DragonFlight

Whether George Bush was or was not legally elected/appointed in 2000 would now appear to be a moot point since it is not being contested on any level that might matter. So, we are stuck with the man for two more years, for good or bad.

It’s time for a wake up call for a lot of Americans. I understand many dread democrats and taxes. They’ve let others pound into their heads day and night, how evil the “Godless liberals:? are. Well, the liberals are neither evil or Godless. So get over it. These have been shameless and manipulative ploys to get your vote.

If you believe this president is doing a good job why not start asking yourself some hard questions. We all know the issues that have been in contention for the past several years, including the Patriot Act, NSA wire tapping, the vast Abramoff scandal, the Foley scandal, the DeLay scandal, the Jefferson Scandal, etc. Hell, scandals appear to be legion.

People say the economy is doing well, but it seems to me this is the view of those with tens of thousands of shares of stock in their possession. The rest of America, especially the average worker, is not doing so well. Credit Card debt is at an all time high (as people pay for daily maintenance by charging), and in some areas of the country home foreclosures are at an extremely high level. Thousands still suffer without homes, or satisfaction from insurance companies because of the inept way in which Katrina was handled at many levels of government.

Whatever one wants to believe, a few things are quite evident about the war in Iraq and the “war on terror.��? First there were no WMDs in Iraq (regardless of what “anyone��? thought). That country, if not out of control and in a civil war, is definitely on the verge of actually being in one. World opinion was against this war as well as at least 50% of the American population, and that view now seems to be the correct one. The US took a “brutal, stable, secular Iraq, and changed it into a brutal, unstable, theocratic Iraq," as one pundit put it. The waters in the middle east have been so muddied by this unpopular invasion, that if and when another terrorist act occurred in the US we would be unable to determine if it was more pre-9/11 violence or the result of revenge for inflaming the entire middle east because of the pre-emptive, highly questionable, and very long and bloody war in Iraq, and the continued demonizing of Iran and Syria, while at the same time failing to communicate with them.

Our borders are still wide open, and there’s the potential for “terrorists��? or anyone else to gain easy ingress to our nation. The ports are still mainly unprotected. I could go on and on about all the problems facing the nation, now and for the past few years.

I believe a lot of those people still blindly supporting this president do so because to admit he has not lived up to their expectations would be admitting to mistakenly placing their faith in the wrong man, wrong party, or cause. I would ask them to take a good long look at it all. If there is anything worse than making a mistake, it’s remaining trapped in a loop requiring one to support it.

Personally I believe it is time for a change, and a BIG one at that. It would appear, after the results of the midterm elections, that the majority of voting Americans have also reached the same conclusion. Many of these, by the way, were moderate and conservative republicans who had had enough of “stay the course,��? in Iraq or anywhere else, including this nation, and said "enough is enough, I’m willing to give someone else a chance, regardless of my previous views of them."

The world situation today requires a lot of thought, finesse and steadfastness to diplomacy. These have not been attributes of the self-proclaimed cowboy leading our nation, with his “bring it on��? and “smoke-em out��? mentality. We don’t live in the Dodge City of the old west any longer, and even if few do, it’s not the way to change things for the better.

I would simply ask a lot of people to take a good long, hard look at our recent history, our present, and where we want to go. And please, stop defending a losing position simply for the sake of being right. That's wrong. One becomes “right"? by being adaptable and able to change opinion and loyalty when reality requires it.

What’s really important is for this nation and it’s people to start the healing process.
Let’s learn to live in peace. The world has become too small and interdependent to any longer worship the god of war, believing war to be inevitable. I don’t suggest we abdicate our right to defend ourselves when necessary, but rather that we learn to defend ourselves prudently, intelligently and in a way that demonstrates that we are truly interested in a goal of peace, not just being more right, more powerful and more important.

In my opinion, the man who simply admonished us “to love one another"? seemed to have the right idea. Why do so many find it easy to worship this messenger and disregard the message as not being credible? If the man was credible so was the message!