I am a political independent with garbled politics. I believe in smaller government, freer immigration, abortion rights, and a melting pot theory of society. I loathe the Democrats who push ever bigger government as a solution to everything, as much as the Republicans who want government out of our lives except when it comes to what happens in our bedrooms.

So I always listened with a smug smile to my daughter’s assertion that the press is left-leaning. Even when the curriculum in her Ph.D. program in journalism required a full year of Marxist theory, I assumed there was a communication message in there somewhere.

When PBS fired Juan Williams for saying what everyone in the country feels when getting on an airplane, I was willing to acknowledge the covertly racial overtones in his concerns.

But when I read Nick Welsh’s opinion piece in the May 5 Independent, I cracked up. My kid is on to something. Welsh probably did not mean for his article to be amusing. He probably did not realize how much it revealed his bitterness and rage, especially after proclaiming he would “rather not have to remember” 9/11 because “bitterness and rage [aren’t good for his] skin tone.”

A good portion of the rest of his opinion piece was punctuated by his bitterness and rage toward what Welsh calls “the lies” of George W. Bush. So Welsh is ready perhaps even eager to forgive OBL for 9/11 because remembering is bad for his complexion, but apparently his antipathy for GW Bush outweighs his concern for his skin tone.

I may be ready to concede my daughter’s point.

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