I thought this worth postin......

Well Sir....I received this here dissertation today frum my good amiga, Sue Gertson frum Eagle Lake, Texas. I thought it appropriate to post in it's entirety...

days of salt and vinegar
by J.C. Phillips

A French philosopher once remarked that a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will not have the will or energy to defend itself. I thought of these words when I read the recent Newsweek interview with actor George Clooney. When asked about the failure of the international community to act to end the genocide in Darfur, Clooney blamed it on the United States’ lack of moral authority since our invasion of Iraq.

Curiously, Clooney did not blame the lethargic international response on the inertia of the European Union, the duplicity of Arab states that funded the conflict while Muslims were slaughtering Christians and now seem content to sit by as Muslims slaughter Muslims. Neither did he ascribe any blame to the Chinese and Russians that have routinely blocked U.N. action. For Clooney, the fault lies solely with the United States because we are currently in Iraq, oddly enough doing exactly what Clooney wants the U.S. to do in Sudan.

Of course, to hear Clooney tell it, his perspective on U.S. foreign relations is due to his being raised to look at this country from the outside in as opposed to the inside out. Why is that Hollywood celebrities hide their hubris behind claims that they are simply more sophisticated than the rest of us? No doubt, it is this same sophistication that leads them to embrace totalitarian dictators and become enamoured of all things European. The same Europe, by the way, that is so morally superior that they were paralyzed during the Bosnian crisis, sat on their hands during the genocide in Rwanda and now sits impotent in the face of a soon to be nuclear armed Iran; The same Europe that witnesses suffering in Sudan and fails to act because they disagree with our Iraq policy. That can’t even sound right to Clooney.

There is a steady stream of anti-Americanism that runs through Hollywood and is infecting the rest of the country. From Hollywood actors that wear their contempt for America like a badge of honor to former presidential candidates that bad mouth America in the ears of despots and beyond, the ranks of the guilt-ridden and self loathing are growing. The irony is that the ambitions of so many of these Hollywood types – treatment for AIDS, ending starvation, preventing genocide etc. – hinge not on the soft socialism of Europe, but on the very American values they disdain. It is those same values of self reliance, decentralization, capitalism, freedom of speech and religion and rights to private property -- and not European secularist socialism -- that is the blueprint for world peace and prosperity.

Perhaps in another era I could listen to actors like Clooney hold forth on their designer soapboxes and just ascribe it to Hollywood arrogance and eccentricity. But these are times of salt and vinegar. We are at war and I am not talking about Iraq. This nation is engaged in a life and death struggle with Islamic fascists, Jihadist -- or whatever the term du jour is -- for our very existence. If we are going to be victorious, we had better reject Hollywood anti-Americanism (no matter how pretty the face) and begin to feel good about ourselves. If our culture and our ideals are going to survive, we had better start feeling good about America. We had better begin to feel good about our values. We had better begin facing the world with confidence in who we are and with clarity about what we stand for. Or we could follow sophisticates like Clooney down the garden path and begin work carving “Rest In Peace” on America’s headstone.