"Reputation and Rumor"

I went to school with a girl with whom I became friends. Linda was Italian, she was pretty and funny. She was very intelligent; she liked history, as did I. Linda wore her hair like "Cher", and she did resemble her. Linda and I were never a "couple", but we were great friends. When walking home from school, we would talk and laugh and generally have a good time. Linda had a girl friend named Chris. Chris was also a nice girl; but Chris had a "reputation"; I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. Chris was in my history class and she was smart, she really knew her stuff and her grades reflected it. I often overheard other people talking about both Linda and Chris; none of the gossip was flattering. This talk was hurtful and I knew it was untrue. I believe some of this "cheap talk" was rooted in jealousy; both girls were attractive and intelligent and boys looked at them. Eventually, over the course of four years of high school, this unintelligent rumor mill had its effects and people believed it. Lies that are said often enough are given an aura of truth; this is the beginning of hate and division. Perpetuating lies and half truths hurt all involved in the process. Sometimes we all have to admit to circumstances that we don't like; some people are smarter and some people are more popular than we are.

James Moran (D-Va.) gave an interview to an Arab television network recently. Mr. Moran is the "poster child" for everything that is wrong with the rhetoric in America today. Lies, conjecture and misinformation are spewing from his mouth at laser speed in this diatribe against the conservatives in America. Mr. Moran concluded that the reason the Democratic Party suffered a defeat in November was, "(defeat) happened because of the same reason the Civil War happened in the United States. The Civil War happened because the Southern states, particularly the slave holding states, didn't want a president who was opposed to slavery." Now listen to Moran's analogy; I find this insulting and extremely divisive: "In this case a lot of people in this country, I believe don't want to be governed by an African-American, particularly one who is inclusive, who is liberal, who wants to spend money on everyone and who wants to reach out to everyone in our society...". Once again the left cries racism! Barack Obama was elected President by the people of America. Over the course of the last two years the People of America have shown their disapproval of Mr. Obama's political agenda; this was reflected in the mid-term elections. This lunacy from the "sore losers" on the left only shows they have no cogent argument for their November defeat. Unfortunately, speech like this only perpetuates an untrue perception that everyone of conservative philosophy in America is a racist. This certainly doesn't help America's image across the globe. Mr. Moran should "suck it up", and face the fact that America made a choice over policy, not "color" in November. His speech is hurting America, both at home and abroad. Please, Mr. Moran, base criticism in fact and not hate speech: it makes you "LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT!"