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Tennessee State Flower

I’m not going to sit here and write to you what I think about President George W. Bush as we spend the next 48 hours bringing in a new president. I think you know how I feel as I haven’t been bashful about it. I think his presidency has been a nightmare for the American people and for the globe.

I think the largest concern I have about Bush is all the secrecy, and of course, mainstream beltway journalists deciding to work in collusion with him instead of, I don’t know, covering the facts.

How many national presidential directives did he sign? I guess because I want to know I need to look that up.

Anyhoo, I am hoping that the next four years will be more transparent. Everyone uses that term these days but it applies. I hope for our country that we work together instead of trying to pull each other apart. I hope that we can lay down some labels that have been volleyed around as a means of verbal weaponry to reduce other people. I hope that we can come together.

In looking back to the last 15 years, our country has been in some troubling times. The Oklahoma bombing (perpetuated by Timothy McVeigh), 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and more.

But we face a new less dramatic yet still devastating time in our history in this country. Job losses, a recession that the average person knew about long before the government confirmed it, a continuing war and the list goes on. These things peck away at the common man/woman like a cancer and although it’s not the devastation of NOLA, it’s still very important to remember we all have to work together.

With that said, I’m watching the English Only vote in Nashville right now. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on making sure everyone speaks English. Umm, we already speak English. And the second amendment, what’s that all about? I would vote no, no and hell no if I lived there.

So I’ll take you to Compassion in Politics:

The english only discussion in Nashville is an interesting micro-chosm of a larger societal tension between the global and the local. But in 2009 it seems like its a bit misguided–with the those favor trying to oversimplify the issue and ignore the Constitutional ones. It should not be an immigration issue–it should be a Constitutional one. Our fourteenth Amendment means with must respect the interests of minorities. Will we allow the xenophobic fear drums to be beat to such an extent that we suppress and exclude minorities?

This is just one example of putting a lot of effort into something that is going to, if passed, instigate a boatload of lawsuits, which of course, will cost the taxpayers even more money. I have never had anyone tell me I have to speak Spanish or German to them to get services.

All of this is connected for me. We have some mighty walls to climb right now and I think if we, no matter what our political biases might be, need to work together.

And we can start by having a little compassion, a little understanding and move away from the past eight years which have created an unforgiveable habit of dealing with Weapons of Mass Distraction.

Which means what’s really going on under the surface in our country can’t be seen.

I hope we move away from that in the days ahead.