What have YOU done to give peace a chance lately?
I have done nothing.
I thought I was doing something grand prior to the 2004 Presidential Elections. I gave money to Dean, I gave money to Edwards - and attended rallies for Edwards. When Kerry pulled ahead, I gave money to Kerry.
I thought it was all about getting the warhawks out of office. I figured if Bush and Cheney were removed from running the show, then peace, love and happiness would follow.
It’s 2006 now. We’re going on a full two years since we were Bush-whacked and inherited another four years of lies, disinformation, truthiness and deception.
Nothing has changed, in fact, things have gotten worse. Last week an AEA presentation tagged the final bill for the war in Iraq (a.k.a. the War on Terror) to between $1 TRILLION and $2 TRILLION dollars.
And I haven’t done a thing about it.
I bitch about how things are going, I cringe for the dead soldiers and I go about my daily business. There isn’t any more talk about the on-going war. It could be because people already know where I stand - a veteran of Gulf War 1 who is passionately opposed to war - and they don’t even challenge me or ask me about it.
I don’t know if this is because they KNOW this war is wrong and they KNOW the American people were WRONG to re-elect the criminals back into the Oval Office or if they are just too self-absorbed to care about something occurring over 8,000 miles away.
This is what the neocons knew would happen eventually. The American people no longer think about war, and those that do are regarded as fanatical as the rubes who elected GWB back into office for a second term.
There was a moment where musicians released freely downloadable peace songs as MP3s but they have all vanished - and Green Day, the toast of 2005 and Grammy winners for Best Rock Album of 2004, don’t even have their song linked anymore. I link Life During Wartime here for your listening pleasure. The Beastie Boys, Cat Stevens, Lenny Kravitz and John Mellencamp all came out with songs with pro-peace and anti-war themes - but all of them have dropped the ball as this war has dragged on.
Nobody seems to give a second thought about the scandals that have rocked America over the course of the past six years: Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, and amongst all the myriad screwings the White House has done to the American people they are now clamming up on the Abramoff scandal. They obviously believe that if they remain silent that the American people will forget.
No way. I am not going to forget. I am not going to shut up. I am going to talk to anybody who will listen and I will use every opportunity to interject why this Administration is corrupt and why this war is wrong. I will debate it with whoever will debate it. I will even admit it when I am wrong…which is far more than George W. Bush or Dick Cheney will ever do.
On a moral note, I will even suggest impeachment. How can a moral person go to bed each night knowing that this false prophet they elected and re-elected at as a President not only lied to them about rationale for war, but is happily sending their sons and daughters off to fight and die on foreign soil? What has Bush’s family done for the war effort? When will his daughters sacrifice their posh lifestyles for Federal Service?
I haven’t been giving peace a chance. I have been overwhelmed and apathetic since the good guys lost in 2004. But in 2006 and beyond I do not want to see evil prevail. I will tell whoever will listen: Bush and his entire troop of neocons must go! And I don’t want new neocons to come in to continue to ruin America - I want them all out of office!
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