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Red White and Confused
October 11, 2006
Misguided Glory ~Canon 30d
Watch out ::: After a long sabatical, Susie-Q is back on her soapbox again :::
"The President needs new eyes to look at all this and some new ideas. He knows what the people who work for him think. He needs to talk to some people who don't work for him."
~ Bob Schieffer, CBS Evening News | Read the full transcript HERE.
I'm filing this post under "wisdom", not because our country is doing an exemplary job of modeling it, to the contrary, our leaders appear to have completely lost track of it. At the risk of certain Republican family members accusing me of being a lefto-pinko-commie, I will admit I watched CBS Evening News with Katie Couric last night. All I can say is FINALLY. Finally, someone on the popularity & entertainment-driven Network News came out and said what needs to be said ~ the President needs to listen to the majority of people in this country. The majority who can see the handwriting on the wall. The voices of reason who understand a mistake isn't solved by "continuing the course", but by changing it.
I realize this might be hard for a president who was not intially elected by a majority vote to do, but I'm an optimist. I am relentlessly hopeful and trusting in the American people.
My hat's off to Bob Schieffer. At the end of his freeSpeech segment I almost gave him a round of applause, but I was a bit too stunned to do so. It was just this past weekend as I lay moaning on the couch incubating inside of my down comforter and surrounded by snotty PUFFS tissues that I finally got around to watching the movie, Good Night and Good Luck. (Yes, I'm an old fart when it comes to keeping up with Hollywood these days, and it's annoying.) While gulping down vats of orange juice and popping sudafeds I couldn't help but wonder where the hell the Edward R. Murrows of our day had all gone. Why doesn't anyone boldly just come out and say the President is a dangerous, tunnel-visioned, misguided, vocabulary-challenged, one-dimensional, near-sighted idiot zealot leader?
During his news conference today, President Bush said if "we leave before the job is done, the enemy's coming after us."
I'm absolutely nauseated by the politics of fear which has gripped this country for the past several years. Fear feeds upon itself, and anxiety and worry only lead us into unwise and visceral reactions instead of intelligently taking the time to evaluate and size up a problem. Violence breeds more violence. War? It's an outmoded unenlightened idea. Life? Is it not sacred? When Bush says he is pro-life, does he draw a line in the sand... on one side are American lives and the unborn... on the other side are our soldier's lives, and the myriad lost lives of Iraqi citizens?
I can't help but wonder.
9/11 cost our country 2,752 lives. As of today, 2,742 American soldiers' lives have been snuffed out, and just this week a research study conducted by Johns Hopkins estimates 655,000 Iraqi lives have been taken. Six hundred fifty-five thousand lives. How has this war made the world a safer place, and who is "the enemy" the president is referring to? Is it not we who have "come after" Iraq, a nation which we now know had no discernable or provable culpability in the 9/11 attacks? Is it not we who have wrongly attempted to bomb democracy into a population of people who are either not ready for, or do not want it? If I remember correctly, democracy is something a country must desperately want and be willing to fight for themselves, it is not a form of goverment imposed upon a group of people. Democracy cannot be dictated. Certainly, I am not a historian, but I suspect I might be right about this one.
On the night of the last presidential election I quoted my mother here on this blog, she spent two decades teaching American History and Civics to middle school students. She told me years ago, and I'm inclined to agree with her, that a nation usually gets the leaders it deserves. Now THAT's fucking SCARY. Maybe WE THE PEOPLE need to take our hijacked country back.
Wake up, America. Bush can do a poop-load of damage during his last months in office. Fear-based politics is not based in honor, it is not based in wisdom, and it only breeds more fear and hatred. If we don't change course, this great nation of lemmings will follow the president over a cliff in the Middle East. I don't know about you, but I am certainly not ready to stand for that.
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.~ Edward R. Murrow
Good hearted, hard-working Americans want what all people all over the world want for themselves and their families ~ PEACE. When will we learn to give peace a chance?
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
~ 1 John 4:18
And now, without fear, I boldly click "Publish". Comments, please.
Posted by vincent at October 11, 2006 09:50 PM
Comments
All I can add is my standing ovation and cheers of AMEN Sista! Each evening, as we watch the news and hear reports of how this "war on terror" is not progressing, we just shake our heads and then find some relief with Jon Stewart afterwards. It's truly mind boggling how people can convince themselves of anything given enough power. Wonderful post!
Posted by: samtzmom at October 12, 2006 06:46 AM
Yeah for Susie-Q!! I'm so glad she's back!! You are right on as usual and it's getting scarier by the minute.
Posted by: jzrart at October 12, 2006 10:50 AM
When Chuck finishes the book Nuclear Terrorism that David sent us I will mail it on to you. Quite an eye opener and yes, Clinton did drop the ball on the terrorism issue. It is all a mess, and like all messes one thing or one person did not cause the entire situation. Rant on. Think I will vote everyone in office out of office on election day.
Posted by: janet at October 12, 2006 12:13 PM
True... one person cannot be singled out. However, one person... namely the president... has a lot of power to do more damage and is showing NO sign of listening to anyone he doesn't agree with. That, along with using scare tactics is my main point... what do we do NOW?
I think Bush's actions are well-intended, but his hubris seems to lie in an inability to listen to anyone who disagrees with him and abandoning a plan that obviously isn't reaping any rewards.
Posted by: susan at October 12, 2006 12:23 PM
thank you for your bravery...
the thing about bush is i think he honest to god believes the bullshit he's feeding us...and so he'll never see it any other way but right...and that's what pisses me off...he'll never change his mind because in his mind he's right...and the thing you are saying about fear is the very thing that makes me so angry i could cry...he is using people fears against them...he is using 9/11 against us...and i can't stand him for that...
Posted by: la vie en rose at October 12, 2006 02:32 PM
I'm reminded of another 'war' or so ago when I woke up one morning to the radio broadcast of a staunch conservative pundit saying, "Mr. President ... You are wrong". Paul Harvey, on Nixon and Vietnam...
Posted by: dan at October 12, 2006 03:45 PM
Iraq is looking more and more like Vietnam II with the same kind of hubris and arrogance from the key players who should know better.
Very well said Susan! Thank you!
Posted by: Peg at October 12, 2006 04:44 PM
Amen and Amen!!
I can hardly stand to listen to him rant and rave anymore, just usually hit the mute button and wish he would wise up (but don't really see that happening since he thinks he is right and the rest of us are wrong).
Posted by: aola at October 12, 2006 11:50 PM
Thank you for writing and posting...this and all your work and words...
Posted by: Kathy at October 13, 2006 09:05 AM
That image of the flag is flawless to what you are saying here!! Go girl!!
Posted by: tongue in cheek at October 16, 2006 09:24 AM