It's getting harder these days to be cranky, to stay curmudgeonly.
It can still be done, of course, it's just that right now, it requires much more of an effort than usual. And curmudgeons resent that, in fact, that's an integral part of being a curmudgeon.
But really, who could possibly have taken a single glance at the Obama family earlier this week, touring the Lincoln Memorial, cool and crisp in their in their perfect January toggery, and remained stoic? (Not to mention the fact that only a monster with a heart of steel or stone could not have missed the fact that Michelle looks better than anyone has a right to in a white, quilted down jacket, when even the most lithe and anorectic supermodels look like fullbacks in the same winter wear.)
With the inauguration only a scant 3 days and 6 minutes away, hope is in sight. Relief, regardless of how long it takes and how it arrives, is on the way. It's hard not to beam like human klieg lights, to be so proud of the way we have comported ourselves, sending a fickle fellow back to the Senate and an incompetent couture-grabber back to Alaska, while sending the best of the best on to Washington to do a job that makes the patience of Job (and the feats of Jobs) look like kindergarten.
Still, if I want to experience even a brief frisson of the old rage and familiar, mind-numbing, incomparable despair, I have only to watch Bush's last babbling, Cheney's last televised snooze, and realize and remember how much death and destruction they have caused, the colorful riot of catastrophe they have painted again and again around our country and the world. And the fact that odds are, they and their cronies are not headed for war crimes trials in The Hague but rather to cushy retirements, the lecture circuit, lucrative book deals; memoirs conceived through the clouded, tinted lenses of smarmy narcissism, revisionist history and the most stupendously alarming, stubborn kind of reality-defying psychosis.
Snarky cynic, curmudgeon or not, I find that unbridled glee can indeed coexist with a sickening wave of rage. It's a delicate balance indeed but no, the past eight years can be neither forgotten nor forgiven.
Even if it's unseemly, some things may just be worth staying angry about, even as we pat ourselves on the back, smile broadly at tomorrow and exuberantly turn the page.
I can't forgive our tolerance for greed, dishonesty and promotion of self, in the face of suffering and neglect of our middle and poorest classes.
I can't forgive the sacrifice of over 4,000 American lives, and over 10 times that many foreign lives, on behalf of a war without terms and a cause, justified by deceit and blind ambition for wealth and oil.
I can't forgive ongoing tolerance and championing of ignorance, triviality and cynicism - of belittling those who are the most selfless, and heralding those who prosper at the expense of others.
I can't forgive an entire administration built around the concept of taking responsibility for nothing, and blaming others for everything. I can't forgive being viewed as too naive to speak honestly to, and too incompetent to participate in the Democracy we so proudly boast.
Most of all, I can't forgive those who continue to mock and belittle those of us who seek a rebirth of compassion and hope. Honor and sacrifice. Honesty and trust. Those for whom it is all about being right - never about pitching in and doing what's right.
Your petty intolerance grows thin and weak in the face of real hope and change. I wish you a good look in the mirror, and the courage to admit you can be better.
It's over and 80% of the country is elated that it is! You are obviously one of the 20% who weren't horrified by our soon-to-be-gone POTUS. If 80% of the country is liberal then what does that make the lower 20? Middle of the road?
We are leaving you behind. The world is changing. A Progressive black man with Hussein for a middle name has been elected by a landslide over one of your most moderate republicans. Get over it, join us in the future!
And on Wednesday, I am going to find a local group that needs volunteers and offer my services.
Just as importantly, I am also going to send a communication to Nancy Pelosi at http://www.speaker.gov/contact and to my two Senators and my Representative, demanding that an investigation into the crimes of Bush/Cheney et al be commenced. If enough of us do the same, she and they will HAVE to listen, and take some action.
The Obama campaign began as a grassroots action, and look where it ended. We can apply the same grassroots activity to getting Bush and Company held accountable for their actions.
Anyone with me?
As they go, we can let them go. We can let it all go. Let the abusers be as they are, and say what they will, and get left behind. They robbed all the promise of the last eight years from us, but we won't allow them to corrupt this moment, this day, this change and our future. We can continually find ways to support this change, but we have to give up our addiction to negativity, to knee-jerk reactions and thoughts of retribution.
Let's focus on today and on the bright hope of tomorrow's inauguration. Let's focus on the America we believe in. Let's get started supporting the change we voted for. Let's do our best to spread the hope to our family members and friends and neighbors. There is so much to do! And each one of us is needed to do it.
If the American soldiers who've been wounded in Iraq or the visionless morass of Afghanistan forgive Bush, then that's their right. If the families of soldiers who've lost loved ones in those wars can forgive him, then that's their right. If the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians who've been killed or wounded in the wars can forgive him, then that's their right. If those who've been tortured in one of our overseas prison camps can forgive him, then that's their right.
If those who've lost their jobs and homes, if those who were trapped in New Orleans after Katrina, if those children who've been failed and those teachers who've been frustrated by No Child Left Behind can forgive him, then that's their right.
But Bush has never harmed me directly, and so my hatred for him is on behalf of those he's hurt and killed, and I wouldn't presume to speak in their place.
What was it exactly that they did to deserve such Karma?
Pffft to both your comments and the insults in them.
Please keep in mind that George W. Bush would have NEVER had the opportunity to do what he has done had it not been for the "Supreme Court in 2000" and the American people in 2004 whovoted for him.
Now it remains to be seen whether the other half will pay back in kind, but I am not optimistic that the Republicans will turn the other cheek. Which is why things never seem to change in U.S. politics - In fact, the partisans seem to get worse on all sides.
Cheney is the same, he is a dishonoured ole koger who should be ashamed of having let down America, but being rich as NOW bush is too ! why should they care ? there is no Middle Class in
america, as it is in Mexico...if you are not RICH well.....guess what you are ? "dirt poor"
Nobody is middle of the road, if you think you are, well think again and wait another 40 or more years
like some of us yuppies have...all for nothing.. another yuppie let us down and now its up to the kids
of tomorrow to hustle and I mean hard hustling to get this country back in shape as it was when the
gas was back under that dollar.
I am so heartened to read so many intelligent commentaries about the anger against the Bush administration. Constructive anger, full of expectations for accountability. Today Pelosi is feeling the heat about 'investigations', not impeachment but that is very positive if we are to regain the real meaning of our constitutional republic.
So many good comments but I would particularly like to express appreciation to Pandora1 who can ... 'forgive Bush his stupidity but not his ignorance...or lack of self-awareness and outright deception'.
I am now a fan of cspan.
Along with Bush/Cheney MSM (NBC and Fox) also need to be tired as criminals. At the very least a "WARNING" should be posted before "News" noting that what they are about to view is not accurate and just opinions by those who want to keep you suppressed and poor.
If 50 million Americans joined me, this problem would dissolve quickly. This is not ocmplicated, like curing cancer or solving global warming. Turn them off. Don't turn them back on. The curiousity and, frankly, boredom that drives us back to them even though we are angered by what "news" has become is EXACTLY the addiction they know they can count on for ratings.
Turn them off - and they go away. It is that simple.