President Aquino and the Get Real Critics

Critics are essential but best taken with a grain of salt.  That means don't assign too much credibility to what they opine. Critics go to a high-class restaurant, sample the cuisine and write a column in the newspaper about the meal. Then the next day they spin by "In and Out Burgers" to get a fix of great fatty flavors.

They stand at a bar in the wine tasting room sipping the cabernet, allowing it to roll softly on the palate, inhaling the aromatic flavors on a slow inward breath and spitting the residue into a pot. They write their findings in a log and give the wine a numerical score. Not bad. 88. But the one time they tried to make wine it tasted like vinegar.

They saunter into the art show, the unveiling of a young new artist. They write their column in the "Lifestyle" section of the daily rag, criticize the coldness of the artist's stroke and absence of passion and upend the kid's future. Never mind that they last held an oil brush at age 9 when someone gave them a paint by the numbers kit.

They awaken to President Aquino's arrest of former President Arroyo and rush to the computer to write a blog calling him vindictive. When someone comments that Ms. Arroyo abused the public trust and belongs in jail, they call her "empty headed", displaying a venom that is worse than "vindictive", personal condemnation of someone they don't even know.

Free speech is a protected right and even hypocrites, blowhards and incompetents have a role to play in a democratic society. Until they become a menace to others with their demonizing and harassment of people who are working constructively within the system.

I used to live in Los Angeles so I've followed the Occupy Movement there. The Mayor tried a different approach, non-confrontational. But after a couple of months, the campout became unseemly. Scruffy homeless people and young idlers took over the tent town and turned downtown Los Angeles, up near City Hall, into a squatter's village. The police had to turn a deaf nose to the distinct odor of illegal marijuana wafting through the air. Not to mention garbage and body odor.

The Mayor eventually had enough. The protestors had been given a chance to articulate their message and the "temporary residences" were becoming a hazard to the public's right of passage and well-being. The Mayor issued an order for campers to vacate. The Occupiers defied the order and, as police moved in, the protestors ran around shouting "we are peaceful, we are peaceful!" . . .as if their entire ideological message had narrowed to the notion that America is a brutal police state.

No. Syria is a brutal police state.

American police, like American soldiers, have a tough job. They deserve our unwavering support and our ability to look past individual cases of poor judgment to see the honor, the danger, the valor and the importance of what they do, as a force. I dislike it immensely when the Occupy Movement tries to demean the police in every city across the land. It’s the same as if they gave the finger to soldiers who risk their lives in Afghanistan.

Anarchy, for sure, wears a very ugly mask.

In Los Angeles, the police expediently swept everyone and everything into its proper container . . . jail or trash bin . . . and the Occupy movement took one more step toward irrelevance for flaunting the values  that frame a decent society.

And if Filipinos such as Ilda and Benigno and BongV can run a better country than President Aquino, I'd suggest they saddle up the electoral horse and ride. Their candidate didn't even have the capacity to win the election in 2009, which gives you some idea of the muffball they backed.

So now they are reaching deep down into their strident souls to paint President Aquino as incompetent and vindictive. Belittling the President is their agenda, their obsession. It is their reason for being.

As with soldiers and police, I believe the President deserves our unwavering support and our ability to look past the decisions we might judge erroneous to see the valor and the danger (to us if he fails) and the importance of what he does.

I think relentless criticism that undermines the leader of the nation, with no intent other than that destruction, is shameful. It weakens the nation. I feel that way about U.S. Republicans, and I feel that way about the Get Real vendetta.

Vendetta.

It's another V word.

Tell me again, exactly how is that term is to be distinguished from "Vindictive"?

And explain to me why I should attach "honor" to a vendetta to undermine the Chief of State.