Today's edition of Daily Kos has an item titled "In Memoriam: Buddy 'Doc' Hughie (for Soonergrunt)". You might want to have a look at it now, and then come back. It's okay; I'll wait.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/25/45345/4649
*hums a little tune*
Got it? Good. Now here we go.
Sadly, the America that Buddy (and I, and so many others among us) grew up in doesn't exist any longer.
Every single one of our kids Over There has someone here who loves them, someone whose world will suffer irreparably for losing them, someone for whom a knock at the door is going to forever be paired in their minds with death and the collapse of dreams and the waste of the future and the loss of hope.
What every single one of our kids Over There HASN'T got is a president that gives a rat's ass about anything but Staying The Course, and a vice president willing to discuss the national energy policy he formulated in secret that obviously requires cannon fodder as some sort of ritual sacrifice to the Oil God, and a Congress with sufficient spinal steel to put its collective foot down and say no, dammit, this continuation of hostilities and death and maiming and draining of the treasury is NOT what the American people want, and we're going to shove it down your wannabe-Texan throat until you gag and choke on it like it was a pretzel and come to the realization that we were elected to stop you.
This Memorial Day, I'm remembering who got us into this mess and refuses to do anything at all to get us out. I'm remembering who blasted Clinton for not having an exit strategy for Kosovo, yet refuses to put one together for Iraq (Think Progress » In 1999, Bush Demanded A Timetable ). I'm remembering who started out swearing he'd get somebody "dead or alive" but now declares it "not our priority" (Bush Quotes about Bin Laden - BuzzFlash Reader Commentary ). I'm remembering the identity of he who proclaimed himself The Decider, and then apparently decides not to properly equip those going into harm's way or allow us to see the flag-draped coffins as they come home or provide proper medical care for those who somehow manage to make it back alive. I'm remembering wondering why it was more important to spend time reading about a pet goat than getting to a place of safety and keeping a Florida elementary school off the strike list.
I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't doing more to cover the articles of impeachment that have been introduced. I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't up in arms about having the First Amendment right to a free press abridged so grossly. I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't saying anything about posse comitatus and habeus corpus and Real ID. I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't chatting about the lack of the children of chicken-hawks (i.e., those with surnames like Bush, DeLay, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Lott, Brownback, Romney, etc.) in uniform on the front lines (or hell, even the rear echelons, as they seem to be nearly as dangerous lately).
What does become clear is that there's no panacea, no easy cure, no simple answer, no straight lines between dots to connect. We keep getting tossed placebos and sound bites and buzzwords and flashes of what passes for brilliance in neo-conservative think tanks.
PNAC got its new Pearl Harbor. What we need now is a new Boston Tea Party.
1 comment:
Well said, Sistah Liberal...the questions you raise ought to be on the lips of every, single, American and why they're not is totally beyond me. I recall shortly after 9/11 that it was quite fashionable to raise the concept that "a sleeping giant," presumably America, had been awakened to extract her retalition toward the "enemy" and today, I'm still wandering around, looking, wondering when She's REALLY going to awaken and confront the true enemy within. Ironic indeed.
Wish I had some answers for you. All I can say is keep writing the truths you do - maybe just one of them will wipe the sleep out of his/her eyes, in connection with the words you speak.
We can always hope. Right?
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