Monday, November 13, 2006

The Future From Here

Well, folks, we’re in a better place now than when I posted my last (“Borders Broken”) piece. What largely had influenced my writing of it were the human/civil rights pushbacks of curtailment of Habeas Corpus, greenlighting of torture, “secret prisons” further scarring the worldmap, NSA-generated domestic spying, etc., etc., etc.. Soon after I wrote it, though, it occurred to me that “morphing INTO Hitler” might actually have been more accurate, but, I let it stand as it was, nonetheless. Now, undoubtedly in commendable fearful response to the warning I made there, America has reversed her downslide to hell with one of the overall best set of election results I know of in, at least, recent history. We’ve finally provided essential balance or (hopefully) effective resistance to this regime of war criminals, hypocrites, thugs, and crooks.

Yet, how ironic that the state of my residence (I still consider New York State, the state of my birth and growing up as “my state”), California, that is questionably-deservedly often thought to be in the forefront or on the cutting edge of progress, has come out way in the back of the pack with its various verdicts, this past election! First, how can they re-vote in Schwarzenegger, apparently because of his celebrity status and “charismatic” personality, and disregard the different stances on issues espoused and/or demonstrated by the candidates? And second, how stupid can people be to see ad after ad STATING that they’re brought to you by “The Chevron Corporation” and vote the way Chevron WANTS?!!! Even if I knew nothing about the issues, knowing that a particular position was being advocated by a giant oil company would be enough to swing my vote against it. The same can be said about votes on many of the other issues; but, back to the main issue at hand:

Where do we go from here? How can we use our vast elevation of power best (for the most good) and, how can we best guard against any future loss of it; in fact, is it possible to get the hat trick of The Presidency in ’06 (or, dare I utter it? – SOONER), and ADD to our power (to do “good”, for a change)? My advice is to start DOING out of the gate, as fast and hard as we can. I do NOT advocate putting impeachment on the back burner, nor certainly taking it off the table, altogether (keeping with the kitchen metaphors/clichés). We should simultaneously initiate progressive, widely helpful (to they who need it most) legislation AND begin investigations into the “sins” of the Republicans, especially those of the executive branch, that were ignored and/or swept under the rug (expanding my clichés to the rest of the house), starting with those scandals we already know something about, such as Valerie Plame, the goings on around 9/11, and false reasons for going to war, and digging deeper to see what comes up. I’m sure that what we know only scratches the surface of the tip of the iceberg (reaching even further, clichéwise). There are those who say, in effect, we should take care not to break eggshells (and back to the kitchen), not to offend or alienate our newfound allies to the right of us that the guilty have so generously bequeathed to us, by virtue of their sins (get it?). But, how often in the past have we lost the respect and sympathy of potential right-leaning support by lacking the self-confidence to espouse the content of our hearts with force, even apologizing for being “perceived as” liberal, and denying the proud worthiness of liberality? If there ever were a time for acting with boldness regarding who we are, it is now! We’ll never get a chance like this again, at least for many years, unless we use it wisely and assert it forcefully, now.

Let the investigations take us wherever the findings take us – let Truth be our guide. Even those on the further right will have to respect that. Truth shall not only set us free – it is our path to ongoing and assured success.

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