Editorial :
If George Bush Won
As I said before, I'm writing this before the presidential
election. But if George Bush won the election there are some
things that are certain.
I live with the ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence,
and the Constitution. I think both documents represent the
world's last great attempt at self-government, and self-determination.
If George Bush has won the election then I know that this country has
turned a corner. A corner that represents the willingness to help
one another. We've strayed quite far from that ideal. There
was, however, a short time after September 11th, in which we came
together as a people. I saw people realize that we are one in the
same. I saw people put aside their differences, and understand
that whatever is good for our neighbor is also good for us. The
attacks served to unite us in a way that I had never experienced
before. Perhaps it was the knowledge that the terrorists saw us
all the same. They didn't see black skin, or brown skin, or white
skin. They simply saw us as Americans. And for that brief
moment in time I saw us coming together for a common cause, under a
shared pain.
A little more than three years later I see none of that unity. I
see a nation divided, more than I have ever seen it divided
before. The irony is that from unity has come division.
From hope, has come despair. Because George Bush has squandered a
most unique opportunity in history, and turned it into an opportunity
to make money.
These are the reasons why I can not stand by Bush if he wins a second
term. If Bush is re-elected, then I will know, once and for all
time, that this county has turn its back on the individual.
Because Bush has shown more regard for corporations, and their
well-being, than for the well-being of the citizens of this nation.
He has eviscerated environmental laws, in favor of short term
profits. In doing so, he has assured that the earth will never be
the same. The air will be unfit to breath. The water will
be unfit to drink. The oceans will rise, the weather will change,
and the last remnants of wilderness will be bulldozed in the name of
profit.
He has lied to the world repeatedly, specifically about the alleged
weapons of mass destruction possessed by Iraq. It is now known
that those weapons did not exist, and that the President knew they
didn't exists. Yet, he found himself compelled to launch a
pre-emptive war into a country that did not possess such weapons.
All the he ignored the real dangers in Iran, and North Korea.
Iran is in the midst of creating nuclear weapons, while North Korea
already possesses them.
He has spit in the face of those who bare arms, and fight the battles
of freedom. He has chosen conflict, not diplomacy, as his first
option. He has sent young men, and women, off to distant lands to
kill, and be killed, for a lie. He has fabricated excuses for a
conflict that now has no resolution.
He has ignored the laws of this country, preferring to instill
religious ideology, and dogma, into a government founded on the ideals
of Greek democracy. The idea of individual freedoms are not
spelled out in the bible. In a democracy it is the people who are
the supreme rule, not a God that may, or may not, exist. To force
one religion on a nation is not only foolish, it is undemocratic.
It replaces a founding liberty, the right to choose to worship however
one pleases, with the idea of repression.
He has turned his back on the American people. George Bush swore
to defend the Constitution. Yet, he has instituted laws that
erase civil liberties. He has found it easy do erase rights that
have been fought for with armed struggle, raised voices, and blood.
But lastly, I can not back George Bush as President, if he has been
re-elected, because he is a liar. He has lied from the moment he
was sworn into office. He has deemed it necessary to keep secret
the actions of his presidency. Totally shrouding his acts as
president in a cloud of secrecy, never to see the light of day, or the
judgment of history.
The Constitution represents the rights of every individual in this
nation. As Alexander Hamilton said, "The sacred rights of mankind
are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty
records. They are written, as with a sun bean in the whole volume
of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be
erased or obscured by mortal power."
George Bush has tried to redefine a document established not only by
the minds of men, but by a higher consciousness, a consciousness we
call God. George Bush has put profit before treasuring the
natural splendor of God's creation. Whether you believe that
there is a God or not, the fact is, George Bush has turned his back on
nature, and humanity. He has turned his back on the divine, and
embraced all that is evil--the heart of his own darkness, that exists
in the immorality of money, greed, imperialism, and autocracy.
