Bush Diverts Attention From Real Problems
By Harley Sorensen
The Great Divider was at it again last week, rallying his religious fundamentalist troops in their never-ending war against the
principles of freedom.
George W. Bush is a man who wears his religion on his sleeve. "Look at me," his actions seem to say. "Look at what a good boy
I am. I love God, I truly do, I love the flag, I love apple pie, and, lately, I've noticed I love marriage."
What the Pretender in Chief proposed last week was not a constitutional amendment in "defense" of marriage so much as a
proposal to weaken the principles of inalienable rights, equality, justice for all and the pursuit of happiness.
Doesn't he have more important tasks than stirring up the masses to diminish human rights? Is he really dealing with the
incredible problems facing our nation today? Or is he merely fiddling while Rome burns?
Nobody wants to talk about it, but the world is running out of oil. Predictions vary wildly, but some experts say we'll squeeze the
last drop out of Mother Earth around 2050, perhaps sooner.
The Bush administration, shallow as it is, seems determined to cope with that oncoming threat by grabbing control of the world's
remaining oil. If we have all the oil and they don't, the thinking seems to go, we'll be cock of the walk forever. Is that coping?
Our conquest of Iraq may have been a sneak attack on the world, almost certainly the first shot fired in Cold War II. Do not think
for one second the other nations of the world, friend and foe alike, don't know what we're up to. And don't think for a second they're
going to play dead and let us get away with it.
The international trade war that's starting to heat up may be the main battlefield of the coming war.
On the home front, our economy is in shambles. Every level of government is struggling -- unsuccessfully -- to meet its
commitments. The state of California, wallowing in debt, is seeking to fix its problems by going further into debt.
That shrill sound you hear in Sacramento these days is the "Whistling in the Dark Chorus," led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He and others like him believe the economy will heal itself if only we say it will enough times.
In Arnold's world, it's OK to add debt to debt. Isn't that dangerous? Not to dreamers like Arnold and George W. Bush. They
believe, as Herbert Hoover did in 1932, that "prosperity is just around the corner." As it turned out then, what was around the
corner was a long line of unemployed workers, who voted to throw Hoover out and end more than a dozen years of Republican
rule.
So we have two wars going on overseas, we have terrorists nipping at our heels everywhere, we have an economy on the skids
and getting worse at home -- and Bush wants to "defend" marriage by excluding loving gay and lesbian couples from its economic
and social benefits?
Bush is a sly one, I'll give him that. He has made it clear several times that he has little respect for the separation between church
and state. He obviously believes that if everyone accepted his interpretation of religion, America would be a better place.
But in his speech last week calling for a "no same-sex marriage" amendment, he was studiously careful not to introduce religion.
He called marriage an "institution." Never did he call it a ritual, a rite or a sacrament. He's a clever fellow, that Bush.
No, he did what politicians often do: He played Mr. Clean and let his henchmen do the dirty work. In this case, his No. 1
henchman was Scott McClellan, his press secretary. In his press briefing following Bush's speech, McClellan used the word
sacred nine times, the word sanctity in seven places.
That inserted religion into the discussion. And, to underscore his master's bravery, he used the word defend 11 times and protect
on no fewer than 18 occasions.
So, Bush gives the straight speech, and McClellan promptly propagandizes it. Clever!
Was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom right in pushing the issue of gay and lesbian marriage into a confrontation with the
religious Right? I don't think so, not at this time, but he certainly won my admiration for having the courage to do so.
I mildly badmouthed Newsom in a column right after he was elected, and what he's done so far as mayor has made me look dead
wrong. He's looking great. He's the first genuinely liberal mayor San Francisco has had in my 24 years here. Among other things,
he's appointed a woman as fire chief and has another woman, this one of Asian descent, as acting police chief, replacing a good
ol' boy in the police department.
But timing is everything, and pushing for the word marriage to legally unite gay and lesbian couples may be a bad idea at this
time. The religious fundamentalists, who obviously don't know much about gays and lesbians, have gone berserko at the prospect
of equal rights being given to additional Americans.
Their arguments sound remarkably similar to those used against women's suffrage, against ending slavery, against extending the
vote to all Americans regardless of color. Americans are known as a generous people, but that doesn't seem to apply to all of us.
There are those among us who want to hoard all of our great liberties, and not share them.
Whether Newsom's courageous move turns out to be tactically right or wrong, however, I applaud him for it.
In the overall scheme of things -- and Bush's bleating to the contrary -- the issue of gay and lesbian couples acquiring marriage
certificates is of little intrinsic consequence except as a new headache for insurance executives, who so far have been successful
in denying family benefits to same-sex families.
For Bush, however, it's a way to divert our attention from our real problems: our collapsing economy, our grandiose attempts to
control the entire world, our dependence on oil and our refusal to seek ways out of that dependence.
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