Friday, August 29, 2003
An open letter to the Democratic presidential candidates
(who often act as if there aren’t enough meaty issues for the 2004 campaign)
Apologize.
Apologize for how the Bush Administration immediately pulled out of every treaty and international governing body it could. Apologize for turning our backs on people in trouble around the world, until the various pots boil over, and for turning over stewardship of the environment to those who seek to plunder it.
Apologize that Bush exploited the September 11 attacks to manipulate Americans. Apologize that he not only squandered the empathy the world offered the US at that time, he actively destroyed it by shoving an unnecessary war on Iraq down everyone’s throats. Apologize that Bush, Powell and Rumsfeld rolled over the UN Security Council, just as it was doing well what it was designed to do. Apologize to the Germans, the French, the Russians, the Chinese. Apologize to Bill Maher, the Dixie Chicks and others who were speaking their consciences about matters of global urgency. (You may need a special apology to make up for Anne Coulter. Treason? Really, now.) Let us know that speaking one’s conscience should never be a dangerous thing.
Apologize for John Ashcroft and other Bush appointees unnecessarily denying civil liberties to our own citizens and to many welcome guests. Apologize for the way public discourse has been weakened by the forces of ultra-conservatism, so that now the loyal opposition is a shambles. Apologize that principled individuals who speak up now expect to have their characters impugned and their livelihoods threatened or destroyed. Apologize for how elections have become little more than consumer mass-marketing exercises -- even for Democrats. Apologize for weakening the very foundations of our democracy, even as Bush speaks the sweet words that attract us to it.
More importantly, apologize that Bush instituted a stunning, unprecedented US policy of preemptive strikes -- the “Bush Doctrine” -- by fiat. Apologize that whom these strikes hit seems to stand at the political whim of this country’s self-appointed leader, because all the “evidence” used to support the strikes have fallen apart. Apologize that Bush’s policy of preemptive strikes legitimizes it for others, even though he probably thinks it’s reserved just for him. Apologize that the world’s remaining Superpower feels the need to run roughshod over the world, heeding no higher authority, and in fact acting as the higher authority.
Apologize that George W. Bush Jr. and his team appear genuinely to believe that these are their only alternatives -- that they have no other path but to act like the thugs they claim to be pursuing.
Apologize that Bush could speak of the need for “humility” in foreign policy during the election, then do all these things. Apologize for the US Government’s longstanding hypocrisy and double standards, which the rest of the world understands and we cannot see, blinded as we are by national pride and Government propaganda. Pledge to correct these injustices.
Apologize that Bush’s economic minds seem to think that giving the rich more money will somehow trickle down to everyone else, even as jobs are being de-skilled and workers laid off. Apologize to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of America’s citizens that a Federal budget surplus estimated at $236 billion when Bush took office has already turned into projected record deficits of $455 billion this year, a swing of $691 billion -- two-thirds of a trillion dollars -- in the two and a half years of his Administration. This is not a lag effect from bad management by the Clinton Administration, or even a hangover from an economic downturn: this is mismanagement, plain and simple. And maybe fraud. Oh, and apologize also for the veil of secrecy that Bush and his proponents have thrown over this land, keeping us from knowing what our elected representatives are really doing, keeping us from seeing the frauds perpetrated.
Apologize for Bush because he never will. Apologize for Americans because history will regard us very poorly if these actions are not at least acknowledged, and hopefully reversed. Apologize because these actions mean Bush apparently doesn’t trust us. Not his own citizens. Not foreigners. Not for a second. He trusts only the vocal and furious minority with the power and money to keep him where he is. They must be furious and desperate, or they wouldn’t be pursuing the scorched-earth strategies they have adopted.
Finally, apologize because we really are on the cusp of a prosperous, peaceful world, and all these actions are keeping us from it. In fact, the magnitude of turmoil in the air today is evidence of the massive tectonic pressure that has built up between the Bush world view and a new, emerging world view. Perhaps you should apologize also that the Democratic party is so bought into the process and the pressures that it is part of the problem.
Apologize for each and describe how you will change each.
It takes a strong, confident person to apologize. These apologies are also a form of pre-election foreign policy in action. Bush will have to respond, and he can’t blame Osama bin Laden for all this. (Where is that Osama, anyway?) No, this is a much larger problem, and we can solve it. Let’s start by making amends.
Apologize.
Apologize for how the Bush Administration immediately pulled out of every treaty and international governing body it could. Apologize for turning our backs on people in trouble around the world, until the various pots boil over, and for turning over stewardship of the environment to those who seek to plunder it.
Apologize that Bush exploited the September 11 attacks to manipulate Americans. Apologize that he not only squandered the empathy the world offered the US at that time, he actively destroyed it by shoving an unnecessary war on Iraq down everyone’s throats. Apologize that Bush, Powell and Rumsfeld rolled over the UN Security Council, just as it was doing well what it was designed to do. Apologize to the Germans, the French, the Russians, the Chinese. Apologize to Bill Maher, the Dixie Chicks and others who were speaking their consciences about matters of global urgency. (You may need a special apology to make up for Anne Coulter. Treason? Really, now.) Let us know that speaking one’s conscience should never be a dangerous thing.
Apologize for John Ashcroft and other Bush appointees unnecessarily denying civil liberties to our own citizens and to many welcome guests. Apologize for the way public discourse has been weakened by the forces of ultra-conservatism, so that now the loyal opposition is a shambles. Apologize that principled individuals who speak up now expect to have their characters impugned and their livelihoods threatened or destroyed. Apologize for how elections have become little more than consumer mass-marketing exercises -- even for Democrats. Apologize for weakening the very foundations of our democracy, even as Bush speaks the sweet words that attract us to it.
More importantly, apologize that Bush instituted a stunning, unprecedented US policy of preemptive strikes -- the “Bush Doctrine” -- by fiat. Apologize that whom these strikes hit seems to stand at the political whim of this country’s self-appointed leader, because all the “evidence” used to support the strikes have fallen apart. Apologize that Bush’s policy of preemptive strikes legitimizes it for others, even though he probably thinks it’s reserved just for him. Apologize that the world’s remaining Superpower feels the need to run roughshod over the world, heeding no higher authority, and in fact acting as the higher authority.
Apologize that George W. Bush Jr. and his team appear genuinely to believe that these are their only alternatives -- that they have no other path but to act like the thugs they claim to be pursuing.
Apologize that Bush could speak of the need for “humility” in foreign policy during the election, then do all these things. Apologize for the US Government’s longstanding hypocrisy and double standards, which the rest of the world understands and we cannot see, blinded as we are by national pride and Government propaganda. Pledge to correct these injustices.
Apologize that Bush’s economic minds seem to think that giving the rich more money will somehow trickle down to everyone else, even as jobs are being de-skilled and workers laid off. Apologize to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of America’s citizens that a Federal budget surplus estimated at $236 billion when Bush took office has already turned into projected record deficits of $455 billion this year, a swing of $691 billion -- two-thirds of a trillion dollars -- in the two and a half years of his Administration. This is not a lag effect from bad management by the Clinton Administration, or even a hangover from an economic downturn: this is mismanagement, plain and simple. And maybe fraud. Oh, and apologize also for the veil of secrecy that Bush and his proponents have thrown over this land, keeping us from knowing what our elected representatives are really doing, keeping us from seeing the frauds perpetrated.
Apologize for Bush because he never will. Apologize for Americans because history will regard us very poorly if these actions are not at least acknowledged, and hopefully reversed. Apologize because these actions mean Bush apparently doesn’t trust us. Not his own citizens. Not foreigners. Not for a second. He trusts only the vocal and furious minority with the power and money to keep him where he is. They must be furious and desperate, or they wouldn’t be pursuing the scorched-earth strategies they have adopted.
Finally, apologize because we really are on the cusp of a prosperous, peaceful world, and all these actions are keeping us from it. In fact, the magnitude of turmoil in the air today is evidence of the massive tectonic pressure that has built up between the Bush world view and a new, emerging world view. Perhaps you should apologize also that the Democratic party is so bought into the process and the pressures that it is part of the problem.
Apologize for each and describe how you will change each.
It takes a strong, confident person to apologize. These apologies are also a form of pre-election foreign policy in action. Bush will have to respond, and he can’t blame Osama bin Laden for all this. (Where is that Osama, anyway?) No, this is a much larger problem, and we can solve it. Let’s start by making amends.
Gatto's in Harper's
Doc first turned me on to John Taylor Gatto's ideas years ago by steering me toward an essay Gatto had published in The Sun. I think it was his Six-Lesson Schoolteacher (upgraded to seven, then eight: forgetfulness, bewilderment and confusion, assigned classism, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provisional self-esteem and the "glass house effect," a total lack of privacy). I've been a fan ever since, and a questioner not only of compulsory education, which Gatto convincingly eviscerates, but also of our society's other compulsions.
The cover story of the September Harper's Magazine is a piece by Gatto titled Against School, and it is as startling and effective as always, even for someone who has read quite a bit of his writing. Here's an optimistic excerpt from the penultimate paragraph:
Unfortunately, Harper's doesn't make its stories accessible on the Web, so you may have to pick up an issue... or sit on the couch at the local bookstore-cum-reading room.
The cover story of the September Harper's Magazine is a piece by Gatto titled Against School, and it is as startling and effective as always, even for someone who has read quite a bit of his writing. Here's an optimistic excerpt from the penultimate paragraph:
Once you understand the logic behind modern schooling, its tricks and traps are fairly easy to avoid. School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they'll never be bored. Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology -- all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid. Challenge your kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues. Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can.
Unfortunately, Harper's doesn't make its stories accessible on the Web, so you may have to pick up an issue... or sit on the couch at the local bookstore-cum-reading room.
I'm a blogmute
Awed by the blogging of vociferous and eloquent friends such as Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Wendy Seltzer, Ross Mayfield, Adina Levin and Dan Gillmor, I've come to the realization that I'm a blogmute.
I have a blog, I know how to use it, I have the best intentions and plenty of ideas every day... but somehow, the connection between brain, fingers and blog interface is not fully formed here.
I have a blog, I know how to use it, I have the best intentions and plenty of ideas every day... but somehow, the connection between brain, fingers and blog interface is not fully formed here.
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