Pilikia
October 3, 2004, 02:04 AM
(From a I'm a gun-totin' liberal and a fiscally-conservative social progressive)
Half of you out there are cowards. If the polling data I check several times a day (like the strung-out news junkie I am) can be trusted, just about half of you are lily-livered, yellow-bellied, pigeon-hearted, nail-biting cowards. Seriously. And you know why? Because you're going to vote for George W. Bush come November 2nd, that's why. You've allowed Dubya and Dick and John Ashcroft and Don "Gee, I wonder why you never hear about my kids" Rumsfeld to convince you that life suddenly became a terminal condition after September 11, 2001.
Let me tell you something; life on planet Earth has always been a terminal condition. Risky. Unpredictable. Fraught with hidden dangers. And yet the neo-conservative cult, fronted by George "Smirky" Bush, would have you believe (and has half of you believing) that the America was the Garden of Eden prior to 9/11. Before Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda brought down the twin towers and callously murdered more than 2,700 people, there were no automobile accidents; there were no drive-by shootings; there was no cancer, heart disease, diabetes or AIDS; no Timothy McVeighs or Unabombers; no tornadoes; no hurricanes, floods, forest fires, earthquakes, or, God forbid, mile-wide asteroids lumbering toward the Earth.
Before 9/11, the American way of life envisioned by our founding fathers, defined by freedom of speech, the right to privacy, no taxation without representation and the seperation of church and state worked just fine. After 9/11... well, after 9/ll, the neo-con-artists tell us everything changed. Now the world is suddenly deadly and dangerous, critical thinking and free speech make it more so, and the desire for privacy means you've got something to hide. Furthermore, God should instant-message your brain directly each and every day with specific instructions, and a couple of $300.00 tax refund checks represents the sum total value of your children's increasingly fractured future.
Half of you out there have allowed the Bush administration to make you afraid, have bowed down before them in a completely un-American fashion and promised un-questioning loyalty in exchange for the illusion of safety. You would continue to allow them to send our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters to die in a Hellish desert country (Iraq) that had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. You encourage them to vomit forth record budget deficits that all but guarantee your kids and mine will have to work 24/7 from cradle-to-grave just to avoid a life of poverty. You would happily help them violate the Constitution of our great Nation. And you will continue to let them put the interests of giant corporations ahead of the well-being of the people of the United States of America. That makes you a lousy bunch of quivering chickens in my book.
Nothing's changed since that horrible day on September 11, 2001. We could each of us die at any moment of any day for an infinite number of different reasons, most of which would never cross our minds in a million years. Our founding fathers knew that, and generations hence have chosen to face reality with their freedoms and dignity intact -- to die if neccessary rather than live in fear. I'm with the 50% or so of my countrymen and women who still hold that vision of a uniquely American democracy close to their hearts. The rest of you -- like I said, you're a bunch of cowards.
Half of you out there are cowards. If the polling data I check several times a day (like the strung-out news junkie I am) can be trusted, just about half of you are lily-livered, yellow-bellied, pigeon-hearted, nail-biting cowards. Seriously. And you know why? Because you're going to vote for George W. Bush come November 2nd, that's why. You've allowed Dubya and Dick and John Ashcroft and Don "Gee, I wonder why you never hear about my kids" Rumsfeld to convince you that life suddenly became a terminal condition after September 11, 2001.
Let me tell you something; life on planet Earth has always been a terminal condition. Risky. Unpredictable. Fraught with hidden dangers. And yet the neo-conservative cult, fronted by George "Smirky" Bush, would have you believe (and has half of you believing) that the America was the Garden of Eden prior to 9/11. Before Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda brought down the twin towers and callously murdered more than 2,700 people, there were no automobile accidents; there were no drive-by shootings; there was no cancer, heart disease, diabetes or AIDS; no Timothy McVeighs or Unabombers; no tornadoes; no hurricanes, floods, forest fires, earthquakes, or, God forbid, mile-wide asteroids lumbering toward the Earth.
Before 9/11, the American way of life envisioned by our founding fathers, defined by freedom of speech, the right to privacy, no taxation without representation and the seperation of church and state worked just fine. After 9/11... well, after 9/ll, the neo-con-artists tell us everything changed. Now the world is suddenly deadly and dangerous, critical thinking and free speech make it more so, and the desire for privacy means you've got something to hide. Furthermore, God should instant-message your brain directly each and every day with specific instructions, and a couple of $300.00 tax refund checks represents the sum total value of your children's increasingly fractured future.
Half of you out there have allowed the Bush administration to make you afraid, have bowed down before them in a completely un-American fashion and promised un-questioning loyalty in exchange for the illusion of safety. You would continue to allow them to send our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters to die in a Hellish desert country (Iraq) that had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. You encourage them to vomit forth record budget deficits that all but guarantee your kids and mine will have to work 24/7 from cradle-to-grave just to avoid a life of poverty. You would happily help them violate the Constitution of our great Nation. And you will continue to let them put the interests of giant corporations ahead of the well-being of the people of the United States of America. That makes you a lousy bunch of quivering chickens in my book.
Nothing's changed since that horrible day on September 11, 2001. We could each of us die at any moment of any day for an infinite number of different reasons, most of which would never cross our minds in a million years. Our founding fathers knew that, and generations hence have chosen to face reality with their freedoms and dignity intact -- to die if neccessary rather than live in fear. I'm with the 50% or so of my countrymen and women who still hold that vision of a uniquely American democracy close to their hearts. The rest of you -- like I said, you're a bunch of cowards.