On the 4th of July, we celebrate the fighting spirit of those patriots who were willing to face sacrifices standing up to King George III. They risked jail and even death to end George III’s rule over America because they loved their country enough to fight for it.
This week, surrounding Independence Day, will we mourn the loss of that dedication, that patriotism, that willingness to fight for our country? Or will we embrace it?
Is George W any better than George III? In 1776, patriots were angry that George III was putting the interests of Britain over the interests of the American people. Does George W show any more concern for the people we pay him to govern and protect?
The Democrats in Congress are no more willing to challenge George W than British parliament was to challenge George III. They will not act unless we push them to act. We must lead this fight or there will be none.
Before the stationary stores close today, everyone who loves his country should be gathering supplies to make protest signs. In every city where there are celebrations of patriotism, there should be displays of patriotism and reminders that George W has betrayed our country more than once.
During the Viet Nam war, he supported the bloodshed but refused to fight. He hid in the Champaign Unit of the Texas Air National Guard while others died in his stead, and then he deserted.
When he couldn’t win the 2000 election fairly, he subverted democracy itself to seize the throne.
He lied us into a horrible war and in the process, he took the lives of thousands of loyal American service men and women.
When Joe Wilson tried to reveal the truth so Americans could make a wise judgment, so democracy could work, King George W’s henchmen exposed Wilson’s wife, a loyal American working in the CIA to make our country safe. It ended her work. It endangered her, and it endangered anyone who gave her information that might have helped our country.
At that time, George W stood before the nation and said he wanted nothing more than to see the criminals caught. Then Scooter Libby helped the criminals get away, and George W helped Libby get away, removing the jail sentence and having Republican cronies raise money to pay Libby’s fine.
How much more are we willing to take?
Bush, having once promised to restore honor to the White House, has so degraded the Office of the President that children in history classes are stumped trying to comprehend why Richard Nixon was run out of office. Watergate, after all, was a relatively small crime designed to secure an election Nixon would have won anyway. Bush’s crimes have changed the course of history for the worse, steering our ship of state into the rocks.
Have our standards for presidential conduct slipped so low? In the 1970s Republican congressmen approached Nixon and told him he must resign for the good of our nation. Today, even Democratic congressmen fear clearing their throats.
In 2006, we elected Democrats to Congress in hopes they would protect us from further betrayals. They have not.
Democratic politicians are currently afraid to fight. We must make them afraid not to.
We must voice our protest loudly, and we must make it clear any politician who tolerates what Bush has done will be voted out of office as Gerald Ford was. You’re either with America or you’re with the traitors.
The American flag, displayed so widely these days, was a call to patriotism against tyranny. It still is.
"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man." -Thomas Paine