Help Save the Stupid

My passion for proselytizing about environmental issues is getting the best of me. Without the help of a bottle of Reisling at night my busy brain takes hours to decompress. It's all about saving the Artic, cooling the climate, protecting the rainforest and the endless ways to conserve energy and go green. And because Earth Day is just around the corner I'm more and more anxious for my march on Washington next month with StepitUp.

So, the other day I had my annual tax meeting with my accountant. I dropped by a little early to enjoy a cup of coffee before the tedius process began. Then I heard his voice - the voice of the father of all lies, Rush Limbaugh, on the radio. That fabricating false prophet who, like Sean Hannity, G Gordon Liddy, Bill O’Reilly, Glen Beck and Michael Savage, is far more dangerous than George Bush and his cabinet of scariness.

"I just love Rush Limbaugh, don't you?" asks the secretary. She's serious.

"Uhmmm..."

I'm trapped. A reasonably intellegent woman just asked me if I love the most twisted right wing political propagandist to ever live and breath among us humans. How do I begin to contradict that question or better yet, do I even try? My confrontation skills aren't great and I know enough not to argue with a brainwashed victim. I smile softly and offer her a glimpse into where I am on the voting spectrum; "I love NPR and I think global warming is real."

"What? Oh, honey, there's no proof of that! The scientists are all wrong and NPR is just a bunch of crazy liberals," she says in return.

"Uhmmm..."

I start to panic. I want out of this office now. I think about switching accountants. I think about challenging her. I think about changing the subject. I think about reason and clarity. In the end, I laugh. I laugh long and hard in a mocking, ridiculing, sarcastic and pitying way. Its the best medicine, perhaps only medicine for someone so myopic, judgemental and stubborn in their thinking that no amount of talking can help them.

"We better not talk about this" I offer and with that she agrees - probably the only thing we'd ever agree on.