When I heard that the Olympic Committee turned down President Obama's bid to hold the 2016 Olympics in Chicago, I was not surprised one bit. After all, this country isn't what she used to be. At one point, America was a beacon of hope, of opportunity, of freedom. Most people aren't going to like hearing this, but America is ashamed for what she has become. In the last ten to fifteen years, she's fallen and faltered and become a shadow of her former self.
America once was a land of opportunity. Another country once gave us a statue silently speaking the words:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Somewhere along the way, greed took over and betrayed those words of grace. Many say it happened long ago, but I believe, things really took a turn for the worse when Republicans, lead by Newt Gingrich, who wrote the "Contract For America" (which I refer to as the Contract
on America) and created K-Street. Since then, the voice of the people was lost on the ears of politicians. If this was not the beginning of our demise, it was certainly a major milestone that accelerated our journey there. Egged on by extreme right wing talking heads like Rush Limbaugh, the right's need for greed and control grew to monstrous proportions and infected all of Congress and the Administration. The way politics was done was radically and, for all appearances, forever changed. Some politicians have tried to change this, but their attempts are met with extreme resistance and the resulting legislation becomes weak at best and easily bypassed with simple work-arounds the lobbyists come up with. With the game fixed and set and the Republicans, it became child's play to take over Congress attack the Administration and control the message. He who controls the Congressman's wallet controls the Universe (apologies to Frank Herbert).
So it is, with such a system in place, that the Republicans could control the agenda for Clinton and pursue him on endless witch hunts until they caught him in a sex scandal, proceeding to waste tens of millions in taxpayer money in a failed impeachment investigation. During this time, the far right was whipped into a series of domestic terrorism attacks from bombings of Planned Parenthood clinics to the bombing at the Olympics, organizations like Branch Davidian and culminating in the Oklahoma City Bombing. The right's hatred for social justice, tolerance and everything the Statue of Liberty stood for, egged on by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and his cronies, were bubbling to a boiling point.
But those days were innocent compared to the 8 years that followed. Since then, America took a dive into a dark age with an illegitimate President selected, not by the people, but by a Republican dominated Supreme Court. Bush's incompetence and staffing of his administration, not with qualified individuals, but those who deserved payback for their financial and political support, were to lead to some of the greatest tragedies this country has ever seen. This system incompetence ignored the legitimate threats of an attack, provided inadequate response, drove a cover up into oversight and investigations and finally demonization of those who would seek the truth. This was true not only of 9/11 but also the Iraq War and Katrina. And then there was a justification and complicity by the Press who failed to report on the truth of 9/11, on the Iraq War, on Gitmo, on Presidential powers, and yes on Katrina as well. While Katrina was indeed covered, who can forget these two pictures as they were labelled by the AP:
The 5th estate had sadly become part of the corrupted mechanism and the responsibility of that estate fell to the progressive bloggers to hold the system accountable. If it were not for places like Kos and DU, I believe many would not know the truths they know today and we'd still be in a very dark place.
But the damage to America was done, and it was done well, despite our outrage and our clarion calls. America may never know the secrets of 9/11. America has destroyed a country and killed 100's of thousands of innocent people under false pretenses; we were led into a 7-year war under false intelligence created by the Bush administration. America committed torture, rendition and unlawful imprisonment, violated the Geneva convention as well as Habeas Corpus and suspension of the Constitution by spying on its own people. And Republicans thumbed their noses at the World for calling them on their wrong-doings. With words and policies, the Bush Administration attacked not only the UN but also our allies who were all along standing by our side to bring the 9/11 terrorists to justice. Slowly and surely, one by one, our allies quietly walked away from us because of the Republican concept of cowboy diplomacy. Equally bad was what was happening to our own people. The Republican controlled government stood by and just watched as a predominately black and poor city was left to be destroyed by one of the by-producs of Global Climate Change (a phenomena which is still denied by Republicans). And the largest transfer of wealth was made by Republican policies as a gift to the richest 1% of the nation who now holds 95% of the nation's equity. All the while, 44 thousand people a year were and continue to die because they cannot afford healthcare.
I can't imagine why the world doesn't want to come to America for the 2016 Olympics. After seeing how the Republicans have worked to stop every initiative to repair and undo the damage they've caused to this once great country, the World is justifiably unwilling to come here for the Olympics. Despite President Obama's best effort to convince them he is working to turn America around, they just can't do it. Imagine if a foreigner was injured or got sick while here for the Olympics. Our health system would surely take care of them though, for a price. While I am disappointed, I can't blame them for not wanting to come here. What Republicans have done to this country is a disgrace. Sadly, it's something the Republicans are proud of as they wallow in it with their cheers as they celebrate what they've done.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
