From www.washingtonpost.com
America's decade of dread
This decade began and ended in dread. It began with Wall Street -- the World Trade Center -- targeted for mass murder. It ends with Main Street fearful and reeling from economic reverses that Wall Street helped create.
It was the decade of distraction. While the U.S. economy bubbled and then crumbled, the president for eight of the decade's 10 years embroiled us in a grudge match with Saddam Hussein and then persisted in throwing lives and money into the chaotic conflict that (as many predicted would happen) ensued. The decline of the American middle class was nowhere on his radar screen.
The dread in the land today isn't just a fear of losing your job -- or of your spouse, sister, father or child losing his or hers. It's a fear that America has been hollowed out, that we don't have a sustainable path back to mass prosperity, let alone to economic preeminence
If one person can be singled out for his impact on America and the world during the first decade of the 21st century, it would be George W. Bush. His "legacy", if you will, is the world of another George, the never-born George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life but without the angel and without a happy ending. Like George Bailey, we have come to in a world that looks familiar but in fact has been totally taken over by the worst of human instincts and proclivities.
The parallels between the movie and the reality are remarkable. At the center of both are the money men, the bankers, who have no morality, no compassion, and no soul. They worship at the Temple of Profit and pray to the god of Greed. They have suckered the little guy into buying into get-rich-quick schemes in which only the money men get rich quick. The poor slobs are left to struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. To ponder the future is to risk madness.
The future of the money men on the other hand is one of endless bounty having been secured and assured by the politicians who are their facilitators and enablers. They bow and scrape before their lords and masters and scramble for the scraps of largess that are thrown their way. Their only purpose in life is self-preservation. They will never bite the hand that feeds them. And therefore, they will never do anything that might help the little people if it incurs the wrath of their masters.
And the ultimate groveler and toady was single-handedly chosen by the masters of the universe for his stupidity and ignorance to be America's president and the "leader" of the free world. It was a stroke of genius. And just to make sure that he would never disobey them, they placed a truly evil and amoral man to hold Bush on a short leash. If Bush is the public image of the Decade of Disaster, then Dick Cheney is his dark shadow that casts a pall of gloom and depression in his wake.
I know. I know it's Christmas. Time to rejoice at the glad tidings of the angels. A Savior has been born to us....the King of Kings....the Prince of Peace. Except for the TV and newspapers ads urging us to buy our way to happiness this Christmas, I don't see much of the true meaning of Christmas which is Jesus' message of hope and redemption being heralded or for that matter practiced.