At the turn of the last century, a French psychotherapist named Emile Coue maintained individuals could improve their physical and mental health by frequent repetition of the phrase, “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” Constant reaffirmation can help a person keep his or her chin up, but one needs stronger medicine if she or he has cancer, or has been run over by a truck.
Tuesday evening, George W. Bush stood at the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives and intoned political Coueisms over the mangled body of a nation that has been run over by a truck, with Mr. Bush himself at the wheel. No amount of election-year oratory can change America’s domestic devastation or failed foreign policies.
To no one’s surprise, Mr. Bush made much of Saddam Hussein’s downfall and capture, but the foreign policy issues left unmentioned and unattended echoed though the congressional chamber – North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal, continued bloodshed and impasse between Israel and Palestine and the rising tide of virulent hatred of America the Bush administration has engendered throughout much of the world.
A year ago, Mr. Bush and his senior staffers declared again and again that Saddam possessed chemical, nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction. Tuesday, Mr. B referred to “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.” “Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities”? Last year, Mr. Bush said he KNEW Saddam had the bomb, the germs, the poison gas. This year, Mr. Bush THINKS an Iraqi – sometime, somewhere – might have written the Arabic word for “boom” on the back of a piece of scratch paper. As a result, 500 Americans have died in Iraq since the last State of the Union message, enough to fill the House chamber. Mr. Bush attended none of the funerals. Another 3,000 have been wounded. Iraq is dividing itself into armed religious and ethnic factions, following Afghanistan’s example.
Domestically, Mr. Bush called for the renewal of two assaults on the foundation of American society – the Patriot Act and his ruinous tax cuts. The man who is responsible for the lost of over two million American jobs, the man who took record surpluses and turned them into record deficits, wants more. Today’s Washington Post carries a story about the Pentagon’s debut of an internet voting system to be used by servicepeople and Americans living overseas. Some members of a government-appointed review panel said the system is shot through with defects and susceptible to voter fraud. A Pentagon spokesman said plans to use the system will go forward, expert objections notwithstanding. Some states will use the Pentagon’s prototype for the Democratic presidential primaries, starting with South Carolina’s primary on February third. Voter fraud and computer hacking aside, why is the military designing our voting systems? When did we turn into Argentina? The company that got the contract to design the system is Accenture, formerly Arthur Andersen, the company that helped bring us the Enron debacle.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Bush endorsed the idea of a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, which is just what the religious right wanted him to do, but it’s another step toward erasing the line between church and state. In France, rampant secularism caused a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools, which soon spread to Jewish skullcaps, Christian crosses and Sikh turbans. Now the French are talking about forbidding bandannas and the situation has reached ridiculous proportions. The “sanctity of marriage” crusade in America could soon be just as ridiculous, but in the opposite direction.
Fellow citizens, the state of our union is frightening. Fortunately, this is a year in which we can do something about it.
‘Every Day, in Every Way’
At the turn of the last century, a French psychotherapist named Emile Coue maintained individuals could improve their physical and mental health by frequent repetition of the phrase, “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” Constant reaffirmation can help a person keep his or her chin up, but one needs stronger medicine if she or he has cancer, or has been run over by a truck.
Tuesday evening, George W. Bush stood at the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives and intoned political Coueisms over the mangled body of a nation that has been run over by a truck, with Mr. Bush himself at the wheel. No amount of election-year oratory can change America’s domestic devastation or failed foreign policies.
To no one’s surprise, Mr. Bush made much of Saddam Hussein’s downfall and capture, but the foreign policy issues left unmentioned and unattended echoed though the congressional chamber – North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal, continued bloodshed and impasse between Israel and Palestine and the rising tide of virulent hatred of America the Bush administration has engendered throughout much of the world.
A year ago, Mr. Bush and his senior staffers declared again and again that Saddam possessed chemical, nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction. Tuesday, Mr. B referred to “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.” “Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities”? Last year, Mr. Bush said he KNEW Saddam had the bomb, the germs, the poison gas. This year, Mr. Bush THINKS an Iraqi – sometime, somewhere – might have written the Arabic word for “boom” on the back of a piece of scratch paper. As a result, 500 Americans have died in Iraq since the last State of the Union message, enough to fill the House chamber. Mr. Bush attended none of the funerals. Another 3,000 have been wounded. Iraq is dividing itself into armed religious and ethnic factions, following Afghanistan’s example.
Domestically, Mr. Bush called for the renewal of two assaults on the foundation of American society – the Patriot Act and his ruinous tax cuts. The man who is responsible for the lost of over two million American jobs, the man who took record surpluses and turned them into record deficits, wants more. Today’s Washington Post carries a story about the Pentagon’s debut of an internet voting system to be used by servicepeople and Americans living overseas. Some members of a government-appointed review panel said the system is shot through with defects and susceptible to voter fraud. A Pentagon spokesman said plans to use the system will go forward, expert objections notwithstanding. Some states will use the Pentagon’s prototype for the Democratic presidential primaries, starting with South Carolina’s primary on February third. Voter fraud and computer hacking aside, why is the military designing our voting systems? When did we turn into Argentina? The company that got the contract to design the system is Accenture, formerly Arthur Andersen, the company that helped bring us the Enron debacle.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Bush endorsed the idea of a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, which is just what the religious right wanted him to do, but it’s another step toward erasing the line between church and state. In France, rampant secularism caused a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools, which soon spread to Jewish skullcaps, Christian crosses and Sikh turbans. Now the French are talking about forbidding bandannas and the situation has reached ridiculous proportions. The “sanctity of marriage” crusade in America could soon be just as ridiculous, but in the opposite direction.
Fellow citizens, the state of our union is frightening. Fortunately, this is a year in which we can do something about it.
(c) Mark Floegel, 2004