N O R T H C O A S T T IM E S E A G L E , JABRUARY 2005
PAGE 5
on in their communities The best thing we can all do is work
hard to make our government better; do what we can on a
national and state level by writing letters and stay on our
representatives' backs, and as much as we can, pay close
attention to what is going on.
We need to keep our heads up out of the sand, our wits
about us, a sense of humor for our sanity — and look to the 06
elections.
GAY BEAUDET
For all of President Bush’s talk about a so-called owner
ship society, it’s ironic that he is not focused on the things that
would genuinely boost ownership among ordinary Americans:
good jobs, fair wages and a reduction in wealth disparity.
If President Bush were truly interested in promoting
ownership in America, he would stop pursuing economic policies
that reward the few while the many lose ground For starters, he
would:
Start fixing a broken health care system that is straining
families and small businesses.
Drop his opposition to a living wage
Abandon his plans to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest
1%, those who make $1 million or more. (They already received
$148 billion in tax cuts last year.)
Craft trade and tax policies that clamp down on the flight
of jobs abroad.
Ditch his risky Social Security privatization scheme that
would require benefit cuts and jeopardize millions of men and
women who live a few steps away from relentless poverty.
J O A N N E R ID E O U T
MATTWUERKER
K A R E N M IL L E N
E L IZ A B E T H M E N E T R E Y G R A N T
I think it is just like the tsunami that has happened. It is
catastrophic for the world. We don’t know how long it will take
to recover. It's like a wave; you can't see what is underneath.
A friend says the Bush administration is a juggernaut
that just keeps rolling forward and crushes everything in its path
IR IS S U L L IV A N D A R E
I’m very concerned that really irrational decisions are
being made that are not life serving.
These decisions and the path they are plowing are so
irresponsible with life-threatening long-term consequences.
They are not addressing the real issues of community
health. I feel our society and earth are becoming more fragile:
we are still using fossil fuels without looking into alternative
sources.
I don't understand where it’s coming from. It is so
shortsighted and short-term it is frightening. It is the definition
of hubris.
It seems from my spiritual basis a slap in the face of
God. But they present themselves as if they have a mandate
from God.
It is so self-serving. Worse, it is delusional. I guess they
are so wealthy they think their children will not be affected.
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I had been optimistic about Kerry’s chance and I was
surprised and deeply depressed when Bush was elected. The
so-called moral values" quotient especially saddened m e _
how the quest for improved civil rights for gays and lesbians
was twisted into fear mongering and intolerance and was manip
ulated into a force that won the Presidency.
The consequences are so huge I can hardly articulate
them. Social programs will be slashed, education and health
care — for many people this is life and death.
I don't think Bush cares about the poor. It seems he
is trying to dismantle the government — for instance, Social
Security is supposed to be a safety net but instead he’s trying
to change it into a risky investment scheme.We have a disaster
on our hands, like a force of nature that wreaks havoc on our
lives.
The thing I am concentrating on is community action.
I see around me people getting more active about what is going
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
A major issue of the 2004 Presidential election should
have been whether Iraqis in their newfound American-imposed
democracy have the right to vote for the President of the United
States in their own much-ballyhooed elections.
After all, the President sent America's armed forces to
Iraq to depose a dictator and force democracy upon the people,
overseen of course by those same American soldiers. Because
it is so obvious that the dictates of the President are the law in
Iraq, doesn't it seem appropriate that Iraqis be allowed to help
choose a President who has so much power over their country?
This is a major consideration — it is essential to have
an international political party (or parties) if there is to be a
global economy dominated by amalgamated multinational
megacorporations that are fundamentally interlocking
commercial empires commanding vast wealth and political
influence. Parochial politics are inadequate to defy the global
power structures forming beyond the shores of the USA that are
protected and augmented by its military and political superpower
preeminence. For that same reason, we must allow universal
suffrage for election of the American Presidency, which George
W. Bush has demonstrated has so much impact on the world.
In a world community, political parties as well as labor
unions, medical/health and environmental organizations must
think and act globally and develop the globalization of political
power, in particular for the representation of the immense and
rapidly expanding global underclass.
The paradox is that the USA simultaneously acts
as successor to Rome and the British Empire in world affairs
(‘The New World Order') while rejecting global influence in its
own internal affairs.
Bush is more than arrogant, he is wrong when he claims
it is unnecessary to adhere to world opinion when the United
States unilaterally acts in its own interest by preemptive invasion
of other nations (or by threatening to). If the U S. intends to rule
the world, the implications of our own Constitution underscore
the rights of populations under our thumb to have a say as well
as a vote in our governance and global policies. Even Rome
granted citizenship to non-Roman members of its empire (with
exceptions).
The election of 2004 has been as much about the
millennial madness erupting all over the world as it was electing
a President. As has often been said, democracy is an old dream
that devours itself, and perhaps the USA is crossing into a dark
ness of empirical theocracy and perpetual religious intolerance,
cruelty and strife — globally as well as domestically — for at
least as long as the Crusades that convulsed the first millennium
of the Christian calendar for more than three centuries.
-MICHAEL PAUL McCUSKER
I was extremely grumpy when Bush was elected but I’m
trying to remember politics is cyclical and not be too depressed.
But I think what is happening, if you pull back from a
historical vantage, is a conservative response to terrorism in
the aftermath of 9/11.
9/11 knocked the American public off-balance and
they sort of circled the wagons. People do that when they feel
threatened.
I think, because we have a democratic system that
allows us freedom of speech, it is up to Democrats to come up
with a meaty response, but all I hear is whining and platitudes.
I voted against Bush and not necessarily for Kerry,
which is not a way to build a stable system.
What alarms me is hearing rumblings about Democrats
running Hillary Clinton for President Not because she is not
competent to be President — But it is obvious that the majority
of voters are not ready for a female President, no matter who
she is.
If we want another four to eight years of what we have
now, all we have to do is put up a candidate who cannot be
elected in this climate.
L IA M D U N N E
I think the most aggressive Party won.
If John Kerry was the best Presidential candidate the
Democratic Party has to offer us, then we got what we deserve
we deserve what we get.
The candidate of the entire election who acted like
he had nothing to lose was, to me, the most interesting of the
bunch. Al Sharpton.
The consequences of the election underscore the
necessity for either a quick evolution or a slow revolution of how
we do the business of elections.
May God help us all.
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