Dear All;
The latest edition of the Advocate had this really short brief and to the point article by Michael Cloud which has some very strong points to consider when we are discussing out reach to others - who may not be "Ordinary Americans".
The article is below and is also attached as a word.doc.
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno
"Ordinary
American": An Insult Hidden In Plain Sight
by Michael Cloud
"Ordinary Americans made this happen," said a politician.
"This is what ordinary Americans want," said a pundit.
"This will hurt ordinary Americans," said another.
What do most public figures, politicians, and pundits mean when they use the
phrase "ordinary Americans"?
All too often, these speakers and writers use "ordinary Americans" as
code words to divide Americans into two groups:
1) Their kind of people: the best and the brightest, the upper class, the
elite, extraordinary, classy, well-educated, intelligent, exceptional, and
remarkable. An intellectual aristocracy.
2) Ordinary Americans, common people, the Masses, average Joes and Janes,
undistinguished, run-of-the-mill, typical, conventional, mediocre, plain, and
dull.
Code words are words or phrases designed to convey one meaning, one message to
one group of listeners while sounding inoffensive to others.
"Ordinary Americans" is a code phrase to let speakers look down and
talk down to those who are not part of the speakers' group. Who do not share
their values or agenda.
Many of the elitist speakers and writers hold that "ordinary
Americans" are uneducated, ignorant, too dumb to know what's in their best
interests, and must be manipulated, legislated, and regulated for their own
good.
When you hear someone say "ordinary American," listen to the tone and
connotation. Look who it is aimed at and applied to. And look who is excluded.
At the people who are NOT "ordinary Americans."
I have met hundreds of thousands of Americans, and I've never met one who was
ordinary, common, or average. I've heard and seen people with many
similarities, but hundreds of times more differences. Human beings are
individuals. Each of us has different strengths and weaknesses, different
interests and desires, different hopes and dreams. Different limitations and
possibilities. Each of us is unique. We are un-averageable.
No self-appointed elite can know what is best for any one American. Much less
know what is best for all of us -- collectively.
No self-appointed clique has the right to command or rule any of us or all of
us. The American Revolution was launched and fought for each individual's
inalienable right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. No
one has more rights than another. No one has less.
No self-appointed group of individuals has legitimate grounds to look down or
talk down to Americans who ignore or reject them and their political agenda.
You are NOT an ordinary American. You are NOT a common man or woman. You are
NOT an average Joe or Jane. You are NOT one of the masses.
No one is. There is no such person. Each of us is an individual.
And those who try to call you one are NOT on your side. They are NOT on the
side of individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property, and
small government.
noon8window.pdf (36 Bytes)
