Time for the truth

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Okay, I do want President Obama out of office.  My dream would be that he would wake up tomorrow morning and say - "I'm done."  Then give a speech saying how much he sucks and how badly he's been doing his job.  BUT I know that's not going to happen so I'll wait until 2012.  I don't wish for anything other than an election to take him out, unless of course someone manages to find his Watergate and he's shamed out, that wouldn't be too bad either.  Okay, let's just say I would settle for just about anything that gets him out of office that is legal and causes no physical harm.  I didn't say anything about ethics.  Ahem.

But when I saw that fat lip the other day, saw BO walking with that gauze in his hand, there was a teeny tiny part of me that was like - "aw-w-w-w .. why couldn't it have been me who caused that accident!!?!"  I mean - there have been a few things he has done over the last couple of years I would have loved to pop him in the mouth for.  For LYING to the American people maybe?  But no.  I never wished him harm.

Still, I'm enjoying the fat lip vicariously, hoping there was a little more than a basketball elbow behind it. 

Is that wrong?

Because I really don't care.

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Our bird is the magnificent bald eagle - as Americans - it's time to fly!

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No one was more surprised on September 11th 2001 than I was. I was not politically aware and had only a vague idea of what and where the World Trade Center was. Most of us were in shock, our world had shifted on it's axis and thrown us totally off kilter. Not surprisingly so.

It was a huge and horrific event, and like George W. Bush said when he heard the third plane hit the pentagon - I knew it was a declaration of war.

For days afterward I spoke to my teenage kids about what happened. To me it just didn't seem that they grasped the enormity of what had just occurred. I wanted them to get it, to absorb it, to deal with the

feelings involved in something so catastrophic. Still, it seemed more surface to them, as if they were not as surprised as I was and were taking it in stride.

Because of the school he went to my son was a captive audience for me every week day for about 20 minutes to school and 20 minutes back, as I drove him to school on my way to work and picked him up at his grandparents house on my way home. I had the same concerns everyone else did about the lost and missing loved ones, the grieving families left behind. Watching TV whenever possible fed my need for information, and caused me to cry over and over for all of those Americans forever scarred by the actions of so few.

And over and over again I asked why. And honestly to this day I still don't understand why.

But, with air traffic shut down for days I remember saying to my son on the way home one evening "y'know, they killed a lot of people, and for whatever reason they want to kill us all. But what they are really going to do is kill us economically."

Now if you know me you know I'm no Stephen Hawking, but that one fact was as clear to me as my own name. The airline industry is huge, and it affects every corner of our economy. There isn't a single business that does not require supplies of some sort, commerce in general requires travel, the ability to move people, things, and ideas from one side of the globe to the other. And the airline industry has not been the same since September 11th.

I'm not fond of flying these days. Never liked it much anyway but if we don't fly, even in protest of the intrusiveness of the body scans and enhanced pat-downs, we are hurting the airline industry as surely as if

we brought a plane down ourselves. Please keep flying. Don't let them win. Their aim is to destroy our economy and the airline industry was a smart place for them to start. It touches everything.

Find another way to protest the government intrusion. And keep flying. We're Americans, no one should be able to keep us on the ground if we want to fly. Do it.

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Generalities do TOO count!

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It is amazing that a group of people not representing any particular country, not representing a certain government or nationality, not even the majority in the religion they fight for - is holding the world hostage.

The debate going on right now about touching people's "junk" or getting the body scans is all about Muslim extremists. Our own citizens are being treated like criminals in the name of safety, springing from an obscene and desperate necessity. We don't want to die.

It is really hard not to paint all Muslims with the same broad brush. Americans do not understand Islam, it's teachings are completely foreign to us. In the simplest terms because I'm a simple gal, God is good. God is different things to different people but in the American culture it really is simple. God is about love, hope, faith, and charity. And please, don't go all Old Testament on me here, I am speaking in generalities. We do not understand a religion that generates such hate and such violence.

Islam does not make sense to us, it clashes with all we know of religion and belief in God, it's tenants the total opposite of what we learned as children and heard preached from pulpits in temples and churches across our land. And because it does not make sense to us we have no frame of reference to say oh - this group has chosen to follow this part of the Koran and that group interprets the Koran in a totally different way. And because so few Muslim groups stand along side Americans in outrage when acts of terrorism have occurred, it is hard for us to not be suspicious of them, uncomfortable and sometimes, afraid.

The more we are restricted and man-handled and feel we are losing our rights to things as personal as our own bodies, the less we are apt to feel kindly toward Muslims in general.

Because we freaking cannot tell the difference between a Muslim that will hurt us and one that won't!

And it is simple self-preservation that we feel the need to mistrust those we cannot fathom, and those we see as being the ones responsible for causing us pain. They do not wear a sign that identifies them as a friendly Muslim or a frothing at the mouth crazy Jihadist nutbag Muslim.

I'm sorry but I just wish they would go. OH THE HORROR! My brothers would be so appalled. But I do. I'm tired of feeling like a racist when I worry about whether or not someone I love will be blown to bits while doing something as innocuous as shopping for Christmas gifts. I don't want to feel I have to change my way of life because someone wants to kill me and would delight in cutting off my head while rolling video. There is a part of me that wishes we could pull the virtual covers over our heads as a nation and not have to let anyone else in - and start a steady stream of Muslims on their way out.

I can't apologize for feeling that way either, because I wouldn't mean it. I can say I'm sorry if I hurt some one's sensibilities but that doesn't change the way I feel. I am so tired of people wanting to destroy us simply because we exist and feeling like we have to be on guard all the time.

Oh to be 11 years old again, riding my sting-ray down the street with no hands, with no worries beyond crashing my bike. I don't like what our lives have become and while I don't generally like to play the blame game, damn it, it is Muslims that have brought us here. I just wish they didn't like it here anymore.

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Nostalgia

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Had some family in town recently, doesn't matter which ones, they are all liberals.  One of my brothers made a remark about George Bush going into Iraq because his dad didn't get the opportunity to finish the job there so doggone it - he was going to.  *crickets*  Yes, he really did say that.  Today a coworker said she had seen George Bush on TV the other day but "he's just not articulate, I couldn't watch him."  Really?? 

Dubya is all over the TV right now because he's selling his book.  My copy came yesterday, I pre-ordered it.  I did not agree with everything George Bush did.  I did not like the way he did some things.  But I liked and I respected him.  I cannot say that about his successor.  I thought I would illustrate some of the reasons I liked President Bush.



He was real.

He could throw a baseball without looking like a girl. 

No offence to the girls out there.

He was a cowboy and a leader when we needed one.

George Bush touched people.

He kissed babies.

President Bush liked people, and I never got the

feeling it was just a photo op.

Also - I'm pretty sure he knew how to use one of these.

He respected and loved the military,

..and they him.

He graciously wished his successor well, and did not flinch when

Obama turned around and blamed everything on him just minutes later.

George Bush had press conferences and actually took questions.

He wasn't too cool for the Easter Bunny.

He wore his heart on his sleeve, loved this country, and was

simply a decent man who deeply respected the office he held.

Also - there were some moments when he

reminded me of Johnny Carson.  And I miss him too.

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