It's Now Official...
1/20/2005
Bush was inaugurated today for his second term. I was sick with a terrible cold, but I managed to crawl to the TV to catch bits of the parade, though I missed the speech (more of the same, I reckon).
What amazed me was that CSPAN 2 was actually covering the protestors for at least an hour nonstop. I felt like I was there in a way, joining them as they 'turned their backs on Bush.' And of course, I did a little channel surfing amid the boring parts (it is CSPAN, you know), catching the 'journalists' on FOX and MSNBC carrying their long-winded tradition of providing fair and balanced neoconservative opinions instead of objective reporting. So I tune them out, along with the other networks that do nothing but pander to the conservative base. It's really a shame that the only place I can find nonpartisan news is NPR, and even that seems to be eroding as more and more government funding is pulled from public radio and is replaced by large donations from corporations.
Among our liberties, the freedom to be the voice of dissent is perhaps the most important, and it's also the most dangerous public voice to the secret designs of an elitist regime that is hellbent on perpetuating war, fear and greed (while calling it 'freedom and peace'). The eyes and ears of a free society must always remain critical of the activities of their leaders. Especially when they are greedy opportunists and corporate swindlers posing as purveyors of freedom and peace. And if the mechanisms of government continue to bear down on the public senses, if people become so deluded with pointless news and garbled opinions, there is nothing represented to actually vote FOR. So in essence we have become blind and deaf by those who depend on our votes.
If the Bush Administration has taught me anything, it's never to trust the peaceful language of a leader who jumps to his guns at a moment's notice. In one hand, he carries a flag of freedom. In the other, he carries an army in which to decimate cities in foreign lands, plundering them for their riches and sharing the wealth with large US corporations, with the excuse of a sacred duty in spreading this 'freedom' across the world.
When our political message must sweep like a religious fire and fury across the world, we can no longer remain a just and free society. We ultimately become our own enemy, eating ourselves inside out while those with grudge sit and laugh at our slow demise.
Freedom is spread by example, not by force. Democracy is not something we can force down people's necks. They will not respect us for it, and the outcome will be such a bastardization of our message that we won't even recognize it as our own doing. Hopefully, we will eventually learn to elect leaders who can step up to the plate and take responsibility for our failures and help make this country great again.
It took the Roman Empire longer to fall than the amount of time the US has been in existence. If we are running out of steam so quickly, it is only because we are failing to stand by our principles of government.
So I celebrate Bush's 2nd inauguration by blowing my nose on a Puffs Plus and tossing it into an overflowing waste basket.
posted by novachild @ Thursday, January 20, 2005,
