A Place in History

I read today that although President Abraham Lincoln was hugely unpopular during his years as president, history views him as one of the truly great leaders of the U.S.

In the same article, I read that President George Bush is hoping that like President Lincoln, history will also come to view him as a great leader as well.

It will be a terrible irony if the historians of the future prove him to be right in this matter.

Now King George Wants to Compromise

Today in the news, President George Bush commented on the immigration bill that is working its way through Congress. It apparently contains a section that would allow illegal immigrants to establish a legitimate basis for staying in this country.

He indicated he could live with that aspect of the bill, in order to get it passed and signed into law.

He observed that what we don't want to sacrifice the entire bill, just because it isn't perfect.

Think about it. This is coming from a man who has threatened to veto bills or actually did veto bills because weren't "perfect enough" in his estimation. Bills on genetic research... Bills regarding the war in Iraq...

Why allow for compromise now? Indeed, why now? I suspect not just because he now faces a very unfriendly Democratic majority in Congress , as well as not a few Republican representatives and senators who no longer want to be so closely associated with him. And certainly not because he is making any pretensions of becoming a "uniter" of the American people. Why now, when it matters very little what he aspires to do over the next 18 months. Perhaps it is a vain effort to reframe how the public sees him... it comes too little and too late for anyone to even begin to take him seriously. If it is because he desperately wants to salvage something... anything, that could plausibly called a legacy for his 8 years in office, it is too late for him to do that either.

I don't know exactly why Mr. Bush is finally arguing for the passage of a bill by asking the members of Congress to be reasonable about the bill. As if he has tried to be reasonable about anything during the last six and a half years of his administration.

Bottom line: Mr. Bush is simply deluded if he thinks that anyone in the US will take those words seriously, given that they are coming out of his mouth.

Headlines In The News

A Sign of The Times:

A recent cover of U.S. News and World Report displays a photo of President George II. The lead headline talks about how he is now besieged by a war gone really bad and a hostile Congress. Still he is choosing to stay the course, as he is very often want to say... The headline ends with:

Is He Resolute or Just Delusional?

I'll let you answer that one.

Reminding Ourselves What It Means to Be An American

A very dear friend of mine, Roland Tadoum, recently became a citizen of the United States. This country is very fortunate that he aspired to become a citizen because he brings great talents and abilities to this country and shows great promise of helping to make our health care system significantly better. More importantly, he has a burning desire to be a good citizen who contributes to the well-being of this country.

He showed me a letter he received from President George W. Bush, in the package of documents he was given at the swearing in ceremony. I read through it and was a bit humbled because I was made to remember some important obligations and responsibilities that go with being a citizen of this country. It is far too easy to get caught up in our own personal affairs and forget the value of the community in which we live... and that the community in question, our country, is only as strong as the weakest links in our communities... the citizens who "let someone else vote or run for office or speak out when there is something wrong in the community," because they are just too busy to trouble themselves with such "inconvenient" matters.

It is equally very easy to get caught up in the cynical notion that there is an element of fact and an element of fiction to the American idea of government. The fiction tells us about how the system is supposed to work. The element of fact lays out how the system actually works, shows us how really imperfect the system is and identifies all the glitches that cause the system to stumble. However, even if our system of government is far from perfect, you must ask yourself if there are are any schemes of governing ourselves out there that are any better than ours... or for that matter, if there are any schemes of governing ourselves which are even as good as what we have. Too often we let the news stories about the corruption and the waste in government lead us to believe that what we have doesn't work very well. We should be amazed that it works as well as it does, in spite of all the potential glitches that can happen.

Because the message of that letter was so important, I am running the text of that letter below in this posting to my blog. Maybe the President didn't actually write this letter, but only signed it. No matter, because some messages must be spread throughout the land, not just because they are true, but also because they are important and critical for us to hear from time to time. Why? Because every so often we need to be reminded that freedom is not free and the liberties which we enjoy must be treasured, protected and preserved for future generations.

I decided that I would momentarily stand among these new citizens, if only in my mind, so that I could renew my own commitment to being a good citizen. Not a bad thing to do in these troubling times. I would swear an allegiance to what are still very important and valid ideals. I am trying to do this, as if I were receiving the privileges and obligations of citizenship for the very first time. Maybe I will be able to set aside my sometimes overwhelming cynicism and again become truly excited about becoming yet one more time a citizen of this amazing nation.

So in that spirit, please take the time to read the letter below. I sure you will know what I have been talking about once you have.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington

Dear Fellow American:

I am please to congratulate you on becoming a United States citizen. You are now part of a great and blessed Nation. I know your family and friends are proud of you on this special day.

Americans are united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance , and that no insignificant person was ever born. Our country has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by principles that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us that what it means to be citizens. Every citizen must uphold these principles. And every new citizen, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.

As you begin to participate fully in our democracy, remember that what you do is as important anything government does. I ask you to serve your new Nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens building communities of service and a Nation of character. Americans are generous and strong and decent not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.

Welcome to the joy, responsibility, and freedom of American citizenship. God bless you, and God bless America.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

Stating the Obvious

I read today in the newspaper that the insurgents in Iraq are moving their activities to smaller cities outside of Baghdad, now that Iraqi and US forces are putting the heat on them in Baghdad.
So not much has really changed, despite the best efforts of the United States forces to bring the insurgency under control.

Even a person who is deaf, dumb and blind can plainly understand that the war in Iraq is a veritable sinkhole... a political sinkhole, an economic sinkhole and a military sinkhole. It is apparent this is a theater of war that we will enjoy little or now success in the predictable future. We cannot win the war in this particular theater of war.

So why is it that our leaders in Washington cannot understand what should be perfectly obvious. The fact is that we the taxpayers are footing the bill for this very expensive endeavor. And yet we are told to be patient and to [gag!] "stay the course."

Does Mr. Bush really believe that we take him seriously as commander in chief. Or that we believe that there is any merit in keeping our forces in Iraq any longer. Will doing so really make very much difference in the outcome? I don't think so. And neither do a lot of other really pissed off American citizens in good standing.

I know that our men and women will still be in that dusty patch of sand for awhile yet. I only hope that we can yell out loud and clear that staying indefinitely in Iraq is not an acceptable alternative to a lot of very dedicated American citizens everywhere.

Speak out. Speak out loud and clear and let your wishes be known. I am trying to make a difference by writing this piece. So can you , doing it in a way that works best for you. Do something, anything. Just don't stand on the sidelines and just cheer or boo whoever is passing by.

I have had my say. I find it very painful that I have to state the obvious. But what else am I going to do? I don't have a choice in the matter.

The Price We Have Paid

In 2000
This nation chose to elect George Bush to lead us.
And since then
As a people
We have paid dearly
In lost hopes
In squandered opportunities
In shattered lives
In lives needlessly cut short in a questionable war in Iraq

Why?
Because this nation
Of the people
By the People
And For the People
Chose to elect a man
Who may have believed
That he was taking the right course of action
But...
Who was grievously flawed
Who was wrong-headed about many things...
Who was incapable of admitting that his decisions could be wrong
A man for whom a mid-course correction was tantamont to admitting
he might have made a mistake
And that he would not do.
So he chose to make no adjustments to reality
He was simply a man
Who, even if he was shown to be wrong,
Kept going in the same direction
No matter the consequences.
Who chose too often to dance with those who brung him
No matter that their motives were clearly self-serving
And a man who chose a stategy of "Staying the Course" at all costs
Even if doing so may bring this nation to it's knees.

In the year, 2000
We, the people, made a choice.
In the years since
We, the people, have paid a fearful price
And our children and their children
Will be paying for our own poor judgment
For generations to come.

Fences

Robert Frost wrote in one of his poems that fences make good neighbors. Well, that may be true in small New England towns. But in the Middle East, the security wall that Israel has constructed to separate Israel from the Palestinian Territories hasn't had that kind of effect for the region.

If this were a simple situation, one could simply point at the Israelis and say that they were the bad guys. But this is a very complicated situation and the truth is that everybody involved in the Mideast Crisis can take a share of the responsibility for the presence of this wall.