November 2, 2006 Issue

Most children are taught they are responsible for their actions. There are consequences for our behavior. Adults, for the most part, are also aware the decisions we make and actions we take have consequences. Professional people, particularly businessmen, are aware of the costs of irresponsible actions. In the restaurant business the result of poor service and inferior food quality results in a failed restaurant. Only in Washington, where our current leaders have failed at almost everything they have touched, does it appear as though consequences don’t exist for poor job performance.

Americans will be held responsible for the actions of our leaders. We can be held accountable for the actions of our government and it is not unrealistic to assume that in the future we will suffer the consequences of the failed policies of President Bush.

We have a president and vice president who have a hawkish history of fighting. They both fought like hell to stay out of the military. Bush sought refuge in the National Guard. Cheney scrambled time and again for deferments to stay out of the military altogether. Rumsfeld studied something or other within the Ivy League halls of Princeton.

There is another republican with an actual military background who was a fighter. John McCain, who is rarely consulted by this administration, was a genuine war hero. McCain actually knows a little something about torture. If not for his influence, our current policy ignoring the Geneva Convention would allow for much more that water boarding.

Whether you like McCain’s ideas or not; you should respect him. He has walked the walk that very few of our leaders have been willing to take. And unlike so many in his party, he is not a hypocrite.

The American public is tired and confused and sick of being bamboozled. We have been preached to and lied to and misled in so many directions that many people have lost interest in the system. The concept of actual patriotism (not to be confused with the flapping flags flying in front yards everywhere after 9/11) has been bastardized beyond recognition. It has been replaced with mindless jingoism.

The “religious right” movement in this country deserves about the same credibility and respect as the operators of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. They have misled at least as many people as our current administration. In an effort to help clarify their message I have some suggestions.

There are homophobic people in this world. There are people who just don’t get the “gay thing.” I have no problem with those people. But if you are going to use homosexuality as a moral issue and blame it for the fall of civilization, for God’s sake, don’t be a homosexual. If you are going to wage a public fight to keep Internet porn from children, don’t use it to lure children yourself. If you believe that homosexuality is a sin and that our children should be protected from child molesters, don’t bugger little boys. If you think same sex marriage is wrong, marry someone from the opposite sex.

If your religion somehow leads you to believe that one of the most pressing issues is the right to own firearms, and it is your duty to own one, please learn how to use it properly. Don’t go shooting your hunting companion like Vice President Cheney did. And certainly don’t follow the example of Bob Barr, the republican ex-congressman from Georgia. The anti-abortion leader (even though he forced his girlfriend to have one) and NRA supporter fired a pistol that he didn’t know was loaded through a crowded room at a gun show.

If you truly believe that lowering taxes is some sort of virtue, it is probably best not to lead us into a situation where our government is spending $34 million an hour in a God-forsaken war. If being fiscally conservative is important to our leaders, it is perplexing that they have saddled this country with a $3 trillion debt.

If you are determined to orchestrate an illegal war, do it with at least some of your own people; instead of waging it on the backs of the same unsuspecting lower class Americans who always fight our battles. Send your children and some of your rich friend’s children to carry out your righteous war.

If you are wealthy and white and are going to enjoy marijuana or any other illicit drug in the privacy of your home; try to think from time to time of the overflowing prisons full of people not unlike yourself who did not have access to good lawyers who knew their way around the judicial system. Spend an afternoon in any one of our numerous prisons and then tell me that our drug laws are administered fairly and equally.

If you think it is important for our children to value a good education, then try to show at least a minimal grasp of the English language when you speak to the public as our president.

If you are going to use Christianity as a platform for your political goals, practice at least some basic form of Christian values.

Don’t question the patriotism of those who disagree with you. The rest of the world knows that through the power of elections the American public has the ability to change policy in this country. We are responsible for the actions of our leaders. We are not innocents in the mayhem in Iraq. And it is not unrealistic for people around the world to hold us accountable for our actions.

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