Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Senseless


Don't want to see it. Don't want to hear it. Don't want to believe it. These are the words that are guiding our country now. Gone is "home of the brave,” or "for liberty and justice for all." When did we become a country so afraid that we would rather believe the promise of an alcoholic, AWOL asshole, (love alliteration) than to believe what we see and hear?

Today's presidential press conference was a joke, as usual, but when discussing the possibility of an avian flu outbreak, Bush brought up something, so matter of factly, that it didn't raise the eyebrows it should have. He said that in the event of such a flu epidemic, the military might be called on to control the situation, as in overseeing the quarantine of infected individuals. WHAT? We should know from experience that if you give this administration an inch they hit you over the head and take the whole highway! Giving the power of enforcing quarantine is just another way of saying, "MARTIAL LAW!" And no, I'm not a conspiracy buff, I'm just using my common sense based on what I see, what I hear and what I believe.

This administration has too much power to let it go. Have you ever seen a dog protecting a juicy meat bone? That's what we've got here. On my bad days, I feel we are fighting a losing battle, that in the real world, evil will conquer good. On my good days, I think, maybe today will be the day the tide will turn and I wait for it to do so. Today is a bad day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This time I will not chide you, LBG. My heart spends too much time in lament over the demise of America's civil liberties to differ with you much. you are right. This administration arrogates power to itself like Midas horded gold. The price will be the same. that which has the greatest value will be made valueless by the horder's avarice.

We have lost the simple, beautiful Jeffersonian values that made our country a great one. These same values contained a strong streak of egalitarianism that would have forstalled many of the frontera faux pas from which we suffer today. Those values countenanced no walls. They were about destroying walls. Jefferson envisioned republican government from the arctic circle to tierra del Fuego; a far cry from where we are today. But I digress.

The greatest tragedy of our day is the willing abrogation of civil liberties by the American people, all of the American people, white, brown, black, yellow and other, for the sake of fear. Call it the Patriot Act. Call it the Reichstag fire, it's all the same thing. Fear is the catalyst that makes people surrender their basic liberties. The key is to quench the fear. the means is to provide a constitutional representational government capable of assuaging that fear. The George W. Bush Administration, although more than capable of planning a frat party, is wholly incapable of providing these assurances.

Apologies for the tirade,

SHK