Rant of the Day: 'I CALL BULLSHIT'

Every once in a while I run across something on another site that someone has written about workers or the working class. It occurred to me that some of them ought to be re-produced and spread around a little bit more, either because they're emblamatic of ingrained attitudes against us or passionate defenses of us or, as in this case, both.

There's an excellent blog called By Beauty Damned written by one 'Maria' that I read fairly often. Maria is a hell of a writer when she wants to be, and in a way it's a shame most of her posts are copy-and-paste news articles because you aren't exposed to her wit, incision, and poetry as often as you'd like to be. She does have a small but vocal community which includes a couple of right-wing commenters who are just a hair's-breadth away from being outright trolls, so the majority of her personal writing goes into the battle with them.

The following is from a back-and-forth between Maria and one of those commenters. In a post excerpted from an article which talked about a judge citing NYC for keeping some 500 protestors locked up way past the time they should have been and then fining the city for deliberately disobeying his release order so the protestors would remain off the street until after the RNC ended, she got this response from one of the almost-trolls:

As for the protesters, F-em. The RNC is over and they'll all be going back to the jobs at WalMart and stew in their juices over their wasting a week protesting.

Posted by Mad Mikey at September 3, 2004 10:17 AM

Her answer is classic.

What is it with you republicans dissing people for the jobs they hold? While your party holds a convention at which they hail the hard working American (as all conventions do), you sit here and demean people who serve coffee and work at WalMart. What the fuck do you losers do???? That's what I want to know.

Everyone has a place in this world. A person who works at WalMart deserves your respect the same way a doctor or an accountant does. I CALL BULLSHIT on you holier-than-thou pricks!!!

As for wasting a week protesting, that may be what you think Mikey, but those people got up off their fucking fat asses from their couches and got out of the house to support a cause that means something to them. Not only were they a part of great American history and democracy, but they didn't just sit complacent when they felt they needed to act. Have some fucking respect for people who work at WalMart, and have some fucking respect for democracy and the value of speaking out against injustice - whether or not you agree.

I commend every person who sacrificed time, energy and for many, temporarily their freedom, to participate in something bigger than their average day to day concerns.

Posted by Maria at September 3, 2004 10:27 AM

And the Winner of the Tip of the Heather Feather and our highest Grand Thistle Award for Most Outstanding Rant in Opposition to Class Prejudice is--Maria!

You go, girl.