Sunday, March 25, 2007

The end is near...


I have generally been too selfish to write about the really important things in life... and this is no different. From my perspective, I get to see a slightly larger picture of the political situation in which the United States has placed itself for purely self-preserving reasons. True, many Americans are in the same boat—having come from abroad, or keeping an open mind to the interests of other people. Many do so for equally self-serving reasons: economic, political, social, familial, &c, &c.

From where I sit, politics in the Unites States seems like the proverbial football game played between the 49-yard lines. Republicans, Democrats, you all look alike to me. On a more personal level: donkeys or elephants? Couldn't you at least pick American animals? That said, there is at least one thing I find commendable: your ability to find the slightest differentiating characteristic and magnify it beyond measure or proportion to give yourselves a sense of common identity—a dichotomy of sorts—to which you cling with the same fervent mindlessness as do football fanatics, bodies covered completely in paint, beer in hand, screaming senselessly, craving victory more than sense and forgetting all about fairness. This is commendable because it makes you accessible; this is exactly what happens the world over in soccer or that thing the British play that looks like baseball :-) We are all crazy. We are all fanatics. This is good. It gives the rest of the world a bit of hope you will one day realize the sun does set on your empire—like every other empire before.

And still, I cannot help but think the world would be a better place without George’s finger on the button. I give him this: when he speaks, I sincerely believe he honestly believes he’s being truthful, honest, and as complete as is advisable for the president of the United States. This is why I have no reservations when I say that I am in opposition to his point of view; his view is clear, and in my view, sufficiently wrong to merit redirecting the country’s efforts in a direction less destructive, less self-destructive, less mutually destructive. He is not evil, as some would say. He is not stupid, as many have told me. He is most assuredly not ineffectual.

He is just a man who should know better.

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