14 Sep If It’s True Love Let’s Be Honest
In the 1970 tear-jerker Love Story, Ali McGraw’s character Jenny Cavilleri emotes “Love means never having to say your sorry.” It became the “Have a good day!” catchall phrase of the new decade. Crocodile tears were indiscriminately shed everywhere by everyone.
Many have tried to connect love with politics. But whether it’s love, politics, or love of politics that drive President Bush to ask us for more money to bring democracy to Iraq, should his actions be held to the standard set by Cavilleri? Having been married for ten years, I know that’s not very realistic. Should he have to say “I’m sorry” for miscalculating his foreign policies? Washington Post columnist Michael Kinsley thinks so.
Kinsley: President Bush will get his $87 billion for a year’s worth of victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he will have to endure a lot of nyah-nyah-nyah and I-told-you-so along the way. He could have avoided all this irritation — and he is just the kind of man to find it incredibly irritating — with two little words in his TV address last Sunday evening: “I’m sorry.”
Kinsley asks: “Why do politicians so rarely apologize?” He thinks they have learn to “lie-by-reflex.” The truth, he feels, is messy and uncontrollable. Lying, on the other hand, can be “designed by committee… Anyone can tell the truth. Crafting a good lie is a job for professionals.”
Perhaps this is the root of our mistrust of politicians and government. We want to believe them. Deeply. We want to trust them, especially when there is potential sacrifice (of our daughters, sons, and our pocketbooks). But they just don’t understand. If President Bush and I were a couple, we’d be in marriage counseling. Failure to communicate! Failure to trust. Unrequited promises. I don’t confuse the love of my country with this affair. This is not the love story I envision.
Compounding this simple need to tell the truth is a more problematic issue. Where will he get the $87 billion? He is convinced the tax cut he just gave us will fuel an economic jumpstart. It did just buy us a new dishwasher. But how will that result in the billions needed for the Middle East? Bush is not even considering rolling back this tax cut or (shudder the thought) suggest a tax hike to foot the bill. I’d like a clear and honest answer to that Mr. President.
Apparently, I’m not alone. In a recent Washington Post-ABC news poll, 60% of the American public is against giving the Administration an open hand in Iraqi and Afghani military spending. While support for Bush’s foreign policy remains high (although it has dropped a little), the public clearly understands the connection between increased military spending and domestic economic recovery. Perhaps better than the Administration.
Kinsey: “While apologizing to the citizenry, Bush could win even more points, at almost no cost, by apologizing specifically to his predecessor. Bush ridiculed Clinton’s efforts to follow up military interventions with “nation building.” Believe it or not, this was a pejorative term, implying unrealistic ambitions. Now Bush talks about turning Iraq into a Jeffersonian democracy.
“And if Bush wants credit for a Gold-Star Triple-Whammy Zirconium-Studded apology, he should apologize to his father, who stopped the Persian Gulf War at the Iraqi border. Armchair Freudians believe that in going to Baghdad and toppling Hussein, George II was playing Oedipal tennis with George I. If so, junior has lost. The elder Bush’s most notorious decision as president looks better every day. And not just because of the $87 billion.”
Mr. Bush, quit pandering to our sense of patriotism and love for the ideological bedrock our country sits on. That isn’t real love. Let’s openly discuss the merits of exporting our democratic ideals around the world and its cost. As with romantic love, it takes many forms.
More and more, the President’s words feel like typical political deflection, spin, and the “sins of the father.” This relationship is as unreal as trying to live by Love Story’s most famous line. Let’s be honest, true love does mean having to say your sorry. And much, much more.
Carolyn
Posted at 16:52h, 14 SeptemberWhen you come right down to it, Nixon could have accomplished the same thing by also stating he was sorry and just admitting that his ‘boys’ made a mistake. Could have saved himself and many others much grief. Funny how hindsight is always 20/20.
Donna
Posted at 21:40h, 18 SeptemberIt didn’t really buy you a new dishwasher. I just went to chiropractor. Normally our health insurance allows us many visits yearly to the chiro but because of Bush and his administration and how they’ve made a mess of the economy, we have now been cut back 2/3 – so we only have a 1/3 allowance. That means that I had to pay out of pocket for the last 4 visits and will continue to pay until Dec 31.
And while he won’t say “I’m sorry” he did have to finally fess up to the fact that Saddam had nothing to do with 911, something he has been misleading the public about ever since 2001.
John McConnell
Posted at 17:09h, 23 SeptemberMINUTE FOR PEACE DAY
December 22, 2003 will be the 40th Anniversary of the first Minute for Peace. Initiated by the City of San Francisco, Minute for Peace was observed worldwide.
World Trade Center Tragedy and What To do.
The horrific event on 9-11 showed us the power of hate. �But love is more powerful than hate and December 22 provides a special opportunity to prove it.
“Hatred does not cease by hatred. Hatred ceases only by love.” �Gandhi, and others, have demonstrated non-violent methods of opposing what was wrong. �
Martin Luther King described the power of love in his book “Strength To Love” — and gave his life to prove it. �Now, strength to “kill” is being advocated as the way to stop violence.
Actions good or bad begin in the mind. Here is a way to reverse the damage done to people’s thinking by media’s headlines for violence and silence about the proven benefits of forgiveness, compassion and cooperation for common goals. �The World Trade Center tragedy was the result of media failure to feature the work of the Franciscans and many other groups who were seeking the peaceful nurture of people and planet. �
December 22 is just three days before Christmas. In our �new millennium, Christmas is of increasing importance — with its message of “Peace and Good Will.”
A Minute for Peace Day brought global attention for the way to peace back in 1963. December 22, 1963 was when we ended the period of mourning for President Kennedy with a global minute of silent prayer for peace on our planet. Radio and TV around the world promoted the event in the weeks proceeding December 22. That special minute (1 p.m. in Dallas, 1900 GMT worldwide) affected people all over the world and inspired efforts that later resulted in Earth Day with its emphasis on peace, justice and the care of Earth.
Let’s turn the tables on 9-11 by joining worldwide in Minutes for Peace all day on December 22 — just three days before Christmas. Christmas can then be a turn toward peace, with our neighbor and our world.
Earth Trustees
A new idea that came from Minute for Peace and Earth Day, was the idea that we can now all think of ourselves as Trustees of Earth. In this age of Space exploration we know — more than former generations — that we are one human family and have only one Earth. With care and use of new technology we can now eliminate poverty, pollution and violence. All we need is a clear vision of our goal and reports on Internet – and in the media – of every successful effort to think and act as Trustees of Earth — in ecology, economics and ethics. This course of action can appeal to the most people on our planet and do the most good.
Then a new spirit of cooperation will engulf the world. With half the money we spend on wars we can make our planet a Garden of Eden.
As we honestly work together we will see all around us the waste of wealth and its unfair monopolization by those in power. The solution is not to condemn the few in positions of power, but to demonstrate solutions and win their support — not by the power of money or military might — but by the power of truth, of good ideas and good will.
Then with the power of the words “Love one another” we will reverse the direction of “9-11″and welcome the beginning of an era of peaceful progress in the new millennium.
On December 22, focus your attention on peace. Talk peace, think peace, pray for peace, have faith for peace all over the world – in the home, at work in global relations of countries and corporations — in all human institutions. �
Let every radio and TV station fill the day with minutes of music �and words that inspire peaceful actions. Help us unite as one human family in new understanding and care for this wonderful nest in the stars: �Planet Earth, our home.
By Founder of Earth Day
John McConnell
4924 E. Kentucky Circle
Denver, CO 80246
Trusteeone@aol.com
http://www.earthsite.org