AN UTTER FAILURE

George W. Bush is an utter failure. Employment, health care, environment, economy, even the basic task of protecting the very lives and well-being of his fellow citizens, have all collapsed under this reign.

Literally, Bush has failed to promote the general welfare and well-being of the citizens of this country, and by extension, the citizens of the world.

Are you safer today?

Are you better paid?

Do you have a secure Pension?

Is your job secure?

Is your Children's education available and of quality?

Is the air your breath, the water your drink, the soil that grows your food, healthier? More free of pollution and toxic waster?

Has America made the world a better place to live?

Is America, itself, a better place to live?

By any proven criteria, by any acceptible standard, the answer is 'no'. Only an absolutely blind fool can believe they are better off today then when Clinton was in power. In every way imaginable, a citizen in this country is far worse off than we have been in decades.

What happened?

It is not enough to say that American was 'taken over' by neocon's and republicans. That is not sufficient. What happens in our lives is our responsibilty. Yours and mine. We make our own reality. I believe that one of the tasks of our existence is to define our own reality in such a way that we grow as beings. If I can become kinder, gentler, more compassionate, more understanding, more accepting, then I have grown as a human being. If I become bitter, angry, cynical, hateful, spiteful, vengence seeking, parsimonious, then I have not grown as a human being. It is far more difficult to do the former over the latter. It is easy to be angry and selfish. It is hard to be humorous and generous.

When bad things happen, and they do, the most honest phrase in our world is, "Shit Happens". It does, with alarming frequency. But, it is isn't what happens to us that matters, it is what we do with it that counts. My task, my obligation as a human being is to find out how I can transcend this 'shit' without losing my own soul.

I believe in a soul, I believe that we have an energy, a beingness, a living spark that transcends this mortal plane of existence. Part of this 'soul' is a certain set of standards that are universal measurements of transcendence. The ability to find compassion for your enemies; the abilty to share and be generous when you have little or you have much; the ability to touch another with kindess even though you will gain no benefit directly; the ability to let go of past hurts and real or imagined harm done to us, and attempt to understand the being who hurt us.

"We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love."

Martin Luther King, Jr., Give Us the Ballot, 17 May 1957

"Sooner or later, all the peoples of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love..."
A Call of Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. Address delivered in Acceptance of Nobel Peace Prize, 10 December 1964, Oslo, Norway

The more I witness George W. Bush, the NeoConservatives, the Fundamentalist Religions, the Republican Party, the Rich and Wealthy, the more I realize that they are all totally wrong. And I realize that we, each of us, have failed to as well. These entities exist because we too fell victim to the the trap of ego and hubris. We allowed Bush to gain power because we have become blind to what it means to be a human being. We ceased to grow and reach, to expand our ability to understand and to love. We became fixed on our own bellies, fascinated by the products we can possess, enamored of our own image of us. Bush is a reflection of where we are as a living species. Bush is an example of everything that has gone wrong with American Society. In a microcosm, he is an embodiement of the lie that 'rugged individualism and self-reliance' are the finest attributes of Capitalism and America. Bush is a creature of nepotism, soulless greed, and a family system that values power over principle. Bush is a $5.00 whore who will do whatever is asked, no matter how degrading, as long as he gets the money, or the power.

This life, this existence, this beingness cannot be about personal power or wealth. None of this is lasting or of any real intrinsic value. The 'value' of gold or property, or even power is an assigned value without any real meaning. What is valuable now, may not be so tomorrow. Wealth is always transitory and ephemeral and artificial because it has nothing what so ever to do with human transcendence. The task of a human being is to learn how to be a human being in context with the universe. The task of humanity is to explore, and create, and wonder, and share. And the task is to define those qualities that make us special: Compassion, generosity, altruism, curiosity, self-expression, and cooperation.

Any religion or party or way of life that call for the exclusion of others, that calls for the segregation of people from each other, that calls for the distinction of "I am better than you" is a misunderstanding of what life is all about. The wealthy hole up in their compounds and gate out the rest of humanity, the fundamentalist religions kill and persecute those who do not believe as they do, the political parties reward their cronies and friends at the expense of the greater good. For these people it isn't about how "We can explore the universe", it is about 'how can I profit from it?" For the soulless, the capitalists, it is about killing a thousand year old pine to build a sundeck, or enslaving another being to bend to my whims.

“. . . the mysteries, on belief in which theology would hang the destinies of mankind, are cunningly devised fables whose origin and growth are traceable to the age of Ignorance, the mother of credulity.”

-- Edward Clodd, cited in A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists by Joseph McCabe (1920)

Religion was created to establish social and behavioral norms primarily, secondarily, it was to describe the indiscribable. Religion is a cultural artifact designed by men to establish compliance to certain rules and expectations. It has little to do with God, or the worship of God. But the ancient humans knew that if you cloak a law with God-like powers, it tends to be followed. It, seemingly, is not enough to say, "Do this for the common good". Instead, there must be an evangelical bullwhip to encourage compliance.

Politics has become the handmaiden of the rich and powerful and is in place to further enrich or empower these chosen few. Politics has nothing to do with the well being of man. Politics has nothing to do with justice. Politics has nothing to do with right or wrong. It is a tool to keep the powerful in power, and to provide a means by which others can become powerful in their turn.

That is why George W. Bush and his ilk, have lost the very essence of what it means to be a human being, they are so weak that the accumulation of personal power over others is more important than life itself. Their use of religion and politics to enslave, corrupt, and punish is antithetical to everything that will raise humanity above the stink of warfare, violence, and ignorance.

George W. Bush is an utter failure, but he represents us.

JMW, 8/1/05