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79 & Still Dreaming
I’ve given up trying to break into the closed shops of publishers and agents.
Therefore, I request that you be the judge of my writing. Oops! Since been published: A Tale of Love&War available at www.publishamerica.com
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Richard R. Kennedy, retired teacher
August 1, 2002
Where art thou, Adlai?
That the Jingoistic sword rattling of the administration goes by virtually unnoticed until the current foreign relations hearings strikes me as deplorable. Had Clinton or a Gore administration tried to sell the nation on this Un-American preemptive strike, all hell would break loose generated by Republicans. That the Democratic party is sitting on its hands is a national disgrace to the two party system.
This is a personal matter between George W and Saddam. George wants to rectify his father’s mistake at all costs — to hell with the consequences. Otherwise he would be preemptively launching attacks on the other members of the “axis” as well. The sad irony here is that the good old USA initiated the proliferation of arms since Hiroshima — who are we to tell other nations that a massive arsenal for “defense” is unacceptable, especially in this case when in the 80s we armed Iraq to the teeth? More important, is that a super power should exercise restraint when not openly provoked; here, it is the opposite: we are provoking the enemy.
If the weak-kneed intelligence by some miracle should pin-point the smoking gun, then do what Israel did in 1980 and take out the munitions plants of “massive destruction.” But an invasion is bereft of justification — ludicrous, foolhardy and dangerous — and losing sight of the main goal in fighting terrorism. However, terroristic Hussein is to his own people, it would not compare to the nightmare of getting rid of a secular government for a fanatic Islamic rule and cousin to Iran.
The administration policy is nothing but another Bay of Pigs on a massive scale. Whether they face the risk of being labeled cowards, idealistic, hand-wringing liberals, the Democratic Party should find its soul and stand up for a nation that is in dire need of recovering ideals.
Hypocrisy of a Nation
In the McCarthyism inferno of the 50s there was as much outrage over the insertion of "under God" as there is now in the omission of the phrase in this era of religious righteousness. The irony in face of 9/11 is that religious zealots are just as militant in a political sense as Islam is in reality. For congress to lead the nation in a childish demonstration by pledging allegiance with emphasis “under God” is tantamount to Islamic adherents saying they are of a peaceful faith or the demoniac money-changers on Wall Street uttering “in God we trust.”
Except for the equally zealous humanists and atheists who demonstrate blind and ironic faith in their disbelief , the nation should know that this is a non-issue ineluctably overturned by judicial wisdom because the issue is frivolous and unworthy of serious consideration. As Melville once said "the chips of creation have been carted away" and all its imperfections stand immutable.
Nevertheless, the rage in the country is symbolic of the danger of a nation preoccupied with things that matter least. In the 50's the symbolism of God was in direct contradiction to communism under godlessness. The zealous adherents could have just as easily inserted “one nation, under the principles of democracy, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” But no, this nation ever melodramatically undivided as currently in things that mean little while the nation burns — literally in Colorado and Arizona and symbolically in the Catholic stronghold of Cleveland.[ see catholic ]
Year after year we acquiesce to the terrorism of fires and floods as though unrelated to homeland security. We are most concerned over a rote phrase in school that our children say daily while the educational system stews in the nation’s neglect. Hello?
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