Kooks

On Christmas day ATC, Robert Siegel opens a humorous Christmas piece as follows:

"First, the downside: we’re looking at the end of a three day holiday weekend - millions of us go back to work tomorrow; empty boxes and ugly, undressed trees start turning up curbside waiting for disposal, talk of goodwill and peace on earth will soon start to sound like the rantings of kooks and idealists once again."

Such a sentiment explains a lot about the attitudes toward peace activists at NPR news. There is no irony or hyperbole intended in Siegel's remark - just a hard, mature look at reality. NPR overwhelmingly turns to pro-military think-tank dwellers, current or former government officials, and current or former military members to fill out its reports on issues of war and peace - but leaders of the peace, fair trade, pro-union, human-rights, or other progressive movements are never given equal representation (and rarely given any time for that matter).

Considering the current state of the world brought to us by NPR-favored realists, pragmatists, pundits, and leaders - I'm proud to be one of the kooks and idealists that Siegel is so contemptuous of. And frankly, a look back at the past proves that we have been proven right!

(the graphic of the real "kooks" shows them in action in Miami in 2002 and comes from this site.)