Today the Senate finalized an extension to the nations accumulated debt, almost entirely created under the Dubya Bush GOP Neo-Con era of Shock and Awe fearlessly unbalanced spending, in a crisis largely manufactured by Republican extremists: Tea Party Jihadists who not only refused to acknowledge their sides part in our enormous debt, but had set out with the expressed intention of forcing a default of our government plunging not only the country, but the entire world into chaos and darkness. We used to call them Visigoths or in the ordinary man's vernacular, "Barbarians" and terrorists. Today we call them Republican freshman House members mostly.
Photo - Eight miles off the coast of Portmagee in South West Kerry, Ireland, rising ominously and forbiddingly from the sea is Skellig Michael Island where men of good conscience stood down the Barbarian terrorists of their day, saving Western civilization.
Let there be no doubt, ever since this group of right wing nuts started up and began to gather, spitting on progressive members of our Black Caucus as they attempted to make their way to the floor to vote on Health Care reform, they have not only been threatening to destroy this great experiment in government that we called American Democracy, but actively attempting to do so.
While Europe was decimated during the Dark Ages Christian monks sought to salvage a way of life based on service to others and the love of God as expressed through selflessness and caring above all other things. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire to nomadic invaders, Europe itself was swept over by the cult of the Barbarian much like what happened in America during the midterm elections of 2010 when these political extremists were able to take hold of 86 seats in Congress. Consistent with the first group of Barbarians, these were a tribe of people who became destructively hostile to what they couldn't understand. The Vandals were notorious for smashing the ceramic tiles out from a large mosaic in the center of Rome while they sacked that city in order to get at a naked woman trapped inside the image. They had no interest in construction, buildings or other aspects of civilization like literature, music or the arts. You might think of that culture as much like present day Republicanism in America. If Barbarians worshiped anything it was wealth and the things of this world. Republicans have made it clear that they are willing to destroy the economy rather than have the wealthiest citizens and corporations taxed in order to provide a fairer share of the burden in supporting the rest of the country. They held no interest in human beings, even less than the vanquished Romans.
The monks of Ireland pushed to the brink finally had to make their last stand on the edge of the known world and in isolation. They rejected the idols of their day: wealth, affluence and worldly goods but sought instead to save the soul of human society and express their love of man as best they could in staying true to what they believed was God's will.
Many are saying that the government is broken and that the behavior of congressional representatives has been childish. But in the midst of this mindless romp along the edge of certain disaster we should all take heart in the dedication, courage and commitment to representing her district responsibly even at uncertain personal peril that was demonstrated by Gabriel Giffords.
Representative Giffords, like the Irish monks of old, traveled miles and miles to make her stand, but instead of traveling away from adversity to a safe, remote location, she did the opposite in order to deliver her vote personally just in case it might turn out to be the deciding vote to avoid catastrophe.
I can't say enough about Representative Gabriel Giffords and what her example has meant to many of us who thought for a while that the hope we had voted for in "08 was dead and had turned instead to despair and infighting. Gabby smiled and hugged colleagues once on the floor while receiving a spontaneous and sustained ovation from her fellows as the voting concluded. I hardly need to remind people that she had been gravely wounded during a shooting spree only seven months before that many said she could not survive. That assault left six others dead and 13, including Ms. Giffords, seriously wounded, an event many blame on the atmosphere created by Tea Party leaders who had literally "targeted" her with images of a rifle sites' cross-hairs prior to that devastating event.
There also should be no doubt that this is a stupid deal and a policy to focus on, even to prioritize, at a time when every non-partisan economist that I know of all state that cutting government spending during a recession is the wrong thing to do and the wrong time to worry about debt. In fact, government spending stimulates economic growth. With a meager 1.2% growth rate in the GDP currently this deal does indeed have the scent of a Satan Sandwichwith just a hint of a fool's errand.
We still have a long way to go before these extremists can finally be routed, hopefully as a consequence of Democratic victories in the coming general election of 2012, but thank you, Gabby, for helping us all remember to get our heads back off our chests and stand up for sanity as well as the common good.
We are all blessed by your example.
What an amazing woman.