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YES, VIRGINIANS, THERE IS A SUPER CAUSE... Elect Jim Webb!!

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Linda Milazzo
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Yes, Virginians, there is a super cause. It's defeating George Allen and electing Jim Webb.

On November 7th you voters in Virginia have the chance to restore our nation. To show your fellow citizens and the waiting world that Americans refuse to be lied to. That we won't be lead by children. That we're rid of the nepotism that promotes Junior Georges because Senior Georges are known.

It's time for the adults to take over. Give football and baseball back their boy Georges and put our nation back on track.

True, George Bush is not on the ballot. At least not directly. But the vote you cast on George Allen is still a referendum on Bush. The vote you cast on George Allen determines the power of Bush. You can advance his out of control Presidency. Or restore the balance of power which makes our nation great.

So here are your choices:

George Allen, the southern California rich boy who invented a Virginia mystique. Or Jim Webb, a true to the bone Virginia native, a Vietnam war hero with a son serving in Iraq, a former Secretary of the Navy, and an acclaimed author.

For me it's a no brainer. I'm tired of boys in men's jobs. Unaccomplished sons who trade on the names of their fathers. Secretary Webb is an adult. A man of wide-ranging talent. And since the Allen camp knows this, they're on the attack.

With Allen's inability to defend his racism, the 'Macaca' incident, his Confederate flag and noose, the multiple testimonials on his use of the "N" word, etc., he and his handlers have tried desperately to uncover a weakness in Jim Webb. So what have they found?

Some racy text in Webb's military novels.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Allen and his cohorts exhibit limited literary knowledge. Some of literature's most noted works use violence and sexuality in context. This isn't a measure of the author's character. It's the process of art. The deepening of story. The needed exposition to drive home a point.

In Greek mythology, Laius, Oedipus' father, kidnapped and raped the young boy Chrysippus and was then cursed by Chrysippus' father, Pelops... and it gets worse after that. Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is often interpreted as an examination of the oedipal relationship between Hamlet and his mother Gertrude. Euripedes' "Medea" kills her two children.

Throughout literary history the most deified authors have delved into the most disturbing subjects. Only in a political race would such practice evoke so juvenile a response.

It's laughable that literary license would be questioned by a man as vapid as George Allen, whose principal language consists of football puns parsed through a faux Virginia drawl. After all, the guy's from Southern California!

As to Secretary Webb's writings portraying a negative view of women, one could easily point out how often the most graphic women's sex scenes are written by women themselves. In fact, it's George Allen, not Jim Webb, who's been directly accused of mistreating a woman. His own sister, Jennifer, in whose 2000 memoire, "Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter" details the physical and mental abuse she suffered from her brother.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of George Allen's attack on the novel is the fact that Allen's life is a novel itself. It's an invention. It's just not real.

Consider Mr. Allen's bigotry.

Whenever asked if he's a bigot, his response, as quoted here from the Washington Post, is "That's not who I am. It's not how I was raised. It's not what I believe in."

But the fact is, that is how Allen was raised. He was raised in prejudice. He was raised in bias and he was raised in lies. Were he not raised in prejudice, his mother would not have felt the need to keep her Jewish identity hidden. By Allen's own account, his mother's secrecy was fueled by fear of prejudice toward Jews. By fear of being discovered.

Would such fear of revealing her Jewish identity have persisted so strongly and for so long in a safe and open household, free of religious and ethnic intolerance? I think not. Such fear would have been eradicated in an open loving household. Coach Allen, George Jr.'s famous father, would have embraced his wife's ethnicity and religion. Instead, they mutually allowed it to remain hidden as some onerous badge of shame.

According to George Allen, his mother Etty, revealed her Jewish identity for the first time in the past couple months. If there hadn't been prejudice in her home, why would she have waited so long? Why would she have told her son, "Now you don't love me anymore. Please don't tell your brothers, your sister or your wife," as Allen revealed to Chris Matthews, if she weren't anticipating repercussion.

This isn't World War II Germany. George Allen grew up in Whittier, California. True, Whittier wasn't a bastion of Jewish culture. It's principally a Quaker town. But how many Jews have been murdered or persecuted in Whittier, California? None that I'm aware of. Especially since the majority of Whittier residents are Quakers for whom pacifism is the foundation of their religion. There were Jews in Whittier. In fact, the highly respected Temple Beth Shalom was founded in 1951, the year before George Allen was born. Plus, who would torture the wife of a famous football coach for being a California Jew?

While one can sympathize with Mrs. Allen's supposed anti-semitic experience growing up in North Africa, one can also presume that had the Allen household been safe, loving and unbiased, it would have assuaged Mrs. Allen's fears. Contrastingly, a household steeped in bias, would have perpetuated them. Thus, I find Mr. Allen's oft repeated lament "it's not how I was raised," a case of 'me thinks thou dost protest too much'! More bluntly, I think Mr. Allen is lying. That he was raised in prejudice, that he is a racist, and that he's unfit for public office.

So, Virginians, the final decision is now up to you. You can elect a dishonest, ridiculous man, who's been a rubber stamp for George Bush and weakened our nation. Or you can elect Jim Webb, a gifted honest man, willing to keep the Executive Branch in check.

Think of this... Virginia could be the first state in the union with two Secretaries of the Navy serving as Senators. John Warner and Jim Webb. Sure to keep our nation afloat.

So, come on, Virginians. Take care of our nation. Vote for Jim Webb!

... One more thing. I had a Jewish mother too, and a Sicilian Catholic father. No secrets in our house. In fact the difference in ethnicity didn't silence the house. It made it more open.
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Linda Milazzo was a Managing Editor of Opednews until Fall 2014, and a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist. Since 1974, she has divided her time between the entertainment industry, government organizations, community development (more...)
 

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