(Not) Getting Over It
All I want for Christmas is my country back
By Alan Bisbort
December 23, 2004
I can't get that image out of my head of Our Leader strutting like a constipated peacock across the deck of an aircraft carrier, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished." That was May 2003. It's now December 2004. More than 1,000 U.S. troops have died since Bush "accomplished" his photo opp; thousands more have been wounded. A recent government report indicated that one in six soldiers returning from Iraq suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. The pathology of their suffering will be with us for decades.
And I almost forgot about those thousands of Iraqi women, children and old folks who've been the collateral damage of Our Leader's masquerade party.
I don't mean to be flippant, because this wounds me deeply. It wounds me because this is being done in my name, with my money and, thus, my tacit approval. But I don't approve of this, and I don't know what I can do about it. Except make a Christmas wish for it to stop, please stop.
How does this not wound the "Christmas spirit" of the vast majority of my fellow Americans? How can adults blithely drive their SUVs -- with the "Support Our Troops" ribbons affixed to their asses -- to the mega-sprawl-mall and load the carts with landfill larder? Can this possibly calm their consciences ? Hey, folks, it's Christmas and, yes, we are supposed to feel guilty that, as adults, we've created this mess and are handing it off to our kids.
I remember as a teen during the Vietnam War years feeling so angry at the "adult world" for insisting that I "grow up" and, as the Bible says, "put away childish things." This exhortation was delivered with such maddening condescension that it's little wonder that boys, then faced with the "manly" adult world of 57,000 dead Americans, and 450,000 dead Vietnamese civilians, were turned into little wannabe revolutionaries.
And yet, I get the impression that the current state of things in America swells the Christmas spirits of the inner Bush circle, not a single member of which has attended a funeral for a dead soldier. (I've taken to mailing newspaper accounts of the funerals to the White House with the inscription, "Just in case you were interested ... ").
What has happened to my nation? Has the blood-dimmed tide of Yeats' poem been loosed? Have we gone collectively insane? Where is that "Christian love," that "Christian compassion" we've heard so much about? I may not be the best "Christian" on the block, but I've lived long enough to make at least one indisputable observation: hearts and minds are never changed by force or violence.
So why are we trying?
Maybe Americans are deeply wounded by this, but until they speak out all I hear are the shouters, those who dwell in an inner darkness that they've now unleashed on the planet. Though the Bible-thumpers who support this unholy war can always find some obscure verse in Deuteronomy or Acts to trump the most commonsensical "humanist" sentiments, the one person they've left out of their self-righteous sermonizing is Jesus of Nazareth, whose birth the Christian world is now celebrating. Jesus Christ was a radical religious leader with a liberal's agenda, and He would be sickened by these people.
As the estimable Dot Jackson put it in an open letter to Rev. James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, the right-wing "Christian" group that owns Bush's soul: "Mr. Dobson, I am in receipt of your missive pushing use of the government to enforce your personal rules of 'Biblical morality.' I am puzzled -- unless your Bible ends with Malachi -- because I find Christ's teachings nowhere represented ... Jesus did warn against several things that appear to be fine with you. Assaulting neighbors is one of them. You do not mention the killing of families who happen to be in the way of American aggression in the Middle East. Are they not worthy of your 'focus' because of their ethnicity or religion? ... You do not mention the growing wealth of the already-rich in America... Jesus had something to say about that too, but you conveniently ignore it. You do not mention the depths to which this country has descended in its treatment of political prisoners. In reassuring his followers, Jesus did not say 'I was in prison and you made me crawl on all-fours, naked.' How can we as Christians hold up our heads before God and the rest of the world, with the burden of this filth upon us?"
Peace on earth. No, really.
http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:94340
All I want for Christmas is my country back
By Alan Bisbort
December 23, 2004
I can't get that image out of my head of Our Leader strutting like a constipated peacock across the deck of an aircraft carrier, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished." That was May 2003. It's now December 2004. More than 1,000 U.S. troops have died since Bush "accomplished" his photo opp; thousands more have been wounded. A recent government report indicated that one in six soldiers returning from Iraq suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. The pathology of their suffering will be with us for decades.
And I almost forgot about those thousands of Iraqi women, children and old folks who've been the collateral damage of Our Leader's masquerade party.
I don't mean to be flippant, because this wounds me deeply. It wounds me because this is being done in my name, with my money and, thus, my tacit approval. But I don't approve of this, and I don't know what I can do about it. Except make a Christmas wish for it to stop, please stop.
How does this not wound the "Christmas spirit" of the vast majority of my fellow Americans? How can adults blithely drive their SUVs -- with the "Support Our Troops" ribbons affixed to their asses -- to the mega-sprawl-mall and load the carts with landfill larder? Can this possibly calm their consciences ? Hey, folks, it's Christmas and, yes, we are supposed to feel guilty that, as adults, we've created this mess and are handing it off to our kids.
I remember as a teen during the Vietnam War years feeling so angry at the "adult world" for insisting that I "grow up" and, as the Bible says, "put away childish things." This exhortation was delivered with such maddening condescension that it's little wonder that boys, then faced with the "manly" adult world of 57,000 dead Americans, and 450,000 dead Vietnamese civilians, were turned into little wannabe revolutionaries.
And yet, I get the impression that the current state of things in America swells the Christmas spirits of the inner Bush circle, not a single member of which has attended a funeral for a dead soldier. (I've taken to mailing newspaper accounts of the funerals to the White House with the inscription, "Just in case you were interested ... ").
What has happened to my nation? Has the blood-dimmed tide of Yeats' poem been loosed? Have we gone collectively insane? Where is that "Christian love," that "Christian compassion" we've heard so much about? I may not be the best "Christian" on the block, but I've lived long enough to make at least one indisputable observation: hearts and minds are never changed by force or violence.
So why are we trying?
Maybe Americans are deeply wounded by this, but until they speak out all I hear are the shouters, those who dwell in an inner darkness that they've now unleashed on the planet. Though the Bible-thumpers who support this unholy war can always find some obscure verse in Deuteronomy or Acts to trump the most commonsensical "humanist" sentiments, the one person they've left out of their self-righteous sermonizing is Jesus of Nazareth, whose birth the Christian world is now celebrating. Jesus Christ was a radical religious leader with a liberal's agenda, and He would be sickened by these people.
As the estimable Dot Jackson put it in an open letter to Rev. James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, the right-wing "Christian" group that owns Bush's soul: "Mr. Dobson, I am in receipt of your missive pushing use of the government to enforce your personal rules of 'Biblical morality.' I am puzzled -- unless your Bible ends with Malachi -- because I find Christ's teachings nowhere represented ... Jesus did warn against several things that appear to be fine with you. Assaulting neighbors is one of them. You do not mention the killing of families who happen to be in the way of American aggression in the Middle East. Are they not worthy of your 'focus' because of their ethnicity or religion? ... You do not mention the growing wealth of the already-rich in America... Jesus had something to say about that too, but you conveniently ignore it. You do not mention the depths to which this country has descended in its treatment of political prisoners. In reassuring his followers, Jesus did not say 'I was in prison and you made me crawl on all-fours, naked.' How can we as Christians hold up our heads before God and the rest of the world, with the burden of this filth upon us?"
Peace on earth. No, really.
http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:94340
