Thursday, August 28, 2008

History in the Making

Tonight, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, the first Black candidate for President will accept his party's nomination. It seems we have come a long way since that awful day in 1968 when Mr. King was assassinated. It seemed, that day, that, "this was the best of times, this was the worst of times" was being repeated. Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in that same year. The nation was being torn asunder by a war and by ongoing racism. It made you wonder what kind of nation we were.
Pain is often the body's signal that something is wrong. Perhaps the same is true of a Nation. It is not that we wish for the pain, but that we need to pay attention to it.
Today, we are again gripped by pain and fear. Greed created a second banking crisis equivalent, perhaps even worse than the S&L collapse during King George the First's blessedly brief reign. Junior's reign, both longer and more destructive, has given us this second lesson in the effects of greed and unchecked capitalism. Note, it is not the fault of that abstract thing we call capitalism. Rather, it is the fault of specific greedy and even corrupt capitalists, specific individuals, cheered on by our neo-con, really neo-fascist, government leaders.
All government and economic systems work best when they are balanced. George II and his greedy, corrupt advisers don't care about any of that. They explicitly rejected a balanced model for the old style robber baron approach to the economy.
We are reaping the rewards now.
Hopefully, the clock is ticking down on the George II reign. Dick Cheney will go back into his spiderhole for life one hopes. Condi will return to the Hoover Institute for War.
Perhaps a new day is dawning, one filled with hope for our children and grandchildren.
There are 145 days left in the George Bush nightmare.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now this is the best! I loved it and you are right on the money! Glad you added how many days are left and where all these baddies will go come January 20th.

Good writing, my love!