Letters to the Editor
AJCalhoun
Published Letters: 964 Editor's Choice: 127
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The Rule of the Wise Has Been Cancelled
[Read the article: Will the real America please stand up?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]IF we, the sane people, come out on top tomorrow (or however long it takes to tabulate the votes, as this is looking more and more like Egypt than the USA in terms of our ability to conduct an election)we will be facing a rebuilding job of on the order of the Reconstruction era, except that we will hopefully do a better job than the carpetbaggers did on the south. Otherwise it is looking much the same.
We have been beseiged by ignorance and fear - mostly fear - for over five years now, and the apparent idiot-in-chief may not be as dumb as he looks, because he sure knows how to exploit the fear factor. When did this cease to be "..the home of the brave", let alone "..the land of the free"? Bravery is invested in The Few, the young lives which are put on the line to be sacrificed so that we, the morons here at home, can suckle at the teat of security as the Death Dwarf continues to pretend Gabriel is about to loose The Blast that will end life as we know it, all the while having accomplished that neat little trick himself, by simply tapping into the primal dread that has sapped America of its inherent and once greatest strength: its fearlessness.
We could take a page or two from the Brits, at least in this regard (we've taken too many already from their book on imperialism). When the bombs actually do go off over there, everyone looks around, counts heads, then gets back down to business. I was there a week after the successful public transportation suicide bombings, and during the second, attempted-but-failed ones. Most of us share some of that gene pool. What the hell has happened to us?
If the scoundrels aren't thrown out (regardless of what Democrats may or may not be capable of doing in the aftermath, at least it would be some some sort of justice served) it will be for one reason alone: we are a bunch of frightened, neurotic, cringeing morons who are afraid of picking up a dead bird, let alone the bogeyman created by the real Master of Puppets here, the Living Brain-dead President and his friends who we have continued to allow ourselves to be spooked by. The Big Issue isn't the war, it isn't our borders, it isn't even close to the economy, stupid: it is precisely what Kamiya politely posits: We are afraid of our own shadow, and so we are by NO means the nation we once read about in history class, that we stood up and saluted the flag for, nor that about 3000 of our children (not to mention tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis) have died for. We aren't even worth their sacrifice, which should be the first reason on the arm-long list of reasons why we should quit this idiot's war right now and start to look at ourselves - and each other - with a very jaundiced, very embarrassed eye.
It's time to come out from under the goddam bed.
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There Was Never Anything to Save
[Read the article: Bush's presidential quagmire]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can Bush salvage his Presidency? Can that question even be put forth seriously? This administration has been an abortion from the outset. How could it now be salvageable when it never existed except in the minds of a few deluded souls to begin with? Everyone knew, even his staunchest supporters, that Bush was a Wrong Number. They took a chance trying to jump on the gravy train of hubris as it wobbled past and they are now all as dazed and confused as their hapless, hopeless and utterly irredeemable leader.
Bush's "confession" that he had lied about his plans for Rumsfeld was no strategic move, no stroke of genius and certainly not the result of a transformation. It was simply one more piece of evidence that this man is incompetent to serve, and that he was stunned and disoriented, as though he had been smacked upside the head with a shovel - which, come to think of it, I suppose he had. Good. God willing, the pain of that blow will linger a good long time.
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Maybe Not a "Bellweather" But Certainly a Birthplace
[Read the article: A new bellwether for America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Virginia (do any of the first five writers know anything about it at all?) may not be the "bellweather" Epps seems to take it for - although it is certainly a watershed for the moment, and that's all that matters right now - but it wasn't born yesterday, either. It is more the birthplace of the Great Experiment that is our nation, having been the birthplace of Washington, Jefferson, et al, as well as the incubator for the Republic, the one-time Flower of the Confederacy, and, farther back, the place where John Smith's ass was saved by a shortsighted Pamunkey Indian.
Virginia is exactly what it would appear to be: the great and defining off-center of the American South, and it has everything necessary to the kind of unbelievable story that has sprung from its bosom: the United States of America. Yes, there are bunches of crazy hillbillies down there, vast armies of Wal Mart Shoppers, several fortresses of right-wing religious lunacy and considerable of their flocks; but there are also huge corporations, numerous military reservations, shipyards, waterways, incredible natural beauty and a personality that truly is "for lovers."
My mother was born there. Her name: Virginia.
Jim Webb was born there. His native state: Virginia.
George Allen managed to fool some of the people some of the time, and the state which finally rejected him and his slimeball ways, thus giving this nation permission to exhale after 12 years: Virginia.
Give credit where credit is due. On top of everything it is, there is one thing Viriginia is not: Texas. Thank you Jesus!