT=23></TD> <TD WIDTH="100%" BGCOLOR="#000000"><IMG SRC="images/space.gif" WIDTH="500" HEIGHT=1 border="0"></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_09.jpg" WIDTH=110 HEIGHT=20></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_10.jpg" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=20></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_11.jpg" WIDTH=474 HEIGHT=20></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_12.jpg" WIDTH=50 HEIGHT=20></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_13.jpg" WIDTH=110 HEIGHT=28></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_14.jpg" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=28></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_15.jpg" WIDTH=474 HEIGHT=28></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_16.jpg" WIDTH=50 HEIGHT=28></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD valign=top BGCOLOR="#100A16"> <IMG SRC="images/space.gif" ALT="" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1"> </TD> <TD valign=top><A HREF="mailto:barrylank@hotmail.com"><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_18.jpg" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=441 border="0"></A></TD> <TD valign=top> <TABLE cellpadding=10 border="0"><TR><TD rowspan=2><IMG SRC="images/space.gif" ALT="" WIDTH="30" HEIGHT="1"></TD> <TD valign=middle><IMG SRC="images/archive.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="17" align=left><A HREF="http://www.barrylank.com"><IMG SRC="images/back.gif" WIDTH="73" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="right" border="0"></A> <BR><BR> </td></tr><TD><BR> WHY DO THE REST OF US HATE US? AND HOW MUCH SHOULD I CARE?<BR> <i>Air America Radio</i><BR> 11/12/2004<p> Since Election Day, political commentators have been barking  with odd consistency  that New York has lost touch with Georgia. But no one has asked the equal and opposite question of whether Georgia has lost touch with New York.<p> Sure, it s fair to ask whether people in the blue states sometimes dip into a southern accent when performing caricatures of ignorance or mob rule, and whether religious folks get stereotyped as humorless, hypocritical, mean-spirited dolts. I ve certainly seen it done.<p> But don't people in the red states brazenly demean northeasterners (and, God knows Californians)? I think of George W. Bush openly mocking his recent opponent for hailing from Massachusetts  a part of the country that, after all, the president is supposed to represent along with everywhere else. I think of a comedy club I visited years ago in Memphis, where a comedian drew thunderous applause with the phrase  you Yankee slut. In fact, she closed with it, so it must have been her most reliable bit.<p> Consider, also, the apparent disconnect with issues in the recent election. On the red side, pundits claim (though keep in mind they have a vested interest in spinning the news a certain way, and don t necessarily know the country better than you or I do) that many people voted for George Bush because they re outraged over "morality" issues such as gay marriage, abortion and decadent entertainment. On the blue side, many of us voted against George Bush because he consistently mis-plans his wars (or more specifically, his post-wars), has no respect whatsoever for the environment, has steered the ship of state into boundless waves of red ink and has purveyed falsehoods with unbearable consistency.<p> First of all, if some people really do worry more about same-sex weddings, birth control and Howard Stern than war, debt, ecological disaster and a deep wound to America's political fabric, then they re wrong and we re right  whether or not they re the majority.<p> Second of all, with gay marriage, who exactly refuses to understand whom? Gays simply want the same secular rights and privileges guaranteed to the rest of us. And as a straight person, I m allowed a legal, not-even-necessarily-religious arrangement whereby I share my pension, health plan and hospital bed with one other designated human being. To say that granting this to gays means offending people who need never even meet them is roughly akin to saying that Civil Rights protesters in the 1960s offended racists  which, strictly speaking, they did.<p> More dissociation: People supposedly gave Bush high marks for defending America from terrorists. Well, no place got hit harder by 9/11 than New York City. If you live here, you probably know someone who died that day or stood close to the scene. (I share an office with a fellow who lived nearby and barely got away intact.) This is the only city where bookstores carry <i>The 9/11 Commission Report</i> on the shelf marked  local interest. And New York City voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry. For that matter, so did residents of the other terrorist target, the District of Columbia. And so did states from which the hijacked planes took off and for which they were destined  Massachusetts, New Jersey, California. Why doesn t <i>that</i> merit understanding or respect?<p> The blue states feel just as right as the red states do, and we don t suddenly become wrong and change our minds because we re out-voted  any more than the red states ever have.<p> So, while it s commendable and important to study other people s attitudes, we can take it only so far if other people don t study ours. I myself have studied the right wing  among other things, I was born in a small, conservative town where few people shared my family s political opinions and even fewer shared our religion. And trust me on this: You don t have to be in the majority to persevere.<p> <A HREF="http://www.barrylank.com"><IMG SRC="images/back.gif" WIDTH="73" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="right" border="0"></A> </td></tr></table></TD> <TD> <IMG SRC="images/BARRU_20.jpg" WIDTH=50 HEIGHT=441></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#100A16"><IMG SRC="images/space.gif" ALT="" WIDTH="50" HEIGHT="100%"></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_22.jpg" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=18></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_23.jpg" WIDTH=474 HEIGHT=18></TD> <TD><IMG SRC="images/BARRU_24.jpg" WIDTH=50 HEIGHT=18></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <!-- End ImageReady Slices --> </BODY> </HTML>