While all lives may be equal on the scale of worth, all causes are not.Observing Memorial Day
Monday, May 29, 2006
Time : 9:30 AM
Time : 9:30 AM
OK, Watching the memorial day event with the President is making me sick! Listening to General Peter Pace, and Donald Rumsfeld heap praise on Bush on this day is like thanking the man who is responsible for thousands of deaths. Bush is anathema to what good leadership is. He is the antithesis to responsible stewardship of our military. He speaks of how America goes to war reluctantly even in the face of his own lies and deception that brought us to war in Iraq. To those that have lost their lives, I thank you. To George Bush, fuck you!
While all lives may be equal on the scale of worth, all causes are not.
While all lives may be equal on the scale of worth, all causes are not.
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Comments for Observing Memorial Day
always a sad day ... guess we can thank bush for keeping the graves up to date ... wouldn't want the newest to get too old ... a sad day ... if you really stop and think about it and try in the futility of one little brain box's horizon to comprehend the scope of suffering and death so huge to one naked ape, so tiny in the cosmos ... makes me sick to see bush placing a wreath (elsewhere) ... he is a walking desecration
- Posted at 9:48 AM | By
Rory Shock
Thats for sure. While all lives may be equal on the scale of worth, all causes are not.
well said, guys. I agree- he IS a walking desecration.
Thats all I will say today. Certainly many have sacrificed- with honor- and deserve our appreciation and respect.
Thats all I will say today. Certainly many have sacrificed- with honor- and deserve our appreciation and respect.
I must commend you on even being able to watch that. My thoughts today are especially with the familes here and abroad that this reckless lunatic has destroyed forever.
I bought a homeless VET breakfast ( Gulf War)....he is a Metal Man living outside my building- he was digging through the trash at 7:45 am.I gave him $5.00 and sent him to Jimmie's down the block for the scrambled egg plate...and he turned and said "God Bless You " as he turned to go in....and I felt ashamed..
and heartbroken...
What kind of Country is this ??- the only honor he had today was to be forgotten...
and heartbroken...
What kind of Country is this ??- the only honor he had today was to be forgotten...
- Posted at 12:24 AM | By enigma4ever
Watching Bush do his Memorial day dance made you sick today?
Watching Bush do anything makes me sick.
Anything Bush did today to "honor the troops" was actually a desecration of the day.
Watching Bush do anything makes me sick.
Anything Bush did today to "honor the troops" was actually a desecration of the day.
He is a walking defecation. Not fit to polish Mr. Hankey's shoes. And if there were such a thing...he'd be the anti-christ.
I had to wait until today to write about how I felt yesterday because yesterday I felt as though I might be losing my mind in the anger. It's good to know I wasn't alone.
- Posted at 8:35 AM | By pissed off patricia
Mr. Hankie from South Park?
I will play usual token bitch here though and say that we are doing a disservice to many of the people that have lost their lives when we become consumed only with Bush and this war and its legality and our relentless opinionating. Can we do more of that the rest of the year? Can we advocate for better treatment of Veterans? Can we be engaged and proactive the rest of the year on depleted uranium, foreign policy, working to end violence?
Yes- we on the left know Bush is scum, we know he lied, all this is pretty clear. But there is certainly more to war than Bush. There is the consumerism of me, you, all of us that fuel resource wars. The collective entitlement of our nation, fanned by all of us.
Memorial Day is also about people who died as soldiers in many causes and wars, some perhaps more valid than others. Some men and women perhaps more deserving of honor than others if you look at it that way. Some will say that people are killed in combat because they were stupid enough to sign up, these kinds of things are not part of "memorializing" in my view.
All these thoughts and feelings are valid to the people who own them, but it is also valid to say that there is one day each year where we can set aside the incessant politicization of death and murder. One day where we can mourn for both killers and victims alike, where we can consider the fallen on ALL sides. Where we can be thankful to those who WERE heroic, who did defend our freedom.
I spent some time travelling around blogarama but then needed to go and remember people like my grandfather whose wife still grieves years later, or my dear friend killed in Somalia, countless names and faces.
I refuse to let their memory be all about Bush, I will not give him the power to take away our spirituality or our humanity like that. On a very basic level, your right to even say these things, your freedom to express these idea on Memorial Day is due in part to people in our past willing to die for these rights.
I will play usual token bitch here though and say that we are doing a disservice to many of the people that have lost their lives when we become consumed only with Bush and this war and its legality and our relentless opinionating. Can we do more of that the rest of the year? Can we advocate for better treatment of Veterans? Can we be engaged and proactive the rest of the year on depleted uranium, foreign policy, working to end violence?
Yes- we on the left know Bush is scum, we know he lied, all this is pretty clear. But there is certainly more to war than Bush. There is the consumerism of me, you, all of us that fuel resource wars. The collective entitlement of our nation, fanned by all of us.
Memorial Day is also about people who died as soldiers in many causes and wars, some perhaps more valid than others. Some men and women perhaps more deserving of honor than others if you look at it that way. Some will say that people are killed in combat because they were stupid enough to sign up, these kinds of things are not part of "memorializing" in my view.
All these thoughts and feelings are valid to the people who own them, but it is also valid to say that there is one day each year where we can set aside the incessant politicization of death and murder. One day where we can mourn for both killers and victims alike, where we can consider the fallen on ALL sides. Where we can be thankful to those who WERE heroic, who did defend our freedom.
I spent some time travelling around blogarama but then needed to go and remember people like my grandfather whose wife still grieves years later, or my dear friend killed in Somalia, countless names and faces.
I refuse to let their memory be all about Bush, I will not give him the power to take away our spirituality or our humanity like that. On a very basic level, your right to even say these things, your freedom to express these idea on Memorial Day is due in part to people in our past willing to die for these rights.
Instead of buying breakfast, give him the directions to a veteran's affairs office or the toll free number. Gulf War was only a few years ago. He can get some assistance and it would be for more than one meal.
Also if a person is homeless they qualify for emergency housing programs where they can then get food stamps while waiting to sort things out. Really helping in an empowering way is not letting people beg and scrub but rebuild their lives with resources and dignity.
Also if a person is homeless they qualify for emergency housing programs where they can then get food stamps while waiting to sort things out. Really helping in an empowering way is not letting people beg and scrub but rebuild their lives with resources and dignity.
- Posted at 2:50 PM | By
of course you're right EB... mY point was not to really bash Bush but to say that the memory of people who have died deserves better than him. that their sacrifice is about their service not how their service came about. Thats all.
And I have said that same thing many times, LOC. That we CANNOT and SHOULD not take the decision to end men and women to war lightly.
But is that what a Memorial is to you? A time to gage what cause is worhty, what leaders have abused that privilege? Certainly Bush has abused the privilege. Certainly we can all agree here I'm sure that this war is wrong.
But Memorial Day is not a validation of Bush and what he is doing, I think it is a time to look at the people who have served with honor and are indeed partly responsible for some of what we have today.
Imagine that peace is possible, but imagine that tyranny and oppression and extremism and genocide are possible as well.
But is that what a Memorial is to you? A time to gage what cause is worhty, what leaders have abused that privilege? Certainly Bush has abused the privilege. Certainly we can all agree here I'm sure that this war is wrong.
But Memorial Day is not a validation of Bush and what he is doing, I think it is a time to look at the people who have served with honor and are indeed partly responsible for some of what we have today.
Imagine that peace is possible, but imagine that tyranny and oppression and extremism and genocide are possible as well.
I don't need to set aside a day to devote to my feelings of dread about the Bush administration any more than to set aside one day to reflect on Memorial Day. Everyday is Memorial Day as far as I'm concerned. I am mindful of those from the past and those that are in danger in the present. It is because I am mindful of that everyday that it gauls me to find out that another soldier or innocent Iraqi was killed. Killed for some really egregious (non) reasons. Yes a flagrant disregard for lives is the embodiment of this foul stench of an administration. And I love the fact that I can write and feel this was when I want to...not on somebodies specified day. And it absolutely sucked to see "that man" place flowers on a grave in a multitude of ways too numerous to state here. The emperor does not get a day off...EVER...for what he has allowed to be done in the name of freedom. He spits on it...and he is a vile thing...and I revel in the words to express it...until the freedom for that is taken away...and I think he's working on that too!
Good thing Saddam Hussein was never responsible for the deaths of people, and never tried to conquer his neighbors. It is also a good thing that nobody died in Iraq under sanctions. /s
I suspect part of the Bush-hate stems from a reassuring belief that once 2009 comes around, the cause of all modern evil, Bush, will no longer be with us. This is an error; the far left has the good guys and the bad guys confused, and/or postulates moral equivalence where it does not exist.
I suspect part of the Bush-hate stems from a reassuring belief that once 2009 comes around, the cause of all modern evil, Bush, will no longer be with us. This is an error; the far left has the good guys and the bad guys confused, and/or postulates moral equivalence where it does not exist.
Hussein invaded Kuwait with US approval. They were slant drilling under Iraqi soil. We furnished him with weapons and training. We also applauded his war with Iran as they had held our people hostage. many of the people shown in pictures as Kurdish gas victims were actually killed by Iranian weapons, not Saddams. As to Bush... he is just as much a malignant narcissist as Hussein,. He can no more empathize with those who have died in this war, as Hussein did when he was having people killed. From his childhood days of torturing small animals to his college days of supporting the war in Vietnam and bragging of family ties getting him out of service, George Bush has clearly demonstrated his intellect is broken and his sense or morality is tainted. Anyone who falls for his lip service to decency is a fool. I will curse Bush for the unnecessary deaths of over 2500 Americans in Iraq, and the death of well over 100,000 Iraqis. Oh and hopefully Bush will be gone before 2009 Jason.. Maybe you can request to ghost pen his memoirs.I think the best way to honor our war dead, is to work to prevent more.
Well as I have stated, I spend Memorial Day actually with Veterans who are involved in the peace movement and the idea that honoring lives means that we do not take them unless absolutely necessary is of course a prevailing ideal.
I am not a Bush apologist and I do not think this war is moral. Many have tried to serve honorably, and all I ams aying is that we have a lot of freedom that we often take for granted or forget because so many things are under attack such as privacy, reproductive liberty, etc.
Maybe I am saying that I am tired of the concentration of anger on one man, one administration. As though its the whole story.
I have my views, and its a bigger picture than just Bush and it will not end when he is gone. We all have our views. I blame him, but I also blame the country that put him there, that stands silent, that rants but does little else toward change.
I am not a Bush apologist and I do not think this war is moral. Many have tried to serve honorably, and all I ams aying is that we have a lot of freedom that we often take for granted or forget because so many things are under attack such as privacy, reproductive liberty, etc.
Maybe I am saying that I am tired of the concentration of anger on one man, one administration. As though its the whole story.
I have my views, and its a bigger picture than just Bush and it will not end when he is gone. We all have our views. I blame him, but I also blame the country that put him there, that stands silent, that rants but does little else toward change.
- Posted at 6:01 PM | By
Love your tag line on the post!
Never a truer statements been made my friend.
Never a truer statements been made my friend.
- Posted at 7:52 PM | By Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero)
left of center--
We all want to prevent more deaths. However, inaction also has its costs.
The difference of opinion is this. The right sees a fascist movement rising in the Muslim world over the last thirty years that needs to be stopped. With no USSR around anymore, there is no excuse for us not to support Muslim democrats. In contrast, the far left sees America as the problem, and will postulate all sorts of conspiracy theories to keep this belief.
We need to keep what we say in context. For example, the west helped Hussein in the 80s to prevent Iran from becoming a superpower. (Remember, it was Jimmah Carter who stabbed the corrupt yet progressive Shah in the back.) As for the claim that the United States approved Iraq's conquest of Kuwait, well, you are smarter than that.
We all want to prevent more deaths. However, inaction also has its costs.
The difference of opinion is this. The right sees a fascist movement rising in the Muslim world over the last thirty years that needs to be stopped. With no USSR around anymore, there is no excuse for us not to support Muslim democrats. In contrast, the far left sees America as the problem, and will postulate all sorts of conspiracy theories to keep this belief.
We need to keep what we say in context. For example, the west helped Hussein in the 80s to prevent Iran from becoming a superpower. (Remember, it was Jimmah Carter who stabbed the corrupt yet progressive Shah in the back.) As for the claim that the United States approved Iraq's conquest of Kuwait, well, you are smarter than that.
So what your saying Jason is that we have to perpetually fix the problems cause by our meddling? How about we stop meddling. How about we use a carrot instead of a stick. For instance, why not set up a international corporation that can operate nuclear power plants in countries that need power. Take the security and fuel refinement out of the hands of risky nations. How about we we engage in fair trade instead of free trade? How about we disband the WTO, and create a group that will actually help world trade? I don't like the fascist movement in the Muslim world any more than you. But i see job creation and having a voice in world affairs as being a better alternative than being kept down at the barrel of an American gun.
