Wednesday, May 7, 2008

THE IMMORAL MAJORITY

Not since Jerry Falwell coined the term and formed the group, The Moral Majority, has the lack of morality in government been more blatantly obvious than right now. In fact, it is doubtful that any group in U.S. history has ever held itself up to the public as more righteous while committing so many heinous acts in the name of morality.

Due to the influence of the religious right, the Grand Old Party has come to see itself as the party of God; the torch bearer for morality; the one and only purveyor of truth in the political arena. They keep clamoring for the right to put their God before all others (supporting posting the ten commandments in schools and other biblical imprecations in courtrooms while condemning the Koran, for instance), but the longer they hold power, the more clear it becomes that their God is not the indefinable omnipotent being behind creationism, but rather a combination of raw power and the Almighty Dollar.

One doesn’t have to dig very deep to find clear examples of abuse. It’s easy to see the pillaging Halliburton and its subsidiaries like Kellogg, Brown and Root have committed in Iraq and elsewhere – thanks to there ex-CEO and now the nation’s VP dick Cheney. It doesn’t take a hard driving investigative reporter – though I sure wish one would show up – to reveal the behind the scenes skullduggery that created the false intelligence for Shrub and Colon Powell to use in speeches to mislead the country into war in Iraq. It doesn’t take a genius to understand how the Department of Justice was twisted into a power brokering agency designed to stifle political opposition while rewarding toadies, either.

Today’s news from Justice, then, should come as no surprise. The surprise would be if the nation responded by shouting, “Enough is enough” and throwing the SOBs out of office on their kiesters.

Today’s story – not covered in our local paper, of course – was the FBI investigation of Scott Bloch, Chief of the Office of Special Counsel in Silver Springs, Maryland. That Department of Justice office was created after the Nixon Watergate scandal as a protective agency for whistleblowers. In a complete perversion of that purpose, Bloch, among other things, has refused to offer any services to gay whistleblowers and is now charged with actually retaliating against whistleblowers. He’s also accused of politicizing his office, surprise-surprise.

In typical fashion, this extension of the righteous right into every nook and cranny of our government has resulted in the attitude within those offices that whatever any official deems to be in the best interest of his bosses is also in the best interest of the country.

I was raised to believe that the moral thing to do in every instance is to act in such a way as to benefit – not the powers that be – but your fellow man; to take action that would be damaging to yourself if it was in the better interests of society. To me that is morality, and all the talk of Godly righteousness in the face of societally harmful actions is immorality of a most egregious kind. Sadly, it seems also to be terribly common.


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

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle

No comments: