100 People Screwing Up America? Add Bernard Goldberg to the list

I believe that in order to find a common ground between this current political divide between the Left and the Right, it is important to hear what both sides have to say. So I decided to check out the book on tape from the library titled: "100 People Screwing Up America" by Bernard Goldberg.

It became painfully clear from the start the Mr. Goldberg never met a conservative that he didn't like and that for the most part, liberals are a problem in this country. Mr. Goldberg places at the feet of anyone who is not a conservative all of the social ills he feels are plaguing this country, including yelling "F---" on an airplane and everyone thinking nothing of it. He does include one or two conservatives but the bulk of blame for messing up this country, in his estimation, is liberals.

Actually, I didn't disagree with him on many of the arguments he made and felt he had some valid points. But the closer we got to the top 30 people he blamed for screwing up this country, the more alarmed I became. I started to get really concerned when we got to:
#10- Jimmy Carter—for being a hypocrite
#8 Paul Krugman—for criticizing the GOP economic polices

But here is the one that really was a wake up call!
#7 is a Jonathan Kozol. Jonathan who? Number 7? Look at this man's website
Check Wikipedia. I can not even find information on this man and yet, according to Goldberg, this man has single handedly turned schools into an instrument of the state where teachers are teaching pro communism propaganda to students everywhere. Yup, that's right! According to Goldberg, this man, Jonathan Kozol, is one of the most influential people in America schools. And because of his widespread influence, teachers everywhere are using classrooms convert students into commies. I can assure you that 99.999% of teachers in this country have never even heard of Jonathan Kozol, and yet, according to Goldberg, he deserves to be listed as #7 in the ranking of people who are screwing up this country.

Now if Bernard Goldberg was as an obscure writer as Jonathan Kozol is, I might not be concerned. But Goldberg’s book, "100 People Screwing Up America" has been on the New York Times best seller's list for how many weeks? How many people who have read his book are going to walk away with the impression that this obscure man, Jonathan Kolzol's propaganda is being spread like a virus throughout the schools in this country? Saying that Jonathan Kozol is one of the most influential men in American education is so laughable and easy to dismiss were it not for the fact that there are people out there who might actually believe this!

And as I reflected on this book, I realized how one by one the validity of divergent views, which is a stronghold of democracy, had been discredited.
The sad thing was that he sounded so sincere.

If I can summarize his gripe with the liberals it is this: we do not respect their views. All the conservatives want is for their values to be respected and not dismissed by those (the liberals) who work to minimalize them through name calling and offensive behaviors. Fair enough. But didn't Jesus say that before you try to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye, you ought to take the log out of your own eye?

Perhaps Mr. Goldberg can return the favor by listening to Paul Begaula and James Carville’s new book, "Take it Back." Maybe then he would understand that the Conservative Right is not without sin. Didn't Jesus say "he who is without sin cast the first stone?" I just listened to this man verbally stone to death people who he claims are hypocrites, evil doers, dirty, bad, immoral, liberal people.

Perhaps Mr. Goldberg needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and add his name to the list of people that are screwing up this country.