Monday, May 22, 2006

I want to apologize as well.

Newsbusters has this:

As keynote commencement speaker, Times Publisher Arthur Sulzbergerr Jr."apologized" to graduates at the State University of New York at New Paltz on Sunday for the failure of his generation to stop the Iraq War and to sufficiently promote "fundamental human rights" like abortion, immigration, and gay marriage.

"It wasn't supposed to be this way," Sulzberger said. "You weren't supposed to be graduating in an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, be it the rights of immigrants to start a new life, the right of gays to marry or the rights of women to choose."

Heaven knows I'm not the Publisher of the New York Times. I'm just a small voice. A wife, mother, caretaker, volunteer, and activist. I'm not powerful and I'm not rich, but I would like to apologize to all graduates this year as well.

I'd like to apologize that our country never let the people decide about abortion, that they allowed a billion dollar a year industry to thrive off the agony of women. I apologize that no one ever listens to the millions of women who suffer from their abortion. My generation hasn't done a good enough job of telling you when the heart of your child starts beating or the horror of abortion on that child.

I apologize that my generation never took the time to stop illegal immigration and now it is an almost impossible task to remedy.

I apologize that we made divorce so easy and made people believe that it wasn't that big of a deal so that even grown children of divorce are still suffering from the pain of their parent's divorce in more ways than we can even imagine. I apologize that instead of seeking ways to solidify marriage for children, we are only looking at more ways to re-define marriage. In doing so, we are opening up a pandora's box of which the family will likely never recover.

I apologize that my party didn't do more to stop these things that hurt our families so. I apologize that men like Arthur Sulzberger Jr. have had such an influence over hiding the negative side of these issues while pretending to be objective. I apologize that our media is so biased and blinded by their own ideology that it took the internet to finally find some truth and balance on issues and news coverage.

I apologize that Mr. Sulzberger sees a tyrannical monster, that abused and murdered women and children, being taken down as "misbegotten." Mr. Sulzberger doesn't see a Democracy in the Middle East as worth fighting for because it doesn't fit his standard what is good for the world. I apologize that Mr. Suzberger doesn't seem to understand why we have not been attacked again by terrorists. I apologize for those in my generation who don't see much of anything worth fighting for, because if defeating terrorism isn't, then I don't know what would be.

We let you down, graduates. Now it is up to you to make sure that men like Mr. Sulzberger no longer try control what you hear as news viewed through the prism of his ideology. It is up to you to seek truth and never trust that the mainstream media is giving you the whole story. Their credibility was diminished long ago.

Encourage debate. Seek Truth. Follow the good. Question everything.