Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

You don't think I would stay silent on a day like this, do you?

What I wouldn't give for a Presidential bitch slap up on that dais from the one person who could get away with it.
But that is not what today is about. It is about moving on.

As the criminals pack up and move out of Washington, and their friends and supporters in New York check the balances on their off-shore accounts before taking a last squirt in the CEO's bejeweled crapper and high-tailing it in the company jet, the rest of us will stand with the new President and hope he can figure a way out of this mess. The heroes of the ignorant and the greedy have left us with a steaming pile that even our grandchildren will struggle with, unless we can find someway to turn this whole country around.

It is no comfort for those of us who have known - for nearly 30 years - since Ronald Reagan, that this Republican philosophy of "Feed the Rich" and " Survival of the Fittest economics" was morally bankrupt and criminally stupid. "I told you so," will not mend the broken economy, nor will it resurrect the more than 4000 Americans who have given their lives at the behest of of an administration that views war as a profit center.

Today is about moving on. But it is not about forgiving or forgetting. Forgetting made it possible for the Bush administration to use the age-old game plan for stirring a nation to war - the one the Nazis made famous:

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” - Hermann Goering, speaking at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II

Forgiveness, for me, is not a requirement of faith. So I view forgiveness as something one gives someone who has erred - someone who has strayed from what they know is right. Forgiveness is for those who have repented, for those who have seen the error of their ways and desperately desire to be forgiven. It is not for those who blame their sins on "branding" and miscommunication, retell and compound the lies and perpetuate a myth that continues to get Americans killed and provide motivation to our enemies.

I continue to support the idea of punishment and retribution against those who have sullied our American flag and Constitution. But I agree with the new administration that this punishment cannot interfere with the mission of helping the nation recover from this long national nightmare.

What does this have to do with leukemia?

Everything is connected. Every out-of-work person today - every person without health insurance will wait until the cancer - any cancer - makes itself known before seeking medical care. And as we know from experience, by the time cancer makes itself known, treatment can be very long and difficult if at all possible. So the criminally negligent stewardship of our economy - the blind adherence to the economic "survival of the fittest" doctrine - despite all evidence to the contrary, puts more Americans at risk.

Anyway, you didn't think I could keep quiet, did you?

No. Not on a day like this.