[WCUSP] A Deep, Deep Breath

[yvonne simmons]

> Subject: A Deep, Deep Breath
> 
> 
>  
> QUOTE: "George W. Bush remains an incurious front
> man whose very 
> existence in that seat of power will stand as a
> constant threat to the 
> safety and security of this nation and the world
> entire."
>  
>
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>  
> www.truthout.com <http://www.truthout.com/>
> 
> Thursday 09 November 2006
> 
> Perspective
> 
> A Deep, Deep Breath
> 
> By William Rivers Pitt
> 
> Let us be absolutely clear on what has taken place.
> This was not simply 
> a midterm election, not just a historic running of
> the table, not just a 
> scathing repudiation of virtually everything the
> Bush administration has 
> stood for since they swaggered into Washington six
> long years ago.
> 
> It was so very much more than this.
> 
> The back of the "Neo-conservative Revolution" has
> been broken, perhaps 
> not for all time -- simply because nothing truly
> evil ever really dies 
> -- but for a good long while. The ideology foisted
> upon an unwilling 
> public by the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz,
> Perle, Ledeen and 
> the rest, the ideology that has given us slaughter
> in Iraq and a ravaged 
> reputation abroad, has been exposed and eviscerated.
> The Project for the 
> New American Century, and all that was spawned from
> it, has been 
> relegated, for now, to the dustbin of history.
> 
> As unutterably massive as this is, it still does not
> capture the 
> entirety of the event.
> 
> There are many things that make the United States of
> America unique, but 
> one stands out above all. Every other nation on
> Earth has within it 
> cultural, religious or historical threads, often
> stretching back 
> hundreds if not thousands of years, which bind its
> people together.
> 
> When you see the Orangemen march in Ireland, when
> you see the Serbs mark 
> the anniversary of a massacre that happened 900
> years ago, when you see 
> the British celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, you are
> witnessing an echo out of 
> time that, for good or ill, silently reminds the
> people of those 
> countries that they have a shared heritage which
> stretches back dozens 
> of generations.
> 
> The United States stands apart from this. We are an
> invention, the 
> product of an idea, the children of a dream. We come
> from everywhere, 
> and though our history is stained with far too much
> blood shed during 
> the unfolding of our own history, the sum total is
> an amalgamation of 
> the best and worst of the human experience. Nothing
> like this has ever 
> existed anywhere, ever.
> 
> All we have to tie together this amazing and
> confusing experiment are a 
> few old pieces of paper. The Declaration of
> Independence, the 
> Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the only
> truths that each and 
> every citizen of this country have completely in
> common. They are our 
> unifying theme, our organizing principle, and we
> share this together 
> because the basic idea was, and remains, that these
> belong to us and 
> defend us and set us, now and forever, free.
> 
> It was not always so, and remains today a dream
> unfulfilled, but in the 
> end, that was the genius of it all. These three
> documents, and the 
> ideology behind them, were created to be
> self-improving entities. Much 
> remains to be done to move along the "more perfect
> Union" Lincoln spoke 
> of, and that work will never be completed ... and
> that is the point. 
> These things are ours, and they are all that we
> truly have to bind us 
> together, and our purpose as citizens is to bend our
> will toward the 
> creation of that more perfect Union.
> 
> Before the sun came up on Wednesday, that shared
> heritage had been under 
> a savage, unrelenting attack by men and women who
> have no respect for 
> the idea and the dream which makes us all that we
> are as a people. The 
> right to a trial has been shattered, the right to
> stand before your 
> accuser has been removed, the right to be secure in
> home and person from 
> governmental intrusion has been swept by the boards,
> and all by a 
> president who once referred to the Constitution as
> "just a God damned 
> piece of paper."
> 
> These cancers have not been cut out simply because
> of an election, of 
> course. But the first, vital step towards repairing
> our shared heritage 
> was taken on Tuesday night, simply because we have
> at long last returned 
> to the basic Constitutional requirement of checks
> and balances within 
> this government. No longer will the best interests
> of the people be 
> slapped aside by people who have no patience for the
> process that was 
> laid out by wiser and better men. Some logs have
> been thrown in the 
> road, and for now, a real chance for healing has
> been gifted to us by 
> the very democratic institutions these people would
> shun and shatter. 
> The power of the vote, so often maligned and
> disdained, has been restored.
> 
> A more perfect Union, indeed.
> 
> Much remains to be done. The departure of Donald
> Rumsfeld from the 
> Pentagon will not heal Iraq, nor will it bring back
> to life the soldiers 
> and civilians who have died thanks to the hubris of
> others. The 
> cornering of Dick Cheney has not sapped him of his
> power. George W. Bush 
> remains an incurious front man whose very existence
> in that seat of 
> power will stand as a constant threat to the safety
> and security of this 
> nation and the world entire.
> 
> "U.S. envoy tells Iraqis election won't change
> policy," reads the 
> Associated Press headline from Wednesday. That, in
> and of itself, says 
> all we need to know about what remains to be done.
> For the first time in 
> far too long, however, an opportunity has arrived to
> do more than scream 
> into the thunderstorm and damn the rain.
> 
> The real work begins now.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 



 
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