September 11, 2005
Hear my storm a comin'
Look close on the left and you'll see the Greek god of the sea Poseidon, complete
with curled goatee and Jimi afro. It appears from the trees down
on the right that he is sucking very badly. Now in the upper right there's Howlin' Wolf...
Check out what I dug up out of some old documents. This gives some more background on my feelings about going to war. This letter was not published.
Letter to Time magazine, September 14, 2001
Our country has developed communication, transportation, science, and industry expeditiously in the past two centuries, giving rise to The American Age. Though this growth has created unprecedented socio-economic disparity, Americans have shone through to most of the world as a generous nation. In the face of achieving and performing the ability to instantly mass murder our own kind, we have since been models of caution and restraint. Now misguided souls are jealous of the power and prosperity of the U.S., and under a thin veil of religious sanctity they have perpetuated the latest international evil. Yet America is not without sin. Opposing our unity and fairness there is poverty and bigotry, entrenched partisanship that creates political apathy, and a general societal selfishness. I hope this tragedy pushes us more toward introspection and forgiveness than to retaliation and an unhealthy quest for justice. Our United States make up the greatest nation in history, warts and all, and we focus on our greatness for it's easy to do. But I pray that we avoid a white hot “War on Terrorism” and be more inspired to keep after those warts.
Letter to Time magazine, September 14, 2001
Our country has developed communication, transportation, science, and industry expeditiously in the past two centuries, giving rise to The American Age. Though this growth has created unprecedented socio-economic disparity, Americans have shone through to most of the world as a generous nation. In the face of achieving and performing the ability to instantly mass murder our own kind, we have since been models of caution and restraint. Now misguided souls are jealous of the power and prosperity of the U.S., and under a thin veil of religious sanctity they have perpetuated the latest international evil. Yet America is not without sin. Opposing our unity and fairness there is poverty and bigotry, entrenched partisanship that creates political apathy, and a general societal selfishness. I hope this tragedy pushes us more toward introspection and forgiveness than to retaliation and an unhealthy quest for justice. Our United States make up the greatest nation in history, warts and all, and we focus on our greatness for it's easy to do. But I pray that we avoid a white hot “War on Terrorism” and be more inspired to keep after those warts.
September 03, 2005
Bushit
The title today is for the benefit of those who may not want to read this, just so YOU know.
In the beginning, my stance was "stay the course" in Afghanistan - we had a righteous reason to be there (now the Taliban are attempting a comeback). I was totally scratching my head when we U-turned the majority of our combat troops to Iraq.
So what if Saddam's got WMDs? Stay the course in Afghanistan, I said. If Saddam even tries to move with BS like that, the International Community will bend him like a twist-tie. Sure the U.N.'s ineffectual for most anything, but for Christ's sake (not to rob anyone's captain) at least they provide a good bureaucratic ruse for watching the slippery bastard. It's first things first, stupid.
So we get all juiced up and make the about face and I'm like, "OK dudes, you've done it now. Guess we all oughta git on the Git 'R Dun wagon and see this thing through (my incurable need to give morons the benefit of the doubt). Well that lasted about like a quarter tab of Alka-Seltzer in some vinegar.
The endless parade of lies and abuse and suffering and death make this the furthest thing from a "righteous" war. My disgust over the same old (or neo) hypocritical U.S. power structure, wagging our Florida at Europe saying "suck me," is now at its vituperative zenith.
To all this add his Bushness's initial response to victims of Katrina - zero tolerance on looters and lawbreakers and a sincere pleasure that he'll someday get to sit on the porch of Trent Lott's rebuilt house. I mean more than I've ever meant with the utilitarian acronym known as WTF. Well, that's what he's good at, hard ass blah-blah-blah. So at least we stay the course on incompetence. I swear I just want to squish his tilty lunging head. I want to slap down his tough guy swagger and his shrugging shoulders along with the leaning-on of elbows and his whole "It's not me, it's YOU" arrogance.
So now I'm ready to see about heading to Washington Sept. 24 for the peace rally, but likely not because we're broke. Shit.
I leave you with the last third of a fine column by one of my journalism heros, Ellen Goodman:
Taken altogether, the polls show a majority of Americans now believe that it was a mistake to send troops to war, that the results are not worth the loss of American life, and that the war has not made us safer. The most powerful argument left is the one the president repeats again and again: ''And the best way to honor the lives that have been given in this struggle is to complete the mission."
Enter Cindy Sheehan.
Until now, the rallying cry ''Support Our Troops" meant ''Support the War." One seemed inseparable from another. Criticizing the war felt like criticizing the troops. But on a dusty, hot road in Texas, Sheehan worked to sever this link. She spoke up for the silenced majority of Americans who believe we were misled into war, and brought to light for us that we have no reason to be tongue-tied by a yellow ribbon.
So the question is not whether the president will talk with her. He won't. It's not whether she speaks for her son. We'll never know. It's not whether she is ''just a mom" or an anti-Bush agitator. She's both. It's whether nearly 1,900 Americans have died in a war of choice and how painful that is to acknowledge. It's whether we go on quietly honoring those deaths with more deaths.
No wonder ''peace mom" has become a target of the war over the war. If she succeeds, the White House has lost perhaps the final and most powerful justification they offer a disheartened American public. At that point, there's no way out of the Iraq muddle. Except out.
In the beginning, my stance was "stay the course" in Afghanistan - we had a righteous reason to be there (now the Taliban are attempting a comeback). I was totally scratching my head when we U-turned the majority of our combat troops to Iraq.
So what if Saddam's got WMDs? Stay the course in Afghanistan, I said. If Saddam even tries to move with BS like that, the International Community will bend him like a twist-tie. Sure the U.N.'s ineffectual for most anything, but for Christ's sake (not to rob anyone's captain) at least they provide a good bureaucratic ruse for watching the slippery bastard. It's first things first, stupid.
So we get all juiced up and make the about face and I'm like, "OK dudes, you've done it now. Guess we all oughta git on the Git 'R Dun wagon and see this thing through (my incurable need to give morons the benefit of the doubt). Well that lasted about like a quarter tab of Alka-Seltzer in some vinegar.
The endless parade of lies and abuse and suffering and death make this the furthest thing from a "righteous" war. My disgust over the same old (or neo) hypocritical U.S. power structure, wagging our Florida at Europe saying "suck me," is now at its vituperative zenith.
To all this add his Bushness's initial response to victims of Katrina - zero tolerance on looters and lawbreakers and a sincere pleasure that he'll someday get to sit on the porch of Trent Lott's rebuilt house. I mean more than I've ever meant with the utilitarian acronym known as WTF. Well, that's what he's good at, hard ass blah-blah-blah. So at least we stay the course on incompetence. I swear I just want to squish his tilty lunging head. I want to slap down his tough guy swagger and his shrugging shoulders along with the leaning-on of elbows and his whole "It's not me, it's YOU" arrogance.
So now I'm ready to see about heading to Washington Sept. 24 for the peace rally, but likely not because we're broke. Shit.
I leave you with the last third of a fine column by one of my journalism heros, Ellen Goodman:
Taken altogether, the polls show a majority of Americans now believe that it was a mistake to send troops to war, that the results are not worth the loss of American life, and that the war has not made us safer. The most powerful argument left is the one the president repeats again and again: ''And the best way to honor the lives that have been given in this struggle is to complete the mission."
Enter Cindy Sheehan.
Until now, the rallying cry ''Support Our Troops" meant ''Support the War." One seemed inseparable from another. Criticizing the war felt like criticizing the troops. But on a dusty, hot road in Texas, Sheehan worked to sever this link. She spoke up for the silenced majority of Americans who believe we were misled into war, and brought to light for us that we have no reason to be tongue-tied by a yellow ribbon.
So the question is not whether the president will talk with her. He won't. It's not whether she speaks for her son. We'll never know. It's not whether she is ''just a mom" or an anti-Bush agitator. She's both. It's whether nearly 1,900 Americans have died in a war of choice and how painful that is to acknowledge. It's whether we go on quietly honoring those deaths with more deaths.
No wonder ''peace mom" has become a target of the war over the war. If she succeeds, the White House has lost perhaps the final and most powerful justification they offer a disheartened American public. At that point, there's no way out of the Iraq muddle. Except out.
