Diarist Winsmith's "I Don't Care About Tony Snow" response to Miss Blue's "Our Prayers Go Out To Tony Snow and Family seems a bit callous to me, though scathingly accurate in some areas. Please note that I am not "calling out" Winsmith, as I recommended the diary myself as an excellent read; it's just that I disagree with most of his conclusions specifically about Tony Snow.
We should care about Tony Snow.
Cancer is pain. It is concentrated fear. Being only 25 and having a father who is currently dying of cancer, I could feel the fear as thick as molasses when he told me over the phone that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. He is in a hospital now fighting for his life, and in intense pain and discomfort as the respirator he is on is agitating him to no end, and the doctors' reluctance to use too much morphine for fear of bringing his already-low blood pressure even lower.
Now I bring this up not as a shield for criticism or to claim any moral superiority in this argument because my dad has cancer, but to attempt to convey what cancer can do to someone. I honestly and truly wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, and Mr. Snow wouldn't even come close to qualifying for that spot.
I am fully aware that you do not wish for Mr. Snow to die, nor that you are glad he has cancer, and that you:
support anyone who genuinely cares enough to wish Tony Snow well. I don't join you in that effort, I'll save my energy for those who I do care about. But I understand and support the emotion. Cancer is horrible, no matter who suffers from it.
I just want you to be clear that I am not trying to paint you as either enjoying Mr. Snow's predicament or calling out people who do care.
You then go on to attempt to discern Miss Blue's motives for posting her well wishes for the Snow family:
But why must we proudly feature a diary at the top of Daily Kos announcing this is how we feel? Is this because we care about Tony Snow? Or are we making it clear to the Drudge-driven propagandists that they can't troll through our blogs to find one or two anecdotes and use them to misrepresent us as they did with the Dick Cheney near-assassination in Afghanistan?
And that's a well meaning strategy. But it won't work.
Because the cesspool of right wing media doesn't care what we really think.
While you lay out a plausible theory, I choose to believe that Miss Blue and others who wish Mr. Snow well do so simply because they are human, and that they care. Not because of the political calculations as to how the right wing nutjobs will react, or as a pre-emptive shield against mainstream jackasses who use the occasional troll to denigrate the entire liberal blogosphere.
Simply because we are human, and we have experienced emotional and physical pain in the loss of a loved one or a close call with our own health. And I don't care what Mr. Snow has done in his career or his endless defending of what will turn out as the worst administration this country has ever witnessed.
I will pray for Mr. Snow and his family for a speedy recovery regardless of whether or not Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and every other hypocritical piece of shit on the right still somehow claim that this community was cheering when the news of his cancer broke. I really have tuned them out at this point anyways.
While I'm not terribly religious (and Jewish for that matter), I think this passage sums up my feeling:
Matthew 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. [44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (KJV)
In conclsion: Winsmith, your points about the mythical "liberal" and its evolution into the "other" are quite brilliant in my mind, and are thoughts which I will take with me in my discussions with others. And while you have every right to refrain from praying for Mr. Snow (and I respect such a decision), I would hope that you would consider that no matter what political persuasion, we are all mortal, we all feel pain, and as pain goes, cancer is one of its biggest suppliers. I would hope that we would be not only above wishing the death of our political opponents (such as Coulter and the NY Times), but above a simple, callous "I don't give a fuck" as well.
We are all on this planet together, and will all face death someday. So I wish Mr. Snow and his family a speedy recovery.
Not because it makes me better than those on the right. But because I'm human, and I choose to love my enemy.
(I also apologize for singling you out, as I have a tremendous amount of respect for both your diary, your writing ability, and your perspective on the matter, one which I can understand completely)