Therapy

First, a note to readers: yes, it is true that comments require a gmail (google email) address. It is really easy to get one, it can exist along with your regular email address and, most importantly, it serves as a screen to prevent spam and irrationanl, random responses. I hope that readers who do want to post comments will take the trouble to get a gmail address. Thanks

That said, the following is the third in a series of letters I have submitted to the Progressive Populist, trying to convince the editor to give me a regular column. The first two were published as letters to the editor, and they have published several more recently. Today, I got an email from the editor, suggesting that he was open to giving me some space for a column. Negotiations are continuing, As this following letter notes, one of the best therapies for feelings of powerlessness and despair is to have an experience of oneself actually DOING something about it, without excessive concern about optimal results. The process, in other words, is at least as important as the outcome. As I just wrote in another context, all of this is really just the ravings of an old man who has seen too much and is too stubborn too give up trying tomake a difference.

As soon as I get this blog thing up and running and get more accustomed to doing it, I will be posting it on sites that enjoy widespread attention, like Politico, Daily Kos, Tom Paine.com and others. Enough!!! Today's post:

Editor:

Regular readers of this publication may have noticed my recent letter asking whether our democracy is dying and suggesting that it is definitely on life support. What follows is a prescription for a therapy that might well rouse our ailing patient to at least a semblance of its former self.

One of the most effective techniques for ameliorating symptoms such as depression, loss of self-respect and a feeling of helplessness is to encourage behavior which gives one an experience of doing something about the situation that is or seems to be a primary cause of his or her distress, whether or not there is any chance of significant success. There is almost always something profoundly therapeutic about simply making the effort.

All of which brings us back to the thorny issue of what can be done about the manifest high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration. Despite the growing national outcry for prosecution and/or impeachment of most if not all of the members of this Administration, the Democratic leadership and a many of their supporters, in and out of government, keep telling us that there is no point in pursuing justice because “there is just not enough time,” or “the Supreme Court will ultimately disallow it,” or “we have to concentrate on doing whatever is necessary to assure the election of a Democrat in the upcoming Presidential election,” or similar dismissals.

Well, I must insist on taking strong exception to this line of reasoning. If there is any chance of revitalizing our moribund democracy, it has to begin with a clear, unequivocal demonstration that desecrating our Constitution by establishing an Imperial Presidency will not be tolerated, no matter the short-term discomfort or disruption. The electorate are demoralized and cynical. They have no evidence whatsoever that there are serious consequences for defying the will of the people, much less for lying to us and to Congress about everything from an illegal war to their frantic subsequent attempts to justify it. For heaven’s sake, even the Attorney General is a serial perjurer. Incompetence can be corrected by means of the ballot. Malfeasance must be dealt with more severely.

The people of America desperately need an experience of our system working the way it is supposed to. If time runs out, so be it. At least we will have tried. Continuing to shine it on is a recipe for disaster. Failure to act is nearly as treasonous as the behavior we should be prosecuting.

The Saudis are not our friends?

Today's NY Times includes an article (linked below) about the growing "impatience" of the Bush Administration with our "friends" in Saudi Arabia, whose Sunni preferences make them uncomfortable with our Shiite puppet government in Iraq. DUH!!!!! Anyone who has read Greg Palast's book, "Armend Madhouse," which provides chilling detail on the decades of Bush family infatuation with the Saudis, has to be amazed at the level of cognitive dissonance if not downright schizophrenia in a "Bush" administration which has pursued a war and a foreign policy that virtually guarantees a Shiite hegemony between Iraq and Iran. Never mind that all but one or two of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, nor that bin Ladin himself is the scion of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest and most influential famillies, etc. etc.

I have had a similar letter printed in both the SF Chronicle and US News and World Report, which suggessts that "moderate" Moslems who want to prove their peaceful intent must begin by regaining control of their holiest site.Mecca, from Wahabi (Sunni) Fundamentalists who are the principal sponsors of madrassas (schools) determined to create an endless supply of jihadists and suicide bombers against anyone who does not agree with their fanatical beliefs, Wahabi's who would welcome bin Ladin and his ilk as conquering heroes if they decided to go on the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.

I am by no means the only person who sees this dichotomy in our National policy. Nice to see that the NY Times, which originally cooperated outrageously in promoting the Neocon Crusade against Islam, is finally beginning to see the light.

Here is the link to today's article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/middleeast/27saudi.html?th&emc=th

Looks like this medium won't provide an easy link (I'm still getting used to the territory), but those who have an on-line connection to the Times can click on it there.

Fantasy Baseball

The following is a letter I just got published in the Progressive Populist (8/1/07 Vol. 13 No. 13) I will be posting more of my letters, published and ignored, as I go along:

Editor:

As one who subscribes to nearly all of the so-called Progressive publications, I am in deep despair over the lack of meaningful influence we have on real life. The precipitous decline of our putative democracy is accelerating despite the plethora of well-written, brilliantly reasoned criticism being published these days. Demonstrations are essentially irrelevant. It is no exaggeration to compare our oppositional activity to participation in a baseball (or football) fantasy league - a certain amount of ego satisfaction, but no real world results. We are "out of the loop."

The list of grievances is virtually endless: spineless Democrats, a bonehead President, his treasonous Regent (aka Vice-President Cheney), an unwinnable, seemingly endless war, a clueless Supreme Court that is hell-bent on reversing a half-century of legal precedent for the benefit of powerful interests at the expense of basic human rights, a morally and economically bankrupt Healthcare system; well, I could go on a lot longer, but we all know too much already about what has gone wrong with our beloved country.

Impeachment is off the table. Even the subpoenas being issued by a few insistent Congressional Democrats will wend their way interminably through our turgid legal system and are likely to be disallowed by this Supreme Court in any event. Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence makes it clear that even criminal convictions will be moot as long as he is in charge.

To make matters worse, except for Dennis Kucinich (who has no chance) and John Edwards (who has virtually no chance), the candidates for the 2008 Presidential election (in both parties) have "business as usual" written all over them.

Again, I feel impelled to evoke Martin Luther King, who once observed: "Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?'" "But, King added, "Conscience comes along and asks the question, 'Is it right?'"

Do we really want to keep playing Fantasy Baseball, or are we finally ready to do something about the mess we are in? Just asking.