WE'VE BEEN SELFISH
Hear me out -
You may be thinking, brothers and sisters, that I am writing to you today to accuse my President, George Bush, and my Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and their people, of being selfish.
But I'm not.
You may be expecting that I'll rail on and on about how George Bush was born with a silver WASP spoon in his mouth and that he was never taught responsibility or empathy by his mother, Barbara Bush. I could say that Barbara and George's wife, Laura, won't brook criticism of their husbands or children under any circumstances and so, it follows, they never taught their offspring self-examination or social responsibility.
But I won't.
There is no point in doing so. Bush and Cheney are what they are. The American people may not have chosen them as leaders in 2000 but they did give them enough votes in 2004 to allow them to retain their power, notwithstanding the possible voting fraud in Ohio and other places. Yes, they may have stolen some votes. If they did, they underestimated themselves the number of votes they could get legally, and so created that huge margin they ended up with by stealing, perhaps, a few too many. It's funny that it never occurred to them that they may not need to steal votes at all. Because the American people were willing to believe in them, or at least look the other way and PRETEND to believe in them, in order to stay safe.
We can't change George Bush and Dick Cheney. They are too old and they've been too successful doing things their way for too long. We also can't change the people manipulating them by misinforming them or withholding information from them, either. We can't even change their most devout believers - the Americans who still think things are going well.
And we can't get what we need from them - security, transparency in government, accountability, a response to our basic needs for jobs, healthcare, and education.
We can't even get them to help us before or directly after disaster hits.
It seems, brothers and sisters, that those in Washington D.C. have abandoned us to take care of our own needs and safety.
They cannot give us what we need.
But perhaps it is We, the people, who've been selfish.
Because we haven't considered them, George Bush and Dick Cheney, as people.
Hear me out -
I say, brothers and sisters, rather than wallow in this reality, we take a good hard look at the facts of this situation and we figure out what We, the people, can do to help ourselves.
As a wife and mother, I've learned that you really can't make someone else fill your needs unless that person can empathize with you - even if that person loves you.
So it must be really hard for George Bush and Dick Cheney to recognize the needs of We, the people from their distant lives of privilege, success, and power. We don't even have love to call on, in this situation.
As a wife and mother, I've learned that sometimes what DOES work is to turn the tables, and think about the problem from THEIR perspective, in order to figure out what that perspective is, overcome objections and obstacles, and get what I need from the other person.
I am here today to talk about our own selfishness and to say it is time to think outside the box to affect real change and get action.
Hear me out -
Because people are dying all over the place.
George Bush and Dick Cheney are clearly trapped in a very small reality of their own making. What will it take to break through to them?
We need to figure out what George Bush and Dick Cheney NEED. Not tell them what we need. They don't care about us, it is clear.
What do they NEED to see that the way they work is not working?
They're in charge for now folks. We need to get through to them.
What will it take? Letters from some of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina? Clothing and wedding rings from those who've died on the streets of New Orleans? Photographs of disaster, death, illness, and human misery from Iraq and Afghanistan hand-delivered to them by returning soldiers or the families of those who've died in Iraq? The statements of middle-level employees of local, state, and federal government and NGO's? Video tributes and pleas from the parents, spouses, and children of dead soldiers?
Do they need to be shunned socially?
Do they need loving reprimand by their ministers and children?
They see protest as hostile political critique and nothing more. They have no apparent regard for the will of the people as it is exercised in polls, in our representatives in Congress, or in our calls and letters.
Perhaps they need something different to break through their denial. Perhaps they need something filled within themselves so that they may have room in their hearts and minds to hear, see, and feel the needs of the people they've been elected to lead.
Brothers and sisters - What do George Bush and Dick Cheney need?