Fiatlux Redux

2005-12-24

Editorial

Bernard J. Fine

Cost of the War

Life, for many Americans is a wearying trudge through time, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year. Sometimes it seems as if their every effort to get a little bit ahead is stymied from its very inception. Many of them have no great aspirations for themselves or even for their children; all they want is a little bit of respite from their struggle for existence in a country that purports to be “an equal opportunity” employer. After generations of toiling in these families, hope hardly springs eternal. They are beaten down and the more beaten down they become, the worse it seems to get.

You see, some folks at high government levels have the distorted view that some people are more equal than others. The Republican congress, for example, in an effort to help redress the huge federal deficit that they have caused by approving an illegal war and granting tax reductions to the extremely wealthy have just passed a bill that will cut all sorts of basic benefits, for example, food stamps for needy individuals and college scholarships for needy kids trying to break out of the mold of poverty.

These congressional embarrassments-as-human-beings also have cut or denied benefits for the very veterans that have carried out their misguided war. They have fouled our environment at a cost to the country that has yet to be determined, if such determination is even possible. They have made our workplaces less safe and have stiffed the poor and elders by providing minimal and overly complex health plans and benefits. Their corporate affiliates who provide them with campaign funds and other amenities, apparently unable to run their enterprises without special favors from the government, have poured millions of dollars into their pockets while at the same time campaigning against such basic poverty safety nets as raising the minimum wages of their employee-serfs. Unions? Forget it. Serfs can’t have unions; they may rise up and, heaven forbid, demand living wages.

So here we are, folks. Christmas, 2005. We’ve spent five years in the Bush Leagues waiting for some kind of Major League human good to emerge from the slime and muck But all we’ve gotten is more of the same second rate governance, if we can call what the bushits have done, governance.

But, as we try to scrape the ethical and moral muck and mire off, wash our hands and appear presentable for the holidays - head into our so-called “New Year’s Resolutions,” - we have to face up to one bitter fact, friends. We caused a lot of it. It’s our fault.

We allowed ourselves to be shat upon. We . . . the majority (or close to the majority) of us... voted for second rate governance. We were too trusting, too passive, too imperceptive, too busy doing our own things to bother. Above all, we were TOO AFRAID.

Edward R. Murrow spoke to the FEAR point in discussing the McCarthy era: Go to

http://www.otr.com/murrow.html and click on “Murrow on the McCarthy Hearings.

How the nation needs another Ed. Murrow to keep it straight.

_____________________________

Finally, a present for you all; an interesting exercise for you, particularly those of you who voted for Bush and/or the illegal war in Iraq.

Go to the excellent website, The Cost of War:

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option
=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

There you will find a running total of the costs of the war in Iraq. Not only that. Here you can apportion that total, as it continues to run, to your state and in some cases to your community. You can also see what that total would amount to when apportioned to education, hunger, health care at the federal level, state level and in larger communities.

As you see the dollars mounting up and what could have been done with them, weigh also in your mind the over 3000 American soldiers who have died, the many thousands more who have been maimed for life and the 100,000 (many estimates have reached this number) Iraqis who have been killed.

What you see is what happens when an electorate becomes lazy, uninformed and afraid. What you see was entirely avoidable had a relatively few people taken the time and made the effort to rise above intellectual sloth and learned about issues and had they not allowed themselves to be brow beaten into FEAR by a well-planned Bush League campaign to do exactly that.

Looking at those numbers, can we not see what we have done? What WE have DONE!

			2005-12-24 Editorial Bernard J. Fine Cost of the War Life, for many Americans is a wearying trudge through time, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year. Sometimes it seems as if their every effort to get a little bit ahead is stymied from its very inception. Many of them have no great aspirations for themselves or even for their children; all they want is a little bit of respite from their struggle for existence in a country that purports to be “an equal opportunity” employer. After generations of toiling in these families, hope hardly springs eternal. They are beaten down and the more beaten down they become, the worse it seems to get. You see, some folks at high government levels have the distorted view that some people are more equal than others. The Republican congress, for example, in an effort to help redress the huge federal deficit that they have caused by approving an illegal war and granting tax reductions to the extremely wealthy have just passed a bill that will cut all sorts of basic benefits, for example, food stamps for needy individuals and college scholarships for needy kids trying to break out of the mold of poverty. These congressional embarrassments-as-human-beings also have cut or denied benefits for the very veterans that have carried out their misguided war. They have fouled our environment at a cost to the country that has yet to be determined, if such determination is even possible. They have made our workplaces less safe and have stiffed the poor and elders by providing minimal and overly complex health plans and benefits. Their corporate affiliates who provide them with campaign funds and other amenities, apparently unable to run their enterprises without special favors from the government, have poured millions of dollars into their pockets while at the same time campaigning against such basic poverty safety nets as raising the minimum wages of their employee-serfs. Unions? Forget it. Serfs can’t have unions; they may rise up and, heaven forbid, demand living wages. So here we are, folks. Christmas, 2005. We’ve spent five years in the Bush Leagues waiting for some kind of Major League human good to emerge from the slime and muck But all we’ve gotten is more of the same second rate governance, if we can call what the bushits have done, governance. But, as we try to scrape the ethical and moral muck and mire off, wash our hands and appear presentable for the holidays - head into our so-called “New Year’s Resolutions,” - we have to face up to one bitter fact, friends. We caused a lot of it. It’s our fault. We allowed ourselves to be shat upon. We . . . the majority (or close to the majority) of us... voted for second rate governance. We were too trusting, too passive, too imperceptive, too busy doing our own things to bother. Above all, we were TOO AFRAID. Edward R. Murrow spoke to the FEAR point in discussing the McCarthy era: Go to http://www.otr.com/murrow.html and click on “Murrow on the McCarthy Hearings. How the nation needs another Ed. Murrow to keep it straight. _____________________________ Finally, a present for you all; an interesting exercise for you, particularly those of you who voted for Bush and/or the illegal war in Iraq. Go to the excellent website, The Cost of War: http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option =com_wrapper&Itemid=182 There you will find a running total of the costs of the war in Iraq. Not only that. Here you can apportion that total, as it continues to run, to your state and in some cases to your community. You can also see what that total would amount to when apportioned to education, hunger, health care at the federal level, state level and in larger communities. As you see the dollars mounting up and what could have been done with them, weigh also in your mind the over 3000 American soldiers who have died, the many thousands more who have been maimed for life and the 100,000 (many estimates have reached this number) Iraqis who have been killed. What you see is what happens when an electorate becomes lazy, uninformed and afraid. What you see was entirely avoidable had a relatively few people taken the time and made the effort to rise above intellectual sloth and learned about issues and had they not allowed themselves to be brow beaten into FEAR by a well-planned Bush League campaign to do exactly that. Looking at those numbers, can we not see what we have done? What WE have DONE!
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