DreamMachineHow Can You Laugh at a Time Like This? is a Dream Machine Site
The Dream Machine --- The Imagination of the World Wide Web
Google

Home Current Column Previous Columns Other Sites Libertarian Feedback

Gypsy & Willy - The Original Libertarian Bloggers

How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?

Gypsy & Willy

No. 428

Saving the World

March 15, 2006

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves...
Wm. Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

Can Oprah save the world? Of course not, at least not by herself. Now and always, the fate of our planet lies in the hands of us, the people. However, we are not unified either in deciding that the world needs saving or how to accomplish this feat if it does. Most of us spend our lives deciding what to do from day to day, how to keep food on our table and a roof over our head. Sure, we pay attention to other issues, but not in deference to basic survival.

There are also great issues that affect us all in the sense of basic survival, but we, as individuals, can do little about them, so we tend to deny them, submerge them in our subconscious or simply give up worrying about them. Pollution, overpopulation, war, severe weather changes, crime...all are issues that impact each of us...but we can not change any of them unless we are unified.

The role of great leaders is exactly to unite their people. That is why we have chosen to back Oprah for President of the United States. We would support her for president of the world if there were such a position. The comments that flow into our site, Oprah for President - 2008, from other parts of the world suggest she could win that hypothetical contest as well. But, for now, the U.S. stands as the only superpower in the world. The question is, what to do with that great power? For, as most of us can agree, along with great power comes great responsibility. Even Dubya and his cohorts support that sentiment.

Unfortunately, those men have chosen to exercise that power in the form of war, death, destruction and coercion . Just today, to satisfy the requirement that the Executive must articulate a security policy every four years to Congress, it was announced that the Bush administration will "reaffirm" its strategy of "preemptive strikes" against "terrorists and hostile states that have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons." Furthermore, on every subject from genocide to AIDS to human trafficking, their strategy describes itself as "idealistic about goals and realistic about means."

Decoding this into language understandable to us all, this means that under G. W. Bush, the U.S. declares that it has the right and responsibility to intervene anywhere, at any time, for any reason deemed "idealistic" by the people in charge, and that this will be done "realistically" by force of arms. They have amply demonstrated that force is the only power that they respect, that they will ONLY use force to affect change. This means that we can expect war, devastation and destruction at least until the election of 2008, and, if we elect a spineless Democrat to take G. W.'s place, into the indefinite future.

The Republicans, with scarcely a whimper from the Democrats, have also declared that they can do anything they wish within our borders as well, to implement this policy, and have strongly implied...again with little dissent from the Democrats...that anyone who disagrees with any of this is vaguely treasonous, not in support of our "armed forces," of our "men and women in uniform."

Isn't it time we back away from leadership like this and turn to someone who advocates a different approach to "responsible" use of power? Someone who stands for cooperation, unity and joy? Someone who does not think it is weak to advocate freedom and justice? Someone who believes that we do not need to kill people to change minds? That there are better ways?

We are told...incessantly...that we must be "firm" with terrorists, showing no mercy, or they will surely win. Oh, really? How exactly are they going to do this? By constant suicide missions killing innocent civilians? It is very difficult for us to believe that any sizeable fraction of the world's society...except the truly insane...wants this type of slaughter to continue. But, if the alternative is bowing to the tanks, guns and warships of the mighty U.S. military, allowing the massive slaughter that we CAN inflict and HAVE inflicted on other peoples when we unleash that force, then more and more people will move from the "sane" to the "insane" column. More and more of those directly affected will think that the only alternative is to kill as many of "our men and women in uniform" as possible and to hell with anybody else who gets in the way.

This is precisely what is happening. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it is getting worse day-by-day.

It is time for a change...a RADICAL change.

It is time to elect someone who doesn’t want the job, for nobody in his or her right mind would COVET this job. Oprah does not and has said so, repeatedly. That's why we must convince her to change her mind. Only someone like her can unite US and lead US to change the world into a world of peace, tolerance and...yes...joy.

Talk to you later...


If you would like to recommend this column to some friends, click HERE and fill in their email addresses in the form you will find there, along with your comments.
To contact Willy or Gypsy and comment on what they have written...or anything else...write to willy@dreamagic.com or gypsy@dreamagic.com.

Gypsy's Photo Gallery

Cerzan

...the best independent ISP in the Twin Cities


Back to the table of contents.
The Dream Machine --- Network Services