America the Ugly

I must begin by apologizing to loyal readers for failing to publish yesterday. All I can say is that personal affairs took precedence. Please forgive me for failing to work through them quickly enough, but I just couldn’t get to this task until late afternoon and so held this piece over until today.

Wednesday’s blog touched on my dissatisfaction with Mr. Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence and comparison of Libby’s actions to those of Bill Clinton. It brought a response from Canada that I thought American readers would find interesting. Here it is:

“Usually I don't enter into political debates of any kind, but this one act of Bushes was just too blatant to be ignored. How in the world the American People have put up with this (censored) through what will soon be two full terms of office is something I just cannot fathom. I am not a member of any political party, and don't intend to ever become one. I just can't imagine how there could have been such a row over Clinton screwing an intern, and yet turn a blind eye to Bush being responsible for thousands of deaths in Iraq, over a few barrels of oil.

Only in America!”

My response was simply - Amen.

It is incomprehensible except in the context of an almost completely uninformed public or rather a public so taken by the myth of America as the world’s savior and the Republican Party as the party of social conscience (How far off can you be?) to be unable to comprehend the enormity of the offenses we have committed by electing and supporting the kind of “leadership” that holds sway in Washington, D.C. today.

I live in a very red corner of a pretty darn red state where people seem genuinely convinced that the Republicans’ opposition to abortion and gay marriage makes them the more moral of the two parties. Combined with flag waving militarism these stances endear them to a public that steadfastly refuses to consider that the first two issues contribute to the subjugation of target populations and that the last is used to justify our greedy control of the world’s resources and economies.

During the wonderful celebration of the 4th in my neighborhood Wednesday, my sister-in-law commented on the Wiphala flying on our front porch. She, being a pretty darn savvy gal, understood my explanation that I was ashamed to fly the stars and bars and so much preferred the symbol of unity I chose to display. None of the other hundred or so folks in attendance asked about it, but I doubt that more than two or three would have been sympathetic to my position.

I would expect their reaction to be more like, “Love it or leave it.” But, of course, you know that my position is that if I don’t love it, I have an obligation to try to change it, although I must admit that these days I am often tempted to join my friend in Canada.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR