Is President Bush clueless or is he just so emotionally bankrupt that nothing can get inside and truly tug on and at his heart?
This online essay got me thinking see:
HE IS THE PRESIDENT WHO DOES NOT FEEL - An essay by E.L. Doctorow
Edited on Sun Oct-29-06 01:01 AM by Karenca
"An Essay On Our President"
I fault this president (George W. Bush) for not knowing what death
is. He does not suffer the death of our twenty-one year olds who wanted
to be what they could be.
Jump to see more below...
the article continues:
On the eve of D-day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for
the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what
death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than
Eisenhower could bear.
But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind
for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for
the WMDs he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to
the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd,
smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He
doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the
course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and
speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice
for their country.
But you study him; you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an
emotion, which he does not feel in the depths of his being because
he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for
the thousand dead young men and women who wanted be what they could
be. They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a
terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable
remembrance of aborted life.... They come to his desk as a political liability which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival
of their coffins from Iraq ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com...
What more is there to say? She puts everything I have felt into this essay.
When I look at what is going on with this economic crisis I cannot help but feel that Bush's disconnection from reality is tied to this.
The man has no idea how we feel as a whole in this country.
As a result the county is ill. We are traumatized from 9/11 and we collectively have not been allowed to heal because our dear leader does not do healing. Look at his response to the shoe incident. Does anyone rational "normal" person think his reaction was healthy?
He ducked, which is a metaphor for how he has led, then the proceeded to make light of an incident that has huge ramifications for his Presidency and our policy in Iraq and the MiddleEast. Instead of using the opportunity to address the people of Iraq who are really hurting, much like us here in the USA, he responded with a joke. He is so not in touch with himself that he could not allow the significance of the moment to seep in and deal with the real issues that the shoe thrower represented.
Bush is a dry alcoholic. They do not drink anymore but the alcoholic behavior still remains. A dry alcoholic makes everyone around him sick because he or she does not come to term with their problems. Bush is not an emotionally healthy person and as a result of this he has drawn us into his sickness. Everything he touches dies because he is dead inside. Just look at the carnage he has wrought.
The last 8 years have been a disaster but looking at Bush you would not know it. He is surrounded by a cabal of enablers, not unlike the dry alcoholic, who allow him to continue down his distructive path. It appears there is no one including his wife, his parents, his children,his friends or his siblings who are willing to tell him the truth or if they do he just does not care or just does not listen.
A healthy President is vital because he then puts forth healthy policies and healthy policymakers who carry out his vision. If the person who has all the power in the world to make or break any and everything he touches is a person who cannot mourn, who cannot connect, who cannot feel true and genuine emotion then the country and world that he leads will be affected and infected.
The world is gasping for air, its inhabitants are suffering, deep psychic scars are left unhealed from traumatic wars and acts of terrorism, our world economy is flailing, disease, hunger and resource wars are upon us and this has all happened, and violently so, under Bush's watch. Yet, what does he do? He is running his victory tour, making xmas videos of his dog, preparing to move into a neighborhood that did not allow people of color before 2000 and trying to force people to see how good he has been for us and this world by lying about his record.
January 20th please hurry we are desparate for this man this plague to end. We cannot take much more of Bush's goodwill thank you very kindly sir. Now get the bleep out!!!