Tonight President Bush is going to give yet another prime time speech, this time the theme is Immigration and his plan to assign armed National Guard troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexican Border. After his stunt on the aircraft carrier, his “Cowboy” mentality will get its public exercise. Will he approach the guard units on horseback? Wear a 10-gallon hat? Chaps? I can’t believe this address is taken as serious, and in responding to questions about the duration of the troops being stationed, a White House response was that it wasn’t permanent, but temporary. Could this be another Katrina-style photo-op? As the First Cowboy rides off into the sunset and the last photo is taken, will the Commander give the order: “Troops dismissed.”? Questions to a Washington Post online commentator: “What would be the reaction if the troops open fire?” The clinical reply, that this would not be the nature of the “Kent State” killings of innocents, but reaction might depend on who was killed (!). If women or children killed = Bad. If the victims were men, particularly young ones, his response was, “It might play out very well for the GOP.” Good God. But it got me thinking about Kent State, 36 years ago on May 4th. I had been back from a year working in Japan, had just started a new job in a travel agency and was trying to cope with re-entry to a country split apart. I remember being on a bus with a group of travel agents shortly after Kent State and the subject of the killings came up. The woman sitting next to me, in her 50’s or early 60’s, said the students had it coming. I couldn’t believe my ears. Those years from 1967 until Nixon’s resignation filled me with an unforgiving outrage, one which only time has allowed me to perhaps use in a more constructive way. As the country was polarized then, I look at Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and know these are people also still filled with outrage, but the polar opposite of mine. Political advantage and a distracted population have allowed these angry, bitter men to use their outrage in the most destructive of ways. These are people still bitter over losing the war in Viet Nam, and one has the feeling they’re going to fight this one until the end. It’s no wonder they’re spying on American citizens, investigating and punishing their enemies, torturing, lying and ignoring the poor, the aged, the disadvantaged. Is it near the tipping point? Please – I hope so. |
