Tuesday, December 7, 2010

7 December 2010 Things overheard in a Veterans’ Affairs waiting room.

Remembering that this is the 69th anniversary of the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor. There was no mention of Pearl Harbor by any veteran I saw or overheard today.

Overheard in the Eye clinic this morning. Two televisions in the waiting area were tuned to Fox News.

“Obama is a Muslim.”

“Obama is a secret Muslim.”

“Obama is ruining the nation.”

“He said during his campaign that he wanted to “change America fundamentally. That means socialism.

“The unemployed and the lazy are destroying this country. They’re unemployed because they don’t want to work.”

The lazy welfare cheats on disability get $60,000/year.”

“They should kill the wiki leaks guy and his whole family to make the point.”

“They’re trying to destroy Christianity. They’re gonna demolish the Catholics first then the rest of us.”

“He’s trying to give all the jobs and college loans to “those people.” “Mexicans?” “Those too!”



In the outpatient surgical waiting area, one television, tuned to Headline News.

There was no Fox-induced paranoid ranting, no talk of “war on Christians.” There was random and casual conversation among the patients in that area.



I’ve had my limit of Fox News for the year. The misconceptions, lack of understanding of the Constitution, anger at minorities, and just plain uneducated, poorly read paranoia were thick enough to cut with a knife. I don’t know what made the difference in the two rooms other than the television. The patients were assigned to the waiting areas by medical service.

All answers and guesses welcome.

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