I Cogitate
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Out of the mouths of babes
"...I was playing foosball with an 8-year-old the other day, and the score miraculously changed while I was answering the phone. We had a talk about cheating and how the reputation of being one can ruin a person's life, and she replied: 'But what about George Bush? Everyone knows he's a liar and a cheater and he has a great life...'" -- Eric Alterman, Altercation, 3/18/07Sometimes, it takes hold-nothing-back youthful directness to transparently call out what goes on display daily in D.C. and elsewhere and is portrayed oh so 'discretely' by too many in our media.
A recent visit with my brother's family resulted in a somewhat similar event as Alterman's. My nephew's YMCA 5th grade level basketball team lost four straight games in a tournament this past weekend and he suggested to his father (the coach) that certain team members, the less talented ones, not be notified about the next game. He also added that some better players be rounded up to take the place of the deficient ones, regardless of age or grade appropriateness.
My brother responded with a quick 'that would be both wrong and unfair."
That 'geniusly' provoked "all you have to do is tell the terrible players, if they find out, is that you just forgot to call them," from my nephew before my brother concluded the conversation with, "No, wrong is wrong and we don't behave like that."
But what seemingly transpires daily in D.C. and our state capitals is deemed appropriate and acceptable. Adult behavior, with far greater serious consequences.
But more importantly and to the point, what does Alterman's anecdote tell us about the effect the Bush White House is having on our nation's moral climate? Just what has the Bush pledge of restoring of values and dignity to the White House wrought? That is, besides an on-going cornucopia of material for Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show."
Granted, it is a rush to judgment to take single incidents, ones related to Alterman and to my family, and conflate such to being the result of the national behavior of our leader. But then that didn't stop many in the media and elsewhere from doing so regarding the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, did it?
Focus On The Family's James Dobson was certainly among those in condemning Bill Clinton. Newt Gingrich kept adding any fuel he could make up to aid and fan the flames. Yet, Dobson was quite silent when Gingrich recently admitted, during a Dobson interview, that he was involved in an extra-marital affair while leading the Capitol Hill purge against Bill Clinton. Cat got your tongue Mr. Dobson? Or are your 'water carriers' exempt from the same guidelines you apply to the rest of the world? Just let me know and I'll send along a giant red H (hypocrite) for your particular scarlet letter.
Commentator Ben Wattenberg was also among those building the Bill Clinton bonfire. In fact, in a column singing the praises of Joe Lieberman for taking Clinton to task during a speech on the Senate floor, Wattenberg wrote:
"...Lieberman was the boy who said the Emperor had no clothes. Of course! That's it! It was immoral, not just inappropriate! It was not just private acts, but private acts with massive public ramifications! It was corrupting our children and our culture!"Now, that's fine, go ahead and repudiate Clinton's actions. They were wrong. But Ben, why the muteness about the actions of George Bush, the behavior that is corrupting our children and culture? Not a peep from you Ben--why the silence?
One could go on and on because the ammunition is endless.
More Bush Administration sleaze oozes out daily yet where is the collective media outrage? Granted, there has been some sporadic editorials here and there but name one corporate media outlet that has compiled a George Bush 'report card,' a cross-administration one connecting the multiplicity of dots that delineate just how morality-barren George Bush and his cohorts truly are?
Where are the so-called hard-and-fast 'values' leaders throughout this country, the standard bearers of behavior? Has there been an unreported nationwide outbreak of laryngitis?
Sadly, the morality pushers are performing their political calculations, as usual.
We instead have to rely on what comes forth out of the mouths of babes to tell us where we stand.
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