A Little Patience
February 8th, 2006 | Posted in Politics, Society
Is waiting out the storm the only choice we have? In William Rivers Pitt’s piece, The State of the Union, published on t r u t h o u t, he suggests exactly this and offers a quote by our third President. Rivers says, “If there is hope to be found in all this, it is in the words of Thomas Jefferson, written 208 years ago after the passage of the Sedition Act.
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.
I highlight one particular sentence in the passage because of its irony and lasting nature. Surely our situation now should be different than it was over two hundred years ago. Have we not evolved as a society? Two hundred years ago this country was an infant, fighting for the very rights we seem to be losing every single day.
Americans killed to be free from religious oppression. Now they have “intelligent design” to contend with at every turn, and religion - one particular religion - infiltrating the very fabric of our government. I’m an adamant proponent of free speech, but seeing commercials about Jesus during the Super Bowl is disconcerting. Evidence of a much different country than was envisioned by so many of our great leaders is mounting every day. A recent post on Change for Missouri led me to these unnerving tidbit of information from the New York Times.
Tidbit One:
“It is not the job of public-affairs officers,” Dr. Griffin wrote in an e-mail message to the agency’s 19,000 employees, “to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA’s technical staff.”
The statement came six days after The New York Times quoted the scientist, James E. Hansen, as saying he was threatened with “dire consequences” if he continued to call for prompt action to limit emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. He and intermediaries in the agency’s 350-member public-affairs staff said the warnings came from White House appointees in NASA headquarters.
Tidbit Two:
In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word “theory” after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The Times.
The Big Bang is “not proven fact; it is opinion,” Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, “It is not NASA’s place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.”
The Times article points out a few other instances of absolute infantile behavior on the part of the White House and can be viewed here.
How can these people operate like this? The above is just proof that one of many viruses released by the people running this country is taking a hold, and to everyone’s detriment.
The following information comes from Pitt’s article, referenced above. Exxon Mobil made $32 billion in profit last year, the most money ever made by an American company . . . ever. Programmatic cuts for health care, child support and educational subsidies totaling $40 billion are suggested in Bush’s latest budget. All this while the rich are keeping $750 billion in tax cuts. Over 37 million Americans live in poverty, including 13 million children. 47 million Americans have no health insurance. More than one in four families with children make less than $30,000 a year.
Ladies and gentlemen, the results of compassionate conservatism!
The bad news can be overwhelming but progress is being made. Democratic candidates have very good chances of winning pivotal elections in key states; former military officials are vying for at least ten seats in the midterm elections and hope to challenge the war in Iraq. Independent voters are starting to lean back to the left.
Jefferson continued:
If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.
But patience doesn’t mean inaction. Take a deep breath, and as Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world”. Time will take care of the rest.
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