
Easing back into it, my first stop today was Memeorandum, a site reflecting topics folks find important enough to blog about. At 5:40 pm (EST) the top story (and numerous stories below it) was about the Cordoba House Project (a Muslim community center that people wanted to build near Ground Zero in New York).
If the placement and number of stories on Memorandum's front page indicate what has attracted people's focus, then it's safe to say that the Cordoba House is utmost on tonnns of people's minds.
This reminds me of a quote from Charlie Wilson's War. The character Gust Avrakotos (exquisitely played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) says this:“As long as the press sees sex and drugs behind the left hand, you can park a battle carrier behind the right hand and no one's gonna … notice.
I edited out the gerund form of the F-word, but the point still remains: some political operatives and media execs are hell-bent on distracting us ordinary folks from serious issues that affect our daily lives and our nation's future. Several come to mind:
- Children who aren't well fed, cared for, and educated.
- People who can't face a health problem without bankruptcy.
- Adults who still need decent-paying jobs, despite stimulus packages.
- Corporate players who still routinely rob us taxpayers.
- All the people who will suffer due to BP's oil problem.
- The government players who repeatedly failed to protect us citizen-taxpayers from the fallout of bad corporate decision-making.
Is the Cordoba House yet another issue of mass distraction? (It's not my phrase, but I forgot who generated it). If airtime and column inches are being given to this so-called issue, then you can bet that some people are putting serious money into it.
And this makes me wonder: just how many "battle carriers" are hiding behind the right hand?