Here Lies

The United States.
1776-2004

For a few minutes, I thought about writing a eulogy for the United States. I would have talked about how un-American the Patriot Act is, how horrible it is that Sinclair Broadcasting group owns all the network news programs, how 100,000 innocent Iraqis and over 4000 Americans have died on Bush's watch, and I would have kept going. And going.

But a eulogy usually marks the end, doesn't it? It would, in a sense, be a concession, and I've already seen enough good people concede defeat today. Yes, I am of the opinion that our nation can't really afford another four years of the Bush administration. I think he might have shortened the life of the United States by a couple hundred years, and, to quote a friend, we "just made the European Union the new leader of the free world." But none of that will help anything right now.

The people that believe Bush is evil, a liar, and a danger to society already believe it, and the people that don't aren't going to. In short, more ranting wouldn't make the difference I want it to, so I'd better come up with something more creative.

I do think our country needs to become less divided, but certainly not out of reverence for Bush. It is still my conviction that he is an incompetent leader and a bad man, so I don't think anyone needs to march lock-step with him. I think we all need to come up with creative ways to help good causes. Let's stop kicking the poor, putting education on the back burner, burning fossil fuels, and insulting our allies. Our country needs to be united by having an informed population that thinks independently. We need to stop confusing government with religion, the liberals need to stop apologizing for being liberal, the conservatives need to start taking responsibility for their mistakes, and the public needs to stop believing everyone so readily. I mean, seriously, who in his or her right mind would believe garbage like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth or that Karl Rove was feeding lines directly to Bush over a secret earpiece during the debates? No one, yet plenty of people did, because all of a sudden these issues were attached to some quasi-divine party ideologies.

Let's get a few things straight, real quick. Liberals think Bush is evil, conservatives think liberals are indecisive and weak, and they aren't going to convince each other otherwise. They're probably both right. The political world is a dirty one, because people that can survive politically have to make some sacrifices normal people can't even fathom. Some would say these sacrifices make things possible, but I disagree wholeheartedly. I think they make it impossible to practice politics ethically. We need to figure out some way to change the atmosphere and the discourse.

Trouble is, I don't know how to do this, yet. I'm working on it. I can identify a lot of the problems, but I can't figure out how to make significant progress on any of them. Maybe if I had Bill Gates' fortune at my disposal, I could fix some things in Arizona alone, but even tens of billions of dollars won't fix them everywhere. Maybe I could run for mayor, governor, heck, why not president, but then I'd still have 435 legislators, nine supreme court justices, and 330 million average people who all had different ideas on how to fix things (or why we shouldn't fix them). I'm really frustrated, because the solution shouldn't be all that elusive. Nine neo-cons and fear have now hijacked an entire nation, so it shouldn't be that hard to rescue it. Perhaps we need to do the converse. We could spread common sense and peace, instead of liberalism or neo-conservatism or fear or rumors. It just seems too slow. It may be that slow is the only way to do it, because easy, fast solutions tend to wind up being temporary and having serious repurcussions.

So while I may identify Bush as an enemy of peace, justice, the United States, the world, and myself, that isn't going to help. Maybe more importantly, there's something bigger at work here. The American people have lost their sense of efficacy, their trust in the system, and their hope that the government will fight for them. There's probably not a partisan answer to the problem. We need to work on getting people in office and other areas of influence that respect each other and their constituents, that are honest, that put people before more terms in office, that are capable of conducting their jobs with trustworthiness and humility. We need people that can admit and correct their mistakes, and who will listen to us. I happen to believe that Democrats are usually better at all that, but that's not always the case, and that may be the case right now simply because they have less power for now.

Fair enough. We'd better not give up on our system. We should treat it with hope, but not faith. We need to fight for the "sick, the friendless, and the needy," the 100,000 innocent Iraqis that are now dead as a product of our vaunted system, our education, those who serve, and those who will inherit our legacy. We need to pray for our leaders, for new leaders, for our enemies, and for our neighbors. Lastly, we don't need to merely promote peace and spread love, we need to be peace and to be love.

Don't let the Man get you down.