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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (171454)	6/30/2003 8:01:09 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1583556

George W. and the Cherry Tree by Bill Youngs Not so long ago, American school children were raised on the story of George W. and the cherry tree. As a boy young George received a hatchet as a Christmas present. Parson Mason Weems immortalized the story in 1809. In his telling, George was mighty fond of the present and was "constantly going about chopping every thing that came in his way." One day he happened upon his father's favorite cherry tree and whacked away at it. George's father discovered the damage, and demanded to know who did it. Parson Weems writes, "presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. George, said his father, do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry-tree yonder in the garden? This," says Weems, "was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself: and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all-conquering truth, he bravely cried out, I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet." George W.'s father might have whipped the boy, but he understood, as would his son, the importance of honesty. "Run to my arms, you dearest boy," he said. "Such an act of heroism in my son, is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold." Alas, not all of our presidents have been so heroic - or so honest. As we learn more and more about the web of deceit that surrounded the rush to war in Iraq, the cherry tree story, embedded deep in our national consciousness, becomes powerfully relevant. The President of the United States, the new George W., seems to have left the moral of the cherry tree out of his definition of statesmanship. How else could he have stood before congress and nation a few months ago and claimed that he had evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction - evidence that turns out today, a couple of hundred American lives later, to have been not only mistaken, but intentionally mistaken. With the hatchet of political propaganda George W. had a whack at the tree of liberty. The new George W. likes to talk about heroism. But will he ever have the courage to admit to the nation what really happened in the months before the Iraq war? In the mean time, we the people should recall the importance of demanding honesty in our statesmen. In keeping the nation strong the value of honesty is surely greater than silver or the "purest gold." Bill Youngs (jyoungs@ewu.edu) is a history professor at Eastern Washington University. He has published five books including a new edition of a reader called American Realities. He also does a weekly radio commentary for KEWU. ###