Of Flowers, Chocolates, and Broken Hope

For three years, Iraqis have been throwing flowers and candy thanks to a liberation bestowed to them by the imperialistic George Bush, yesterday they decided to purchase the diamond in a pursuit of an unholy matrimony of death and carnage. The grand experiment of democratizing a nation with howitzers and Abrhams has been blown to dust, the ashes of an ancient civilization swirling in the winds of the desert.

Children often play a game of what if, taking objects apart just to see what happens. Caught up in a world of conjecture without regard to consequence and uninhibited by the sagacity of reality, they often destroy valuable items for the sheer fulfillment of their intellectual curiosity. They have no use for adults who preach the value of discernment and wisdom, and tend to blame others once the folly of their actions is revealed.

This administration has operated in much the same manner, playing a juvenile game of machismo—taunting whenever possible, dismissive in nature, and name calling at all times. The Middle East has been set afire by a pharisaic administration whose assurance in their moral righteousness was surpassed only by their disdain for alternative views. The awful reality is that there is no answer to the Iraq disaster, the Pandora ’s Box was opened by a neoconinc key, there is no way to close the lid back.

The sound bites of victory in Iraq, staying the course, stand up stand down, and the sheer depravity of waiting for the “recommendation” from the Iraq survey group is just a marketing strategy to blur the reality of failure. The circle has been drawn in the desert, the Shia and the Sunnis will slaughter each other until there is a clear loser. Funded by outside emissaries, they will be used as pawns to fight a geopolitical war. There will not be a clear victor, Iraq will become the next Lebanon, on a mind-blowing scale. In the end, Bush will transform the Middle East as he envisioned, much the same way a child transforms a vase while tossing it carelessly in the air. At least the flowers were saved, now if we only had chocolates.

From Picking Cotton to Picking Trends

The Shaming of the Dubya

The beauty of American democracy was displayed in its full glory on November 7th, when we the people intervened on behalf of our nation and overthrew a maladroit administration. The beauty of our system of government is not in the permanency of a governing philosophy, it is its agility to course correct when beset by a failed doctrine.

The radio waves and television stations are full of simpletons such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Krauthammer et al, who cheered on the sidelines for this inherently flawed administration’s incompetent Middle East grand design. Apparently shame having failed as an elixir to their inanity, they now spout unwanted advice of how to get out of a disaster that they helped to steer us into. This is akin to doctor, guilty of malpractice, approaching the same wounded patient with a machete; after bleeding our soldiers and treasury, please sirs and madams have the decency to shut up.

Over the past 6 years, we have been subjected to insults of cowardice and libeled as traitors for grasping the depth of this war’s injury to our nation and calling for those who were entrusted at the helm of the ship to be held accountable. As the nation slowly woke up to the calamity of the administration and their sycophant’s course of action, every image of 911 was conjured up in order to lull the public to slumber. There are those whose support of this historical hamartia is implausible; wed to Bush based on personal affinity and religious zeal, unabated injury to our nation will not prevent a quarter amongst us to inanely insist on supporting this executive chimera. Though the founding fathers were afraid to imperil the republic’s health at the hands of the “ignorant mass”, their abiding faith in the veracity of ideas to win out in the public arena led to inception of our democracy. Our democracy survives on the basis of at least 51% overcoming the inertia of group think and discerning substance from Fox news propaganda.

What we need now is sober judgment, the era of Play Station foreign policy has drawn nigh. History will hang this epic failure on the necks of the neocons such as Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., and Bush will ultimately be remembered as the avant-garde Nero that he is. Nonetheless, the reward of victory is not a mandate to relish in power or to gloat at past failures. The Democrats have been handed a heavy responsibility, to save our soldiers from the horrors of IEDs and to minimize the loss of Iraqi lives. Lest we be fooled, there is no panacea to the blunder of Bush’s war. The outcomes vary from bleak to catastrophic, and the options are equally harrowing. The hope of the nation lies not in the idea of a miraculous turnaround; rather it lies in the expectations that in matters of war, decision are based on sound judgment instead of quixotic schemes. With the rejection of the extreme right wing’s doctrine, we resoundingly responded to Ben Franklin’s query—our republic, through the fog of lies and deception, we kept it.

The Reel McCain

There are figures in American politics that come along who transcend the constraints of an ideology and soar above the base political landscape; I thought John McCain was such a person—in 2000. What I see today is a politician much like the rest, who has managed to transform his refreshing ideas of the 2000 campaign into a trite façade of a so called straight shooter.

Turn on any television screen today, and most likely you will find McCain; extolling the virtues of “straight talk” and “moral character”. A closer examination of this supposed second coming of Teddy Roosevelt will reveal a politician much like the rest—calculating, poll driven, and bereft of political bravery. These are harsh words, and they are not meant to tear down his personal characteristics, rather they are aimed at the image he and his campaign are continuously molding in the public arena. With the help of the spineless media, he has somehow managed to portray himself as a man of principle.

A man savaged by the extreme conservative wing of the Republican Party in 2000, he now flirts incessantly with the sludge of the Republican Party. Much like a hooker who tries to appease her pimp, he overlooks the extreme right wing’s sickening foundation built on implicit racism and explicit exclusionary dogma. Nowhere is this more evident than his rapprochement to Jerry Falwell, a man McCain rightly rejected as a man of hatred and divisiveness. Realizing that the base of the Republican Party is infected with the same strain of hatred and divisiveness, he chose to cater to the germs instead of applying an antiseptic of honor. Today, he stands hand in hand with the same subspecies of the party who maligned him for adopting an “illegitimate black child”.

More damaging to the country was his so-called brave stance against Bush during the Torture Bill debate. One would have thought that a man who was indeed tortured for years at the hands of the Vietcong would be the most vehement protector of our nation’s honor and the belief that even those who are the most reprehensible amongst us deserve the civility of our justice system. Once we give in to the idea that there are some who don’t deserve justice, the delicate balance of our entire system tilts towards injustice. Instead of standing up to Bush, McCain instead provided covering fire for Bush to effectively legislate torture. In the end, Bush got exactly what he wanted in the Torture Bill; while McCain made pretend that he was a defender of our constitution while flicking on the switch to the shredder.

What we have before us is not the real McCain, rather it is the reel McCain—a made for TV phenomenon who charades as a truth teller on the evening news while cozying up to those who pull the levers of power during the day. Keep this in mind while he runs fervently to the right leading up to the primary, only to pivot and change into his “bring America together, I am a moderate” character. I would have voted for him once because I thought he provided a breath of fresh air—I realize now that he is as polluted as the rest of them.

A Minor Inconvenience with a major disaster

“Carmel Cappuccino extra caramel”

“Turn the AC up it’s a bit warm in here”

“I can’t believe I’ve been waiting in line for five minutes to buy groceries, this is an outrage!”

“Can you believe those thugs and criminals in New Orleans stealing and looting, they should be all locked up!!”

Such is a life of a suburban soldier, fighting traffic and wondering how they will be able to travel for their weekend getaway with gas being at an all time record and all. How easy it is to pass judgment when we are sitting in the lap of luxury? This outrage that is displayed daily on the news about the looters and “those people”, it revels the pure malevolent thoughts that those who are the haves hold over those who are the have nots. Further more, the ghost that haunts this country since its inception continues unabated. Don’t think for a second that racism is not involved in the tragedy in New Orleans. The constant images of a black youth taking a television-a television that is no longer useful to the person taking it nor the store where it belongs-draws more ire than the fact that people have been left to fend for themselves. Those who were elected to keep law and order long ago left before the first drop of rain, and yet they want to be indignant when they see the lawlessness they left behind.
There are thousands of people starving, dehydrating, dying; and yet for the past two days all that we have been bombarded with are images of black folks “looting”. Do you blame them, the forgotten masses, abandoned to survive as best they could, when they lash out? There are thousands upon thousands of people who were not able to evacuate New Orleans, so without other options they stayed and prayed for the mercy of God since the mercy of their elected officials was nowhere to be found. They survived, now they beg for the mercy of a nation and we instead flash daily images of looting, as if the material wealth of a city is more important than the human catastrophe unfolding before our very eyes. Four days since the hurricane passed, and people are still stranded by the thousands to sleep in the streets, to “loot” for precious water and food, babies left to survive in the heat of the south, old folks dying where they sit, and parents helpless to do much.
What would you do if faced with all this, would you be civilized, and would you be lawful where the law failed you? You, the same person who is ready to “kill someone” just because someone has 16 items in the fast lane. You wonder why there are so many black folks running around “looting” in New Orleans, when you should be wondering why there are so many black folks left behind in New Orleans. The greatest nation in the world, able to move mountains, unable or unwilling to move those trapped in a hell begotten city. The president reassures us that everything will be ok while he flies over the city in his air conditioned Air Force One a thousand feet in air; unable to see the human faces and feel the hearts of grieving parents, husband, wives and relatives. If you really think about it, that is the real tragedy of this story. But wait, no time for that, hey forgot to put extra caramel in your cappuccino!