Musings
Friday, July 30, 2004
A Stronger America
I heard a Republican "pundit" on CNN say "I'd rather have a decisive President like George Bush, who sticks to his decisions even when he knows they're wrong."
WTF?
To me, a clear sign of intelligence is questioning the status quo, and a clear sign of a good leader is the ability to change your position on an issue when further information, research, or exploration shows you that you're wrong. It takes much more of a man, and a leader, to admit he's wrong and try to change something and make it right, than it does to spout John Wayne-esque tough words and cling stubbornly to your mistakes.
I was listening to Kerry's speech at the DNC, and I was thinking "How can ANYBODY who hears this be AGAINST what he's saying?" He says we should have an America we can be proud of, one that's respected, not feared. He says that we should try to restore the worldwide goodwill we had post-9/11. He says we should work harder at taking care of our own poor, and our own who need reliable healthcare access, rather than trying to recreate "democracy" in Iraq. He says we need to add more policemen and firemen on our own streets to help us be safer in this new world, instead of giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy and cutting funding to police and fire agencies here at home. He says he will look a parent in the eye and say "I did EVERYTHING I COULD to try to avoid sending your son/daughter into this war, but this is the ONLY option."....and mean it.
How can anybody be against those things? It's like Bill Clinton said in his speech...the Right Wing NEEDS a country divided. They don't WANT a united country, or people who want the same goals. It makes it harder for them to pass whatever legislation they or their special interests want passed. They rule through fear, not through hope. After all, don't we ALL ultimately want the same things for our country? Peace, safety, a safe place to raise our children, healthcare for our sick and our elderly, the opportunity to get ahead through hard work (not just through who you know)? Aren't these common goals?
Values are more than just words. They can tout themselves as the Family Values party all damn day, but their actions speak far louder to me than their words. They don't give a damn about MY family. They only give a damn about THEIR OWN, and people who think and act just like them.
As for Bush being better able to lead us through this war....how's that working so far? I mean really, how's that working? Because I look around and I see a MISERABLE failure. And I want to ask our President "Hey, are we tired of them "bringing it on" yet??"
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Tilting the Apple Cart
What do you do when something happens, right out of the blue, to upset your apple cart? You know which apple cart I'm referring to...the safe, stable little world you've created for yourself. I find that it's generally the times when I think my apple cart is sturdiest, that something comes along and proves that I've got one wheel on the cart that's about ready to come off, hurling all my apples into the street.
Even if you're not necessarily blissfully happy with the path you've chosen for yourself, there's still some comfort in knowing when you wake up that your routine is going to be the same as it was the day before. No matter how much you might rail against that boredom, and long to travel the world and see the sights, or strike it rich and try your wings, there's still always a tiny part of you that relishes knowing where you'll be when you wake up tomorrow...or in a week. Or a month.
My apple cart is teetering on the brink of something. Whether that is a good something or a bad something, it's far too soon to tell. But it's definitely teetering on the brink of something. I can feel it in the air. I can almost smell it. You know how change has that particular smell? That whiff of promise mingled with just a hint of uncertainty? I can smell that right now all around me, just as surely as I smell the sharp, bracing scent of rain-washed air after a summer thunderstorm.
I can only wait, at this point, and hope that the "something" we're on the brink of holds promise and happiness, rather than disappointment and fear. We've surely had our share of disappointment, just as we've had our share of luck and happiness. The older I get, the more I realize that life...LIFE...is a peculiar mix of those. You never really know when you're going to get luck or when you're going to get disappointment, but they usually seem to balance each other out pretty steadily. Except for those times when they don't.
As I sit here and wait to see in which direction my apple cart will tilt, I can only hope for the best. I can only hope that my apples land on soft, sweet-smelling grass and roll gently to a stop, rather than bouncing harshly on rough concrete which rakes at the tender apple skin, and leaves scars that won't heal.
Friday, July 16, 2004
Fear of power? Is that the "thing" that's causing so many people to sound so venomously ecstatic that Martha Stewart is going to jail?
I just watched Barbara Walters interview Martha Stewart, mere hours after she was sentenced today. The mean-spirited glee BW took in pointing out, at every opportunity, that jail is an awful place, and that Martha likely has no idea what she's in for, saddened me.
Why must we be so thrilled that this woman is being "taken down a notch?" This powerful woman, who started from nothing and built her empire through years of hard work, and who made a mistake that literally thousands of people make a year, doesn't deserve the vitriol I'm witnessing. Hell, Barbara Walters and many of the same high-profile media who've been so gleeful to witness Stewart's downfall have probably done the same type of white collar insider trading themselves. Walters ought to watch her step, because if this can happen to Martha Stewart, it's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility to one day turn on the television and see the great BW being interviewed about HER feelings about HER prison sentence.
We live in a country where Ken Lay is still walking around, free as a bird, and Enron execs can be caught on tape openly mocking "little old grandmas" and laughing at stealing their money, and nobody blinks an eye.
Our own President sold us a bill of goods just last week. You know, the story about how any proof of his prior military service was "unfortunately destroyed" in that freak microfilm accident. The lies our President has told us have resulted in the deaths of thousands of young men and women, and the life-changing injuries of countless others. THOSE lies are far more damaging than the one Martha Stewart told, and have garnered half the venom from the American public.
It's not pretty, to watch people who would normally consider themselves good, Christian folk take such pleasure in the misfortune of another human being. It's not pretty...but it does tell us a lot about why our country finds itself in the position we're in today.
