<mkt o/t> -gg: people w/brains tend to use them.
Here's something I'd welcome discussion with "Oblomov" on but I can't find any other appropriate threads where he/she posts to initiate a "non-partisan, learning experience" type of conversation:
Bush Fatigue
With Saddam's capture, so collapses the will to resist
by Alan Bisbort - December 18, 2003
There comes a point when you've
had enough, you just can't take
another moment of thinking about it,
feeling it in your gut and bones,
forgetting it for a few moments only
to find it waiting for you when you
arrive at your destination. It is
always sending reminders of its
power over you. When you reach
this point, as victims of abuse often
note, you begin to weigh the only
two scenarios that make sense:
either flee, in hopes of saving
yourself, your family and sanity; or
stay and submit, go along to get
along. "It," for me, is the three-year-and-counting Bush Assault and the very real
possibility, now that Saddam is in the bag, that "it" might continue for another five
years.
How much more of this can we take as a nation? Never mind that there will always
be heated partisan disagreements in America, but this assault is different. It's
something we've never had to face: a usurpation of power and willful destruction of
the very means by which we govern. A reader summed up his own, similar
breaking point: "It's such a show going on void of any honor or honesty. It seems
to wound me daily and I have to force myself to think of other things."
I would like to think that the president has the power and the will to change
directions, to reverse some of the extreme elements of his agenda, to heal the rifts
that exist here in the United States. But past behavior indicates that this is not
likely to happen. If anything, flush with the head of Saddam Hussein -- a despot
who deserves to rot in Hell -- Bush and his inner circle will wield their power even
more flagrantly, I fear.
At the risk of redundancy, America is a victim of abuse. It started with the tainted
election of 2000 that left deep scars that nobody seems to want to admit are still
with us. Then there was 9/11, a brutal blow to our very sense of being. And from
then on, it has been day in and day out abuse of powers in Washington, D.C.,
powers that were earned only by dint of a vote of a partisan Supreme Court.
Americans know their government, such as it is now, is unresponsive to their
needs. They know that we are up against a terrorist network that has worldwide
tentacles, and yet the arrogance of power in Washington has isolated us from
those very countries in the world with whom we share the most longstanding
bonds. They know that the wealthiest few are getting the biggest tax breaks, the
religious right has captured the social agenda, the airwaves are ruled by the
corporate apologists. And they know this isn't right. But, sheer exhaustion and
helplessness have taken over. They go along to get along. The one question I hear
wherever I go, from friends and well-meaning relatives, "Yes, Alan, but what can
you do?"
I reached my personal breaking point a few weeks back when Bush made a major
photo op of signing the partial birth abortion bill into law. "This," his arrogant smirk
seemed to say, "is unimpeachable proof of my belief in the sanctity of life."
Of course, during the same time period, 32 soldiers lost their lives in Iraq for what
was said to be a search for weapons that posed an imminent threat to us and has
ended with a pathetic, broken man found cowering in a hole. Some threat.
Language means nothing to an abuser; it's just words, words are cheap and
always risk revealing truths. Bush's few attempts to use language have shown him
to be everything from a liar (18 words about "yellow cake") in the State of the
Union Address to a pro wrestler ("Bring 'em on").
I don't know why this particular outrage -- par for the course and not even as bad
as most -- affected me so deeply. But it did, and I vowed that, for the next two
weeks, I would not read about Bush, not cling to daily tonics from my reliable
Internet sources, not even glance in the general direction of the New York Times
on the kitchen table each morning for fear of seeing Bush's mug. I profligately
bought CDs instead, immersing myself in Warren Zevon's last recording, soothing
myself with Chet Baker and Keith Jarrett, recharging myself with Steppenwolf
reissues. I guess I am a victim of Bush fatigue.
I realize Bush and his gang will never break out of the cycle of abuse. Capturing
Saddam will only inflate them and probably ensure their election in 2004. They are
like Morrissey's "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" who says he'll "never ever do it
again ... of course he won't, ahhh, not until the next time."
I promise I'll never hit you again, America.
Of course they won't. Not until the next time.
hartfordadvocate.com
Perhaps if Mr/s Oblomov sees this post, he/she will join me on either of these two threads for tea, crumpets and "polite, respectful" conversation ...........
Subject 50428
Or
Subject 54497 |
