Ebony's Pearls

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“Afghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school. Iraq has gone from a brutal dictatorship and a sworn enemy of America to an Arab democracy at the heart of the Middle East and a friend of the United States.”

What world is he living in? Does he not read the news, speak with our soldiers?

“America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil.”

It has indeed been 7 years since an attack on US soil. But, lest we forget, it was 60 years since the last attack before that on American soil. It could very well be another half dozen decades before we are attacked again, and it would have little or nothing to do with Bush and his restrictive and anti-American policies.

Throughout American history, most of the world has been enslaved, ruled by despots or tyrants, or struggled with anarchy. Forcing the rest of the world to become just like us is to force America into an endless and universal war that will drain us of people, resources, and the goodwill of other countries. They will never know when we will consider them “the enemy” because they aren’t democratic enough or free enough or we disagree with their duly elected choices. They will wonder when we will turn the machines of war against them.

Democracy alone is no guarantee for peace. Some of the worst tyrants were elected all fair and square.

Worse yet, Bush’s quest for universal peace instead of American safety has led us into one international failure after another. Bush’s “freedom crusade” foundered in the Middle East, in Iraq. Oh sure, the “surge” worked, but all it did was offer a brief stabilization in Iraq; it didn’t produce peace or democracy. Bush hasn’t brought freedom or peace to China, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Burma, Russia, or Africa, to name a few places in need of it. This is because peace and freedom are qualities that must come from within the countries, supported by the citizens of those lands. It cannot be imposed from outside.

America is not a conquering nation and our recent wars support that. Perhaps, if we turn on currently friendly nations, they will merely laugh at us because we are proving to be ineffective at wars. If we’d had a clear and defensive objective, fully supporting our soldiery, this might have been different, but not only did Bush start several wars, he didn’t commit to them or encourage us to commit to them.

Perhaps, with a new President, we will stop this nonsensical “freedom crusade” and repair the damages within our borders. We can’t be forever spilling our resources across the world if we don’t take time to replenish. War was never meant to be an unending activity, but a matter of last resort, pushed hard and decisively. Bush didn’t push hard or decisively. His wars were tentative and operated on a shoestring in the front lines and without strong support from home.

“The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.”

OMG! He actually said we are engaged in a religious war. We need to put an end to that right this second! We are not a conquering nation and we are not going to re-enact the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Have we learned nothing from history?

“This is the belief that gave birth to our nation.”

No. No it didn’t. We did not fight England over a religious belief that we were supposed to be free, we fought because we felt King George was placing an undue burden on us and we wanted out from under the yoke of a quite secular nature. Read the Declaration of Independence. It’s all spelled out quite explicitly right there.

“When people live in freedom, they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror.”

Oh yes, that’s why the Hamas won the election, and why Ahmadinejad was elected, and Hitler, and the list goes on.

“So around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity.”

We can do that best by leading by example. We must demonstrate among ourselves how liberty, rights, and dignity work so others may be inspired and emulate us. We can do that by offering humanitarian aid around the world. We can do that by sharing technology and educating others so they can learn for themselves. We can’t do it by killing off anyone who disagrees with us.

“We are standing with dissidents and young democracies, providing AIDS medicine to bring dying patients back to life, and sparing mothers and babies from malaria.”

And we’re doing this – how? By denying humanitarian aid and funds to countries that don’t comply 100% with certain Christian policies regarding women’s health care, and by refusing to allow DEET impregnated mosquito nets to be sold or given to people in malarial areas. Oh yes, we’re really helping here.

“For eight years, we have also strived to expand opportunity and hope here at home.”

By making air travel difficult, burdensome, expensive, and even impossible for large portions of our citizenry. By deregulating banks and lending institutions so our country is buckling under crushing debts and rapidly expanding homelessness among our people. By outsourcing our jobs so we have a skyrocketing unemployment. I see that.

“Across our country, students are rising to meet higher standards in public schools.”

Ayup, that’s why magnet schools have had to lower their admissions standards and why colleges have to offer remedial classes. I see that, too.

“A new Medicare prescription drug benefit is bringing peace of mind to seniors and the disabled.”

Mostly because they’re either opting out of the system because it’s difficult to understand and made deliberately confusing or they’re dying off since they can’t afford those life-saving drugs under these plans that don’t pay well at all or refuse to pay at all. You get real peaceful in the grave, you do.

“Every taxpayer pays lower income taxes.”

Perhaps. I am still paying 40% in income taxes, and I’m also paying all those other taxes that aren’t lumped under income taxes – sales taxes, gasoline taxes, ad valorem taxes, property taxes, hotel taxes, utility use taxes – and anything they feel they can get away with taxing – food, for example, and they want to add additional taxes to “luxury foods” and “fat” foods. When you are quartered and dollared in taxes, a slight reduction in income taxes is barely noticeable. It’s like when you get a pay raise that doesn’t quite cover the extra cost of the so-called benefits you have to pay for, so your net take-home after the pay raise is less than what you brought home before the pay raise. I can do without that sort of finances.

“The addicted and suffering are finding new hope through faith-based programs.”

But only if they belong to that particular religion or convert to it. If you aren’t a member of that religion, you can freeze and starve on the streets for all those faith-based programs care. They’ve got their money, why should they spend it on people who need it?

“Vulnerable human life is better protected.”

Um, yeah. Uh huh. So, women, who are vulnerable after a rape, can be denied health care because it squicks some health care provider out to even look at her. I certainly see how this vulnerable human life is better protected.

“Funding for our veterans has nearly doubled.”

Really? Who’s getting it? I don’t see the veterans I know benefiting from it. I know several who are still struggling to get disability and are being either dismissed or given inadequate care.

“America’s air, water, and lands are measurably cleaner.”

Right. That, too. That’s why we have more ozone alert days and why we have such high drug dosages in our water. Maybe you think all the anti-depressants in our drinking water will cause us to overlook everything else and live all “happy happy joy joy”?

“And the Federal bench includes wise new members like Justice Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.”

That remains to be seen. If they work out for the benefit of the country, then that may be one of the few good things Bush has done.

“When challenges to our prosperity emerged, we rose to meet them. Facing the prospect of a financial collapse, we took decisive measures to safeguard our economy.”

No, you took decisive measures to ensure these agencies had plenty of bonus money for their already bloated CEOs, with little or no oversight or review. The rest of us were left either paying for this mess or screwed – or both!

“These are very tough times for hardworking families, but the toll would be far worse if we had not acted.”

Oh yes, I can see how you and your buddies might be in financial trouble is you hadn’t dug deep into our pockets to take money we needed to spend on food and housing for ourselves, just so you could keep your multiple homes and private jets.

“All Americans are in this together.”

Here’s something I can agree to. Since you don’t consider yourself one of us (as proven by your many speeches where you separated yourself out by saying “you” instead of “we”), you are outside of the distress you’ve caused.

“Like all who have held this office before me, I have experienced setbacks.”

But none so encompassing and global.

“There are things I would do differently if given the chance.”

Only because you got caught.

“I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right.”

Yes, but you see, you weren’t elected to follow your conscience, but ours, collectively. And you ignored us most of your 8 years in office.

“You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.”

Tough decisions are not necessarily good ones. Being willing to make tough decisions that don’t affect you and your buddies in negative ways aren’t really tough decisions. You aren’t risking your life in the wars you created. You aren’t losing any of your homes due to policies you enacted. You aren’t losing your job because you created regulations that allowed your job to be outsourced. You aren’t the one denied the skies because you created agencies too hastily and with no oversight.

“While our nation is safer than it was seven years ago, the gravest threat to our people remains another terrorist attack.”

That we are safer as a nation is still up for serious debate. We have always lived under the threat of a terrorist attack and nothing you, as President, have done has changed that. It’s like telling people that the umbrellas you sold them will prevent krakens from attacking them, and you point to the fact that no one in America has been attacked by a kraken as proof.

“But we must reject isolationism and its companion, protectionism. Retreating behind our borders would only invite danger. In the 21st century, security and prosperity at home depend on the expansion of liberty abroad. If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led.”

It’s not isolationism to replenish our strength and restore our country and anyone who thinks that taking some time to repair damages within our borders is isolationist is working from a very limited point of view.

“If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led.”

Not true. I can think of several other countries that would on behalf of freedom. We are not the only ones and we need to get over ourselves.

“As we address these challenges - and others we cannot foresee tonight - America must maintain our moral clarity.”

No, we must maintain our ethical clarity. If your morals include being able to condone torture, then I want nothing to do with your morals. Ethics and morals are two different things, even if they sometimes appear to overlap. Perhaps that’s been part of the reason you’ve been struggling so hard to see where you went wrong – you have conflated ethics and morals, and your morals suck.

“But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise.”

Governments can’t use moral words like “good” and “evil”, they must instead look to consequences and effects, and if compromising with a country whose behavior is questionable will lead to a greater benefit for the world as a whole, then so be it. We’ve teamed up with other countries to accomplish worthy goals before, and we must have the freedom to do so again. We need to stop conflating moral and ethical, and remove religion from politics.

“Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere.”

So how do we explain the innocents our country has murdered?

“Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right.”

As a religious goal, I agree wholeheartedly. As a political goal, for the good of our country, I must disagree.

“I have confidence in the promise of America because I know the character of our people.”

Really? Your actions speak so much louder than your words. You have mistrusted the average American, binding us with searches, seizures, imprisonments, confiscations of our goods, and more. If you truly believed in the character of Americans, you wouldn’t have taken away so many of our freedoms and rights.

“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as your president.”

Pity we can’t reciprocate the sentiment. It has not been a privilege to have you serve as our President because you never once acted like a President.

“And I will always be honored to carry a title that means more to me than any other: citizen of the United States of America.”

Pretty words, but we know you don’t mean them. You have repeatedly distanced yourself from the rest of us throughout your terms as President.

“Good night.”

And may we add: “Don’t let the door scrape your heel on the way out.”

Obama may not be much different. Time will tell on that, and he’s off to a rocky start. We can hope that a different person will change things in a positive way. We only know at this point that more of Bush’s type of decisions would destroy us as a nation.