U.S. The People: Reclaiming We, The People

U.S. The People: Reclaiming We, The People

I'm Gonna Split Before the Cops Get Here

I'll be gradually departing from this page and can be found at a new location.
">http://www.pickumber.blogspot.com/<" The archives from this page will eventually find their way over there and all future postings will be there instead of here. As I continue to assemble bits and pieces of knowledge in my quest for blogness, I'll continue to make changes. I not only invite, but encourage input from people stopping by, so please leave a comment. Thanks.

How Stupid Are We?

The other day President George W. Bush got to thinking how he could possibly make it look like he cares about the nearly 2,000 American’s he’s killed and the hundreds of thousand that he’s placed in harms way in Iraq. Since his support base is falling apart at home and it’s been quite some time since the Administration has done anything to receive positive press, George is apparently shopping outside the nation for support. In yet another display of brilliance, he set up a teleconference with the troops to ask how it’s going

It seems that the President can’t rely on reports from the Pentagon and his military commanders in the Middle East to let him know how things are failing to progress over there. As the PR people work over time trying to find different ways they can wag the dog, White House press secretary Scott McClellan reported on MSNBC.com the president wanted to talk with the ground troops that have first hand knowledge of the situation. He also tells us that the soldiers on the call were expressing their own thoughts and any coaching that was done was to avoid technological difficulties.

Sure, I’m going to believe that! It’s been over 20 years since I was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Constellation and was privileged enough to have dinner with President Ronald Reagan and his Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. Things must have changed quite a bit since then because at that time, nothing happened by accident. Every sailor present at those meals was pre-selected and instructed as to what they could do and couldn’t do; what they could and couldn’t say to the visiting dignitaries. But I’ll believe that the five U.S. Officers and five U.S. enlisted men from the Army’s 42nd Infantry Division, along with one Iraqi soldier were just randomly selected and asked if they wouldn’t mind thinking of something to say to their Commander in Chief if he calls. I’ll believe that because I’m a stupid American.

Well, I would if I didn’t know that Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, had choreographed it down to what questions would be asked and by whom. She was kind enough to pare the direction of conversation down to just three topics. She told the troops that the President was only interested in the overall security, security for the elections and efforts to train the Iraq military.

While I can’t prove it, I’d bet the soldiers on the call to the president were selected largely in part because they won’t make any noise by asking for answers to what they really want to know. Questions like “when do we get to go home, or what’s your plan for ending all this, or why have you killed 2,000 of my brothers and sisters in arms?” Instead they responded to questions like how often do you train with the Iraqi military and how are the Iraqi’s handling the political process in Tikrit. I’m certain that’s what was on the soldiers minds.

The President must have been feeling pretty special when he started the conversation ensuring the soldiers that the United States wouldn’t pull out of Iraq until the mission is complete. That’s probably just the assurance they were looking for. It may have ruined their day if he said, “Men! I screwed up and I’m sorry! Now let’s get out of here!

“I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them know what to expect,” McClellan said referring to the rehearsal. They stopped short of saying all the Iraqi’s and all the American’s really admire President Bush and love risking their lives for reasons known only to him. The one Iraqi soldier present for the spontaneous call did offer Bush some praise. According to MSNBC.com he gushed, “Thank you very much for everything.” “I like you.”

That sounds unrehearsed to me, but I’m just a stupid American who’ll believe whatever they tell me.

HONESTY More than Just a Good Scrabble Word

A friend of mine recently disclosed to me that when a Republican colleague of hers inquired as to my political leanings, she wasn’t sure what to say. The person who was asking only knew that I wrote, and he was interested in having me do some work on a project he was involved with. My friend, being the helpful person that she is, didn’t want to disqualify me before I even knew I was being considered for the job. Knowing that he was a devout Republican and I was, at best, a bit liberal, she gave him an answer that probably seemed safe at the time.

The job I was being considered for was assisting with the development and promotion of a web site that would be a hybrid between a community online newspaper and a blog. The idea was to give readers a more in depth look at the local government, politics, and issues involving our growing community than the local print paper did. The news blog would be able to dig deeper and scratch harder; hopefully leaving deep scars, because they were not hobbled by some corporate demand to not make anyone mad. It was not until after I had met with the stockholders and creators of the site that my friend told me of the conversation she had with her colleague, in which she safely told him I was “middle-of-the-road” in my political beliefs.

“You told him what,” I gasped in disbelief?! “I’m all over the damn road, and sometimes off into the ditch politically,” I reminded my friend. For readers who are new to my written work (probably most of you), I’m so erratic in my political ideology that two different states took my driving privileges away for 10 years. Resisting the urge to stomp on my friend’s foot and then kick her in the knee for her carelessness, I forced myself to sit down on a rock, rest my head in my hands, and quietly sob.

If I had known about her colleagues’ conservative nature and Bush/Cheney bumper sticker on his Cadillac, I may have presented myself a bit differently than I did at that meeting. Instead, being the champion of honesty in communications that I am, combined with my belief that these local pillars of the community were in fact starting a revolution, I made a decision to reveal who I was and where I came from! And I held very little back.

When I went to this interview I knew I would have to reveal some things about myself. I know that because when I “google” myself, I get this warm, funny feeling inside. No, not that feeling! It’s the feeling one gets when they question a previous choice they made that can possibly come back to haunt them. The feeling you get when you type your name into a little box and hit enter, and in a fraction of a second over a half a million variations of your name are returned to you and your name is at the top of the page and appears quite liberally in the pages that follow. And the feeling intensifies when you realize anyone can click on that name and find everything you’ve ever written or anything that’s been written about you. I think the feeling is more intimidating than having your photo hanging in the post office.

When I decided to publish my thoughts and words, and then release them to the world via the internet, I was kind of naïve and unprepared for the power of the search engine. In hindsight, I’ve been forced to accept the fact that although some things are better left undisclosed, I also must accept that my past has been the single most contributing factor to who I’ve become, and will continue to influence who the future me will be. When I add that philosophy to my ongoing crusade to promote honest communication, political reform and the return of power and constitutional rights to we, the people, I’m okay with feeling a little naked and vulnerable once in awhile. That’s the attitude I had going to the interview and knew I must not only talk the talk of an honest communicator, I was also obligated to walk the walk.

And I was HONEST! I must have appeared to them like Chris Rock on crystal meth or Bill Clinton confessing his sins of the flesh to the Pope. At that interview I revealed past scuffles with substance abuse and ex-wives. I confessed womanizing and bar room fighting. I was on a roll! I told them of schemes and dreams; successes and failures! I recalled instances of working in bars and waking up behind them.

Those five respectable, upstanding citizens of the community that I now call home didn’t quite know what to think of me. I made them laugh and I made them feel bad. I shocked them with my candor, yet they continued to intensely listen. They couldn’t tell if I was flat out lying to them or if I had recently escaped from the asylum. One of them suggested I pursue a career in comedy. Perhaps I should have quit while they were laughing, but I found being blatantly honest to grip me like an addiction I couldn’t shake!

I shared with them past articles I had written and up to the minute commentary on our society and the political system, the way I see it. I let them know that I thought Bush was dangerously stupid, frighteningly incompetent and completely out of touch with the human condition. I berated American’s who blindly follow the status quo and place more value in reality television than real world issues. I told them of my 20 plus years of political apathy and openly challenged them to disagree with anything I said. By the time I was done, there was no doubt regarding whom I was and what I believed in.

When I left that evening, I was certain I had blown any chance at the position that could have been a road leading to the fulfillment of my goals. I camouflaged my disappointment by reminding myself the pay was insignificant, the reach I would have had was minor and the structure of the news blog was disorganized, if it existed at all. And then I absolved myself of any morsels of regret that lingered in my conscience by telling myself my purpose was higher than what they proposed. I should have been angry at myself because I really could have used a job. So why did I feel so wonderful and invigorated by the whole experience?

I’ve been studying public relations and communications for several years and will have my degree in December of this year. Much of my coursework focused on the image that the public relations profession is no different than snake-oil sales. Other areas of study emphasis were communication law and the effect media has on society. The most meaningful course I’ve taken was public relations ethics, in which it was necessary to evaluate your own level of ethical and moral fortitude. Many times throughout the course we had to decide where the boundaries are between right and wrong, and quite often it’s not as simple as you think.

When I went to that meeting it was important to me that I represented myself truthfully. The Greek Philosopher Socrates has said that truth is a broad subject in which you can tell a little of, or you can tell a lot of. He said the person who is being ethical is the one that tells all of it. I believe that, and have still wondered of my own limits of truthfulness. I know when I left that interview that if they did offer me the job, there would never be anything from my checkered history that could be held against me. If I was going to do the job right, I’d also possibly step on some influential toes. I believe if you’re going to do that, you can’t have a bunch of skeletons hanging in your closet.

For now, I’ll keep working to finish college and I’ll keep looking for ways to implement change. I’ll keep talking to anyone who will listen about the importance of honesty and the responsibilities that come with each American’s rights as outlined in The Constitution and Bill of Rights. I’ll keep publishing my thoughts at http://www.americanchronicle.com/ and continue teaching myself how to build my own blog at http://usthepeople.blogspot.com/ And I’ll keep trying to talk George Bush into resigning before he brings more shame onto himself and our nation. I don’t think he’s gotten the letter I sent to him. He would have certainly replied by now.

Oh! I’ll also be working on this little web site that I call a news blog. It’s at http://www.maurynewsnet.com/. Although small, it’s got great potential and is a fine example of the many ways American’s are working to ensure that our freedom of the press and expression remains untouchable to even Ol’ Fidgety George. To date, I’ve angered one candidate for Mayor, one City Manager and one Records Clerk, and the stock holders seem to keep their distance. One of them emailed me to say I was doing good work. I wonder why we don’t get together more……

Borrowing this from Andy Ostroy...

Andy Ostroy of The Ostroy Report has done a nice job of putting together a collective of George Bush's "moral" accomplishments. While it is probably not humanly, or even technologically possible to find them all, I must support those who try. Feel free to add any more examples you can think of in the comments section.
Follow this link for the article:
The Ostroy Report: The List of Bush's Lies and Policy Failures