Sunday, September 18, 2005

IF ANYONE GETS TO INTERVIEW JEB'S SON JOHN ELLIS BUSH, MAYBE THEY CAN ASK HIM WHAT THE NOBLE CAUSE IS

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A couple years ago I had a most unlikely friendship with a pretty violent, even bloodthirsty young man from rural North Carolina. He was a marine who had just gotten back from Iraq and was stationed at Camp Pendelton in Southern California. Except that he was completely anti-racist, everything about him seemed like an unfortunate stereotype I had avoided my whole life. Of course as I got to know him better a lot of the stereotype stuff went away-- although I never quite got over the fact that he ate all his meals in fast food restaurants. And that his idea of a good time on the weekends was to go out with some buddies, get plastered, spend all their money in strip joints and then go pick a fight with a bunch of Navy guys. Anyway, Brian came to mind today because of all the press about the latest Bush to make the news-- a real chip off his uncle's block. 21 year old John Ellis Bush (son of Jeb and that shoplifting mother, brother of the pill-poppin'/perscription forgin'/crack usin' Noelle, nephew of a bankrobber, etc, etc) was booked for resisting arrest and public intoxication. Somehow our Society judges that John Ellis is from a "nice" family or a "good" family or something ("wealthy, powerful family" might be a more apt description) and he's gonna get a (very gentle) slap on the wrist. Brian wasn't. His family was dirt poor and had no connections. So when he got in a little trouble, at a slightly younger age than John Ellis, he was given a different set of choices-- jail or the military. He "volunteered" for the Marine Corps.

Brian never gave any thought to Bush's "noble cause." He kind of liked Bush because he was convinced that Bush was "pro-military" and gave them pay raises. (He never voted though.) But Brian wasn't looking forward to going back to Iraq because of any of that. He just liked killing. Eventually that basic brutish attitude was too much for our friendship to sustain. John Ellis, on the other hand, must have thought about the "noble cause." I'm sure it's discussed at family get-togethers, right? No doubt 21 year old John Ellis has had every opportunity to have it explained to him. So how come he's roaming around the streets of Austin drunk and fighting with policemen instead of fighting against terrorists in Iraq? And did you read Cindy Sheehan's contribution to Buzzflash today? It's called WHAT NOBLE CAUSE?


It has been one month, one week, and 4 days since I sat in a ditch in Crawford, Tx. My request was very simple: I wanted to speak to the man who has sent over a million of our young people over to fight, kill, and die in a country that was absolutely no threat to the United States of America. I wanted to ask him: "What is the Noble Cause that you keep talking about?"

Well, we all know now that George Bush never came down the road to talk to me. Thank God! Many people have been saying that I am the "spark," "catalyst," "face of the anti-war movement" etc. I beg to differ. George Bush and his arrogant advisers are the spark that lit the prairie fire of peace activism that has swept over America and the entire world. If he had met with me that fateful day in August it would not have been good for him (because I knew he was going to lie and I would have advertised that fact) but it would have had less of an impact on the peace movement if he had.

Upon reflection on the events of this past August, I have come up with two reasons why George could not meet with me: He is a coward and there is no Noble Cause. If George had as much courage and integrity in his entire body as Casey had in his pinky, he would have met with me. But, ironically, if George had that much courage and integrity he never would have preemptively invaded a practically defenseless country. His sycophantic cabinet and hangers-on are also incontrovertible evidence that he is a coward. No one better dare disagree with him. How dare a mom from Vacaville, Ca. have the nerve to contradict the emperor of Prairie Chapel Road!!??

All of the "Noble Cause" reasons that George has variously given for the invasion and continued illegal occupation of a sovereign nation are also patently false and ridiculous. He has been claiming recently (since he admitted a long time ago that Iraq had no WMDs or links to 9/11) that this occupation of Iraq is spreading "freedom and democracy" in the Middle East. Really? Does he have any idea that the constitution that the Iraqi governing body is working on is based on Sharia and that it undermines the freedoms of women? Does he realize that for over 50 years women had equal rights with men in Iraq? Does George realize (of course he does) that the puppet government the US put in place in Iraq is comprised of the very same people who encouraged the invasion to line their own pockets? What kind of freedom and democracy is this? If George is so hell bent on freedom and democracy for Iraq, then why doesn't he practice it here in America? Up to 62 percent of Americans believe that what George has done in Iraq is a mistake and we should begin to bring our troops home. Well, George, 62 percent is a clear majority and you should begin to listen to the people who pay your salary.

He has also claimed that what we are doing in Iraq is "making America safer." Another statement that is easier to disprove than the "freedom and democracy" baloney. To disprove this little bit of deception, all we have to do is look at the Gulf States. Ask the people of New Orleans, especially, if they feel safer. By misappropriating all of our personnel, equipment and pouring billions of dollars into the sands of Iraq, George has made our country more vulnerable to attack by outside forces. Also, from the cold and callous statements of people like Michael Chertoff and George's own mama, the people of New Orleans seem to be "acceptable" collateral damage to the ruling elite of this country. It is my humble opinion that the only thing that will make America safer is to get George and his unfeeling and dangerously incompetent supporters out of our White House.

We all now know the reason that we are in Iraq. George told us so from a break he was taking from Crawford in San Diego on the same day that Katrina was hitting the Gulf States: it is for oil. It is so George, Dick, and their evil buddies can rape more profits from our children's flesh and blood. This is not a Noble Cause, as a matter of fact, it is the most ignoble cause for a war that has ever been waged. We as Americans knew either in the front of our brains, or in the back of our consciousness, that this war was to feed the corporations. 15 brave young Americans have been killed so far this month while our attention has been focused, and rightfully so, on the Gulf States. Over 200 innocent and unfortunate Iraqis have been killed in this week alone. How much more blood are we as Americans going to allow George, Congress, and the corporations to spill before we demand an end to this war and an accounting for the lives that have been needlessly ruined?

It is also time to stop hemorrhaging money in Iraq. I witnessed the abject poverty and sense of abandonment the less fortunate people of New Orleans were living in even before the levees broke. It is time to start pumping hope back into our own communities. It is time to start taking care of Americans. How many millions of our tax dollars are we going to allow George, Congress and the corporations to misuse and waste in Iraq?

Not one more drop of blood. Not one more life. Not one more penny for killing.

If you love our country and want to see a change for the better, come to DC on the 24th of this month and stand up and be counted for peace. The entire world is counting on you.

1 Comments:

At 6:53 AM, Blogger DownWithTyranny said...

CINDY SHEEHAN STILL SPEAKS FOR ME-- LOUDER THAN EVER!

Wake Up
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 19 September 2005
So we have come to cash this check - a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

-- MLK, Jr. Aug. 28, 1963, I Have a Dream speech

What Bush's Katrina shows once again is that my son died for nothing. If you listen to Bush – and fewer and fewer are, thank goodness - we are in Iraq in part due to 9/11. All our president has been talking about has been protecting this country since 9/11. That's why people voted for him in the last election. Katrina shows it's all as sham, a fraud, a disaster as large as Katrina itself.

Hundreds of billions and tens of thousands of innocent lives wasted later what have we achieved? Nothing. Casey died for nothing and Bush says others have to die for those that have died already.

Enough, George! What is disgusting is not, as the first lady says, criticism of you, but rather the crimes you've committed against this country and our sons and daughters. Stop hiding behind your twisted idea of God and stop destroying this country.

This week I arrive in Washington DC to begin my Vigil at the White House just like I did in Texas. But this time I'll be joined by Katrina victims as well. In your America we are all victims. The failed bookends of your Presidency are Iraq and Katrina.

It is time for all of us to stand up and be counted: to show the media, Congress, and this inept, corrupt, and criminal administration that we mean business. It is time to get off of our collective behinds to show the people who are running our country into oblivion that we will stand for it no longer. We want our country back and we want our nation's young people back home, safe and sound, on our shores to help protect America. That it is time for a change in our country's "leadership." That we will never go away until our dreams are reality.

We have so-called leaders in our country who are waiting for the correct "politically expedient" time to speak up and out against the occupation of Iraq. It is no sweat for our politicos to wait for the right time, because not one of them has a child in harm's way. I don't care if the politician is a Democrat or a Republican, this is not about politics. Being a strong leader to guide our country out of the quagmire and mistake of Iraq will require people of courage and determination to stand up and say: "I don't care if I win the next election, people are dying in Iraq everyday and families are being decimated." We as the 62% of Americans who want our troops to begin coming home will follow such a leader down the difficult, but oh so rewarding, path of peace with justice.

It is no longer time for the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. It never has been the time for that. Our "now" is so fiercely urgent. Like my daughter, Carly, wrote in the last verse of her A Nation Rocked to Sleep poem:
Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep? Our leaders want to keep us numb so the pain won't be too deep, But if we the people allow them to continue, another mother will weep, Have you heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep?

Wake up: See you in DC on the 24th.

 

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