I'm dreaming of a dream. (Shortened)

[Infinite Hope]

I’m having a dream that this is all a dream. Six years forecast in a flash of the mind. All the pain, anger, and misfortune is merely a dream – a dream to see what havoc Bush would bring. I will wake up and the 2000 election would be waiting.

Of course it’s a dream. Could the environmental damage really have happened? Eliminating pollution by declaring one of four major pollutants no longer a pollutant?!

A terrorist attack that was preventable – we had two of the conspirators in custody beforehand and they had information and reports it was imminent – I mean get real! Obviously it’s a dream! Silly me.

Revoking our civil rights and liberties? Detaining innocent people without due process or even military tribunals? We learned the lessons of Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, FDR. We’re better than that. We’ve been enlightened by our past. Silly me. Of course it’s a dream.

Privatizing Social Security when there’s plenty of funding to make the program solvent…if we just stop using it as a discretionary fund? No one would subject social security to the stock market when the volatile stock market was a large reason it was created, would they?!

Allowing a hurricane to massacre thousands without evacuating them? They could have mobilized those busses and prevented millions of dollars in damage at the same time as saving thousands of lives. This dream is going from creepy to laughable. No way would we elect someone who would wreak such havoc – not once, much less twice.

Would we have sent 250,000 troops to Iraq without armor? Did I really think that was possible? What a nightmare! Then maintaining as much as 150,000 troops without giving them proper armor even 4 years later in most cases? The people wouldn’t elect such a man once, much less twice.

As I awake from my daydream, I realize, sadly, the last 6 years have hit home and been far too real to deny. My father lost his factory job due to the declining economy in my senior year of high school. I questioned if I could even go to college now. We no longer had health insurance either.

I made it to college, seeking a degree in Political Science, in a conservative state and the few of us who held views opposed to Bush’s were chastised and personally criticized in class discussion – sometimes with profanity. The instructor would have to end discussion at times – how symbolic of the Bush years – and we’d lose on the positive effects of productive dialogue.

My brother was sent to Iraq without proper armor. Minnesota's Republican governor stepped in and provided them with upgraded armor. My brother was shot while in Iraq several times, most of it hitting his chest. With the armor Bush sent him there with, he'd have been dead. Instead, he has a bullet and shrapnel stuck in his arm. To remove it would risk nerve damage and loss of use of his arm.

If only my reflective daydream today were just that, a daydream.

[knowledgeispwr]

1. Powerful

A pretty good summary of some of the worst parts of the Bush years. I wish it were just a dream myself.