Do We Want SANITY Or Do We Allow INSANITY to Reign?

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show decided to have a march to restore sanity after Glenn Beck, the flame throwing talking head at Fox News hosted a march to restore dignity or whatever it was he said it was for. As a comedian Stewart, perhaps without even understanding its broader appeal, was all for trying to stop the screaming and shouting of the crazies out there including folks like Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle, and Christine O'Donnell, who is running for the US Senate from Delaware who said "I am not a witch" in a commercial that made her look like one.

As an intellectual, sanity is much desired. So are decorum and literacy. It seems that the illiterates, semi-literates, and those who split their infinitives are more popular and command more attention than those who have records of achievement. Sarah Palin attended five colleges before she got a degree in something akin to basket weaving (just joking), and doesn't have a good track record for achieving much of anything unless you consider being mayor of Wasilla, Alaska that has a handful of stop signs. Just as she quit one college and transferred to another, she also quit the governor's office for no obvious reason except that she got tired of the job. Short attention span? Desire to cash in on illiteracy?

The babe in Delaware who wore the black suit propped against a black velvet looking background and who, in the television commercial, proclaimed she is not a witch hasn't achieved as much as Palin. Consorting with witches, announcing that research was being conducted to put human brains in mice, not knowing what's in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and using campaign funds to pay her rent are the beliefs and practices of Christine O'Donnell.

Can you believe that these women are in the same Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, George Bush, Sr., Nelson Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe and scores of other men and a few women who command respect for their achievements prior to winning their Senate races? George Bush, Sr. was a Congressman, Ambassador to China, businessman, and a graduate of Yale University (don't hold it against Yale that they also awarded a degree to George W. Bush, the son). In other words, achievement is a decided negative for those who support the likes of Palin and her ilk.

It was only a few years ago that these same people would have castigated those black inner city kids who were opposed to making good grades in school. In fact, much was made of the "down with achievement" attitudes of those kids who bullied good students and who felt that making good grades was a matter of trying to be white. If we applied this same logic to Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell, folks wouldn't be hailing them as leaders or voting for them to become the Vice President and a Senator. So why and how is it that poor kids can be banished as bad people and these white women are deemed national leaders for the same behavior? That's for you to figure out. Jon Stewart has a humorous take on it but in doing so exposes the underbelly of the society to us. He shows us that SANITY is needed now more than ever. It is up to us to demand a restoration to common sense, and to speak out against INsansity by voting for those whose real achievements and views are worthy of respecting.