A thank you to DU (and a story) [View All]

[Neecy]

I want to thank everyone who offered such kind words last week about the death of my sister. Your thoughts and advice were taken to heart.

We've all wondered why Republicans seem so angry these days, despite the fact that they control all of the levers of government. I still don't have an answer to that, but I saw an unfortunate display of this anger last week that makes me wonder if it isn't a form of mass sociopathy, fed and fueled by the media and the religious right.

My sister was an activist Democrat, and after the election I gave her a blue Democratic wristband with the word "Hope" on it. She loved it and never took it off. She died with it on and my brother in law asked the funeral home to leave it on, because he knew what it represented and that she'd want to be buried wearing it.

The visitation and rosary was Thursday night and my family was gratified that there was a huge turnout. My sister died suddenly at a young age of heart failure, so as you can imagine my family was still in a state of shock and grief (and we still are). While we were momentarily pleased that so many came, what we didn't expect was the reaction to that simple blue bracelet.

We were, simply put, swarmed by the Republicans in the crowd (and there were many - I had no idea). They'd spot it and ask my brother-in-law what it was, and then spout off, angrily, despite the fact that he'd just lost his wife. About half an hour into it I stood sort of dazed in the back of the room and all around me I heard rants about Bill Clinton and strangely enough, Al Gore (I guess Gore had given a speech last week - I missed it if it happened). One blonde, middle aged Republican woman (I didn't know who she was) berated and ridiculed my mother after asking if she, too, was a Democrat. This was at the wake of her daughter. It was surreal. Her wake turned into some bizarre Republican rally. The Democrats there knew that it wasn't appropriate and pretty much stayed silent, because starting an argument would have been tacky, and I was certainly in no condition to engage them.

There were a couple of decent Republicans there. At one point, I was standing next to my sister's oldest friend from school and was listening to a group of them right in front of me mocking the wristband. I sort of sadly turned to her - I hadn't seen her in years, since I've lived out of the state for 25 years - and asked if she was a Republican, too. She said she was but then added helpfully, "But I hate George Bush". Maybe that's why she didn't pile on with the rest of them. I heard one Republican friend of my sister tell the one who was hectoring my mother to knock it off, so exactly two of them in the room had decent instincts. That's it - two out of the probably 50 Republicans there.

I couldn't believe that a blue wristband on the arm of a dead woman would engender such a frenzy, or that they couldn't contain themselves even at a wake. This hatred is unnatural. It's dangerous. It makes no sense, unless you assume they simply want to stamp us out and are angry that there aren't legal methods (yet) to do so. It was a sign of the fascism to come, I have no doubt of that. All I can say is - beware and be prepared to defend and protect yourselves. Your own government is encouraging this hatred.