E Pluribus Conundrum ... Liar, Liar ... and Enough Already....

The Looking Glass
by Jennifer Johnston





United States of America

I have been absolutely giddy with hope and joy this week ... beginning with the uplifting "We Are One" celebration in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, continuing with the stirring inauguration of President Barack Obama and the ceremonial inaugural balls ... as well as the first three full days of the Obama Administration, which saw the repudiation and overturning of some of the excesses and arguably criminal acts of the benighted presidency of George W. Bush, including but not limited to the end of torture by the United States of America (yes, we did torture under Bush ... his disingenuous denials to the contrary), a date certain for closing the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison, and the restoration of funds to international organizations which support planned parenthood, including birth control and abortion counseling and services.

Not all of you will agree with me. Some will agree with me entirely, some in part, and some not at all. At this juncture, some of you will be gnashing your teeth and calling me some rather unflattering names, and others will be cheering me on ... some of you will have stopped reading by now ... that is diversity, and that is your right. And it is my right to write ... and think ... these things.

We live in a democracy ... perhaps the greatest form of government on earth, but also sometimes the messiest ... because by definition and nature, it takes into account (and ideally respects) wide diversity of opinion. What this means is that under any given Administration, at any given time, there will be a large number of people who do not agree with the policies of their government, or with their fellow citizens, on any number of matters. Still and all ... if we are to survive and function as a democracy, we must learn to reconcile our personal views with those of others ... and with long settled national and international standards of ethics and decency. There are certain things where there is no room for compromise ... specifically on the issue of torture, or in Bush-speak, "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Torture is wrong, wrong, wrong ... ab initio ... there is no reason and no justification for it. It has been proved over and over again that it does not work. Waterboarding, and certain other practices deployed and used during the Bush Administration, have been recognized as torture at least since the days of the Spanish Inquisition, and likely long before that. For my Republican friends, it is worth noting that their recent standard bearer, John McCain, decried and repudiated these methods, also calling them torture. Indeed, after World War II, we tried and sentenced Japanese officers and government officials for sanctioning and perpetrating such atrocities on U.S. military prisoners. I doubt that Bush and his minions will ever stand trial for the war crimes they have committed, which is shameful yet expedient, but that does not mean they did not commit war crimes. I was raised to believe that the United States of America is a better country than Spain under the sway of Tomás de Torquemada, Germany under Hitler, Cambodia under Pol Pot ... but we failed ... our government failed us ... miserably in this instance. The end does not justify the means ... and does invariably lead to the day when the definition of "enemies" will be revised downward to include Americans who disagree with their government. I am sure there are those of you out there who think I am traitorous for even suggesting these things and might benefit from a little bracing water in the face ... a long soak in boiling oil ... and I rest my case....

Bush lied about a number of things ... not the least the cobbled-up, cynical "reason(s)" for going to war in Iraq; searching for non-existent weapons of mass destruction which he and his neocons knew weren't there; lying about yellowcake uranium and the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq (there wasn't one until Bush ordered the attack) ... but there are too many to enumerate here. As noted author and commentator Joe Klein wrote in the January 19, 2009 edition of Time magazine:

"This is not the America I know," President George W. Bush said after the first, horrifying pictures of U.S. troops torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in April 2004. The President was not telling the truth. "This" was the America he had authorized on February 7, 2002, when he signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention -- the one regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime -- did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban. That signature led directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. It was his single most callous and most despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency.

Under any of various theories, Bush was either clueless, complicit or complacent ... or most damningly, all three. And I refer you to, among other things, the truly outstanding book The Dark Side by Jane Mayer, and the December 2008 report of the Senate Armed Services Committee, if (to borrow a line from Jack Nicholson) you can stand the truth.

May the Bush Administration not rest in peace ... I hope its sins of commission and omission haunt all of them for years. I daresay that history will not be kind to these miscreants, though they desperately cling to the delusion that it will. And one day they will answer to a higher power for what they have done, and reap what they have sown, if not in this life, then in lives to come.



Page 1 of the United States Constitution


Having covered that, there are a few other things which I hope will now come to an end. Among them ....

Enough Already with lying e-mails, such as that President Obama is a Muslim (he isn't), isn't qualified to be President by circumstances of his birth (he is), and that he is not really President because Chief Justice John Roberts bungled the oath of office. These nasty, sleazy, tabloid-journalism lies (perpetrated by Faux ... er, Fox ... News, as well as other looney toons out there in e-mail land) constitute bearing false witness, prohibited in the 10 bedrock commandments of Judeo-Christian theology ... and also adjured in Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, Daoism, Hindu teachings, Wicca and other world faiths. For those who don't follow religious teachings there is the matter of ethics. If you profess a belief in the Bible, or the Torah, or the Koran, or other teachings or philosophies, then I urge you to follow your faith and refuse to pass along such garbage. Check your facts ... and get your information from some source other than Faux ... er, Fox ... News and those blowhards Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, et al.

Enough Already with manufactured controversies meant to divide and inflame us. I speak specifically of the "outrage" of being wished "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". Not all of us are Christians ... or follow any established religion. Just be glad that someone wishes you well ... and if you want to answer with "Merry Christmas" that is your right ... as long as you are pleasant about it.

Enough Already with the Electoral College. This antiquated institution has outlived its usefulness by at least more than a century and should have been dispensed with long ago, to leave the matter of a Presidential election to the majority of the popular vote. Had this been the case in the 2000 presidential election, we would have been spared this long nightmare.

Enough Already with non-standardized (and in many cases, suspect) voting machines.

Enough Already with the shibboleth that "nothing happened on Bush's watch" in the seven years after 9/11. Prior to that, there was the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993 ... and it was eight years from then until 9/11 ... and Bush had nothing to do with that.

Enough Already with the crippling fear of Islamic terrorists that drives many of us. All terrorists are not Muslim ... think Timothy McVeigh and his cohort, who took down the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Not an Arab or a Muslim in the bunch. Terrorists come in various shapes, forms and ideologies ... the Ku Klux Klan, other White Supremacist groups like Aryan Nations, people who bomb abortion clinics, and kill abortion doctors, and harass abortion workers and women who have made the choice to have an abortion. All of these are terrorists. It is highly unlikely that a bunch of wild-eyed fanatics could ever succeed in taking over this country ... and the world ... and turning it into a Caliphate or white supremacist paradise. There is a possibility that someday, some lunatic (of whatever political or religious or nihilistic persuasion) will succeed in detonating a nuclear device in an American city ... which will truly be a tragedy. But we will go on, with our American spirit ... so long as we don't sell our souls and our Constitution to some snake-oil salesman who promises specious security in return for our freedoms and our humanity.

Enough Already with the question of whether or not there is global warming and whether it will be disastrous to our planet and our country. There is and it may be ... and we have already lost much valuable time because of the obfuscations of the Bush Administration and their corporate cronies.

Enough Already with the misguided and dangerous movement to teach creationism and/or the misnomered "intelligent design" ... or other junk sciences ... in our schools. If you want to pass along your faith to your children, do it at home and/or in your house of worship. Don't inflict it on other children who deserve the chance for a first-rate education.

Enough Already with mindlessly repeating that America is the greatest country in the world. It has been ... and it can be again ... but after the past 30 or so years (dating from the time of Ronald Reagan), as explained by commentator Jeffrey D. Sachs, compared with Canada, Western Europe and Japan, we have the highest rates of child poverty and infant mortality, the lowest life expectancy, and the largest budget deficit as a share of gross domestic product. And, U.S. 15 year olds rank among the lowest on tests for math and science abilities. "...: our mostly private health care system ... is twice the cost of Europe's mostly public system, yet with worse outcomes." (emphasis added.) All this is deplorable ... but fixable, if we have the will.

Enough Already with petty partisan posturing, such as the Inaugural Day hissy fit thrown by Senator John Cornyn of Texas in refusing to unanimously confirm Hillary Clinton as President Obama's Secretary of State, even though he acknowledged at the time that he would vote for her confirmation the next day. Even John McCain (for my Republican friends) chastised Senator Cornyn for this "gratuitous" gesture.



The Philadelphia Convention and signing of the U.S. Constitution painting by Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952)

Enough Already with electing politicians on the "lowest common denominator" theory. I want someone who is smarter than I am to be the leader of the free world ... we all should, if we wish our country well.

Enough Already with sleazy, divisive political figures such as Rod "Helmet Head" Blagojevich, Ted "Extreme Makeover" Stevens, William "Cool Hand" Jefferson, Elliot "Call Me" Spitzer, Sarah "On A Clear Day I Can See Russia" Palin, Joe (actually Sam) the "Unlicensed" Plumber, and Darth Cheney.

Enough Already with the idea that there are "real Americans" and "other Americans." We are all Americans ... and as such we are entitled to disagree with our government and with each other. To borrow a line, I bleed red, white and blue ... my heart swells and my eyes become faucets every time I hear a well-rendered version of The Star-Spangled Banner and America, the Beautiful (and yes, I know the words) ... I can actually recite verbatim the Preamble and certain Articles to the Constitution, significant portions of the Declaration of Independence and the entire Gettysburg Address, usually with choking voice and tearful eyes. I do not for a moment think that I will agree with all of President Obama's decisions and policies ... and rest assured that I, along with others, will take him to task if necessary. But he can hardly help but be so much better than his immediate predecessor.

E pluribus conundrum.... with truth, and liberty and justice for all....

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