“Have You No Shame, Sir?” - by Mary Beth Harrell
Boston lawyer Joseph Welch speaking to Senator Joseph McCarthy on June 9, 1954: “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
It is my hope, my prayer, that Limbaugh, O’Reilly and their ilk, will have such a moment of reckoning. Perhaps not so much for them, as for their followers. That they will recognize the cruelty and recklessness of their rhetoric. That, in a chilling moment of clarity, their followers will turn their backs on those talk show hosts who spew hatred, fear, ridicule and anger – so much anger.
Senator McCarthy used the Soviet-American Cold War to launch a witch hunt for ‘godless Communists’ in the federal government. He used public hearings and the power of television to demonize, ridicule and ruin average, blameless Americans with little or no evidence, merely to feed his political ambition.
Today’s arch conservative talk show hosts use the post-9/11 Cold War to launch their own crusade against - the silent majority of Americans. They claim the moral high ground while demonizing and ridiculing Independents, Democrats, liberals, moderates, Republicans, civil libertarians, a free media, and anyone who disagrees with them. These pretenders who have never worn a uniform viciously attack Republican and Democratic veterans who continue to serve their country in public office.
These are not defenders of the faith, but merely snake oil salesmen lining their own pockets with the money of angry, scared followers. They feel no remorse in taking their money. They believe in that old adage, ‘never give a sucker an even break.’
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” is often misquoted as ‘have you no sense of shame?’ This fits here as well, perhaps, even better. Many of these glib peddlers of hate and anger have been exposed for their double standards – drug addiction and prescription fraud, sexual harassment – yet they have no shame. They’re not embarrassed nor humiliated, not disgraced nor discredited.
How sad that their followers do not feel any shame for them. They are a mob that follows the bully until he is shown to be the coward, as bullies always are.
Following that exchange with Mr. Welch on June 9, 1954, Senator McCarthy was eventually rebuked by his colleagues, shunned by his party, and ignored by the public and the press. Three years later he died at the age of 48, a broken man.
McCarthy’s cruel and reckless rhetoric was finally silenced simply because no one would listen. But his reign of terror remains an important and relevant history lesson, a warning to those now – if only they would listen.
May 1st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Well said Mrs. Harrell. Looking forward to seeing the webcast of the show since I’m not in your market.
Thanks,
RJ
May 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Hard hitting comments! We would like to have heard more of those in your 2006 race.
Keep up the good work.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:34 am
And right back at you … and the entirety of your liberal-fascist, barbaric horde of fellow travelers (or as you put it - “your ilk”) who occupy America’s “commanding heights of culture”!
With respect to the secularist, liberal worldview, I say this:
We (traditionalists and conservatives) will keep stabbing It with our steely knives … and, yes, we may yet kill the Beast!
September 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Dear 91201 Man,
Thanks for writing to me because you prove the very point of my blog. Your virulent outburst reveals your hateful and even murderous passions towards anyone who disagrees with you.
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, your passions have been poorly tutored. While you can quote from the Eagles song, “Hotel California”, you do not know that liberalism and fascism are diametrically opposed to each other. A quick trip to the dictionary or Wikipedia would be a good start and could certainly benefit you.
I hope you will write again and have the courage to sign your name. In the meantime, I will include you in my prayers in the hope that the beast within you can be subdued and redeemed by the love of God. I leave you with this thought:
Two WolvesOne evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Sincerely,
Mary Beth Harrell
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Let’s turn this around. I say the same thing to the SNL crew regarding tlast saturday’s skit saying that Gov Palin’s 5th child was actually the product of incest between her husband and daughter.
To Liberals:
“ …I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
September 30th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Dear hd,
That skit would be the very reason I haven’t watch SNL in about 15 years. Since I didn’t see, I’ll have to take you at your word as to content. It sounds repulsive and offensive, not my kind of entertainment.
But let me suggest that you ‘stop and put on your thinking cap’, as the good nuns would say to me in third grade.
Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and their ilk, cast themselves as serious news reporters and political commentators. Their listeners and others in the news media take them very seriously. Rush, Bill and their ilk seek to shape public opinion and public policy.
Nobody takes SNL seriously, and apparently SNL takes nothing seriously.
I doubt that Rush and Bill would be pleased to find you’ve put them in the same company as SNL.
Thanks for writing.
Mary Beth
October 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Dear 91201 Man,
I am sorry you are having trouble replying to the blog. My webmaster has investigated your concern and reported no findings of any attempts from 91201 man to submit a second comment to the blog. All comments are posted with equal value and appear in order of reply, so that users can see a complete history of comments to the blog. You may address or reply to a particular comment, by simply referring to it. Please be assured that it was not a “liberal” conspiracy, but rather the system design of the site. Should you have any questions or concerns in the future, feel free to contact us by clicking on the “contact us” link that appears at the top of every page on the Insight Texas website. Apparently you sent an email to KNCT.org instead, which was forwarded to me. So I have now posted your latest comment in its entirety.
I refer you back to my tale of the two wolves and caution you that the wolf you are feeding is becoming rabid.
You are welcome to the last word.
God Bless you, Mary Beth
— —-
91201 Man Says:
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:57 PM
Subject: Attn: Mary Beth Harrell — InsightTexas.com dialogue preemptorily cut
InsightTexas.com dialogue preemptorily cut
This in reference to Ms. Harrell’s apparently now erstwhile blog http://insighttexas.com/2008/04/blog-post-1/
As is often the case with most liberal Democrat politicians — or in this case, ex-politicians, the zeal for having the last word — the impulse to snipe, duck and run — is irresistible!
As I have no other accessible e-mail address, here then is 91201 Man’s rebuttal to Ms. Harrell’s predictable and hardly useful comments:
To the contrary, Ms. Harrell, it is you who are in desperate need of God’s spirit of love — not to mention His gift of discernment. However against the grain of prevailing secular and liberal dogma it may be, the roots or origins of modern liberalism (as opposed to the cherished classical liberalism practiced and expounded by our nation’s founders) are in deed undeniably enmeshed with fascistic urges. Truly, they are demonstrably quite illiberal! Moreover, it is yet just another repackaged form of the most ancient and fundamental of our human family’s sins — the one of pride! The spirit of Babel. The spirit or impulse, which says that we, the human race created by God, are the measure of ourselves. A disastrous proposition, which in my estimation has been thoroughly discredited by the whole of human history. Among the relevant metrics one might use: behold the shear and staggering immensity of the body-count in just the 20th century brought to our world by the God-rejecting likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Castro. Theirs was not a rule-of-law, individual-freedom-loving, classical liberalism. No, to the contrary, I am afraid they are more comfortably YOUR fellow travelers — YOUR ilk! — than they are mine!
” … liberalism and fascism are diametrically opposed to each other”? I, and a surprising number of other students of history, have concluded otherwise. And, in my judgment, we are increasing in number.
In your self-anointed, condescending and benighted characterization of my paraphrasing of The Eagles’ lyric, you knee-jerked your way to presuming that my intention was to convey or to exhort physical violence (”murderous passions” as you put in). No. It is hatred for the secularist — and, yes, fascistic and near-hegemonic — worldview of the Left. It is the “Beast” of the Left’s philosophical infrastructure that needs to be stabbed at and, I pray God, may one day be killed.
I heartily suggest you stop the insipid, ridiculous lamenting of the presence of liberal party-crashing being brought to bear in the public square by conservative or right-wing influences – be it talk radio or from the lone outpost of Fox News Channel. Wake up, Ms. Harrell! For the greater part of the last fifty years, you and YOUR ilk have enjoyed – and continue to enjoy – playing on a tilted game board; and I would argue that you and YOUR ilk have become the spoiled rotten beneficiaries of a rigged game, as well. It is you and YOUR ilk who occupy the “commanding heights of culture” comprised of: the commentariat of the visual electronic and printed media: the entertainment media; the tenured professoriat ensconced in The Academy; the tax-payer funded, government-monopolized indoctrination centers known as primary and secondary public schools; the practitioners of moral hazard otherwise known as the public employee unions, the most egregious of which are the teachers unions; and … well, I need to go no further … although I certainly could.
In deed, Ms. Harrell, it is my firm belief that this sentiment has a fairly commendable pedigree:
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man” — Thomas Jefferson
In the practical realm of applied love for one’s fellow human beings, you might perhaps be persuaded to pick up Arthur C. Brooks’ (no right-wing ideologue, he) empirical and non-partisan investigative analysis, “Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide — Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.” Therein, perhaps, you may discover some convincing truth-telling as to who it is that really tends to voluntarily live out their love and compassion for their human brethren … without the threat of financial-ruination-and-imprisonment, firearm-equipped compulsory “charity” that is extorted by the state.
Please take heed of your misdirected advise by upgrading your own tutorial or mentoring sources! And while you’re at it, I suggest that you replace that dog-eared, over-used stereotyped template you appear to so reflexively reach for when responding to conservative opinions.
Miscellany: My name is that which may be found in my e-mail address. Otherwise, I prefer the use of my nom de guerre, thanks just the same!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
With all due respect, Ms. Harrell …
It is the ruinous, enervating world view, which you and your fellow-travelers (”ilk”) and self-congratulatory habitues of PBS leftist choir so condescendingly hold to be the “case closed” truth, which is the “wolf” that, however you may choose to frame it, is the lupus horribilus (or vulgaris)!
For the sake of America’s prospects for freedom, prosperity and security, it is that creature which is needs to be put on a diet!