MONTPELIER – A group of Vermont politicians, political lobbyists, and political activists have joined together in releasing a highly politicized press statement asking people who disagree with them to refrain from politicizing the recent mass shooting. The statement deftly makes use of the national tragedy to solidify their political positions, while at the same time building off of the grief of the country to prevent their opponents from effecting any real change.
“This is no time to be making political statements,” the politicians said in their statement, “this is a time to use words like ‘strong,’ ‘freedom,’ ‘America,’ and ‘respect.’ You can’t fix a leaking roof while it’s raining, and to even think about how to fix the roof while it is in the process of leaking would be disrespectful to the roof, and to the person who built the roof back when roofs were great.”
The statement went on to praise the founding fathers and the constitution for three paragraphs before putting forth a clear timeline on when to start talking about the issues of mental illness and gun violence in our country. “We must have a period of respectful cessation of discourse for no less than one year after such a terrible tragedy as this.” A follow-up question as to what would happen if someone else were to murder one or more individuals before that year of political inaction was up was answered by email with “The tribute clock would reset.”
“It is sickening to us,” the statement concluded, “that anyone would try to use this horrible and senseless catastrophe for their own political ends. We hope the American people will remember on election day, which party dragged politics into this.” The statement contained, as a footnote, links to the re-election campaign pages for all participating politicians, as well as donation links to the participating lobby groups and political organizations.
Image Credits: ABC News.
Another example of satire that is too painfully close to the truth.
maybe this one was a whole lot too soon, as it has effects some personally! I love the humor, but a little more tastefully timed humor would be good.
Satire isn’t always funny.
Aw, this was a really good post. Taking the time
and actual effort to produce a top notch article… but
what can I say… I hesitate a lot and never manage to get anything done.
Wait… I accidentally clicked on agencia eventowa warszawa’s name instead of the post title as I was catching up. I immediately thought “Wow, The Winooski is going out of its way to create a realistic scenario!” Then I thought, “No, wait a minute. This actually IS a Polish site writing in to The Winooski!” Oh, my gosh! What a sweet thing for them to say! Wow.
Yeah the satire was a little close to the bone, but good satire often is. Satire’s best use isn’t for entertainment, it is to get us to pay attention. Sometimes that takes going close to the bone. Thanks for being willing to do that, even if it makes some people uncomfortable. Maybe they need to be.