Page 16
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August II, 2010
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Our Grandchildren Deserve Better
Take your
laughs where
you can
D onald K a li .
W e live in grim
tim es, w hich is w hy
y o u h a v e to ta k e
your laughs w here
you can get them .
F or e x am p le, in W ash in g to n ,
w here R epublican congresspeople
keep talking about their concern for
their grandchildren as an excuse for
voting a g a in s t...w e ll, p ractically
e v e ry th in g : e c o n o m ic stim u lu s
packages, financial reform , im m igra­
tion reform , etc.
T hey say they don't w ant to hang
a huge debt around the necks o f
th eir p o o r g ran d ch ild ren , thereby
robbing the tikes o f a future. W hat
a laugh.
In truth, y o u r average R ep u b li­
can co ngressperson w ould feed his
g ran d ch ild ren to allig ato rs if he
thought it w ould get him enough
cam paign loot to put him over the
top in the next election.
Thus w e w ere presented w ith the
delicious irony o f C ongress giving
up on clim ate le g isla tio n -la rg e ly
bv
because o f R epublicans w ho say
they don't believe in global w arm ­
in g -ju s t as the m ercury in W ash­
ington topped 103 degrees. O h, and
by the w ay, it also hit 105 degrees in
M oscow the oth er day. T hat m ay
not be p ro o f o f global w arm ing,
but it's a hint.
A good num ber o f the R epub­
licans said they w ere thinking o f
th eir g ran d ch ild ren w hen they
voted. A pparently the kids like
hot w eather.
Then there's the cosm ic coinci­
dence o f the B P me lodrama in the G ulf
reaching a pause, ju st as another
huge oil spill plum ed in C hina and
experts m onitored the million gallons
o f gasoline that poured into a creek
and the K alam azoo R iver from a rup­
tured pipeline as it traveled toward
Lake M ichigan. Gee, I thought they
only happened every hundred years
or so. Drill, baby, drill.
M o d em R epublican politicians
have no interest in the future b e ­
yond the next election. W ith an
o ccasio n al e x cep tio n , th ey have
been unanim ous in opposing every
O bam a initiative in an effort to d is­
credit him w ith the public.
A nd to the great sham e o f the
A m erican p eo p le, th e ir strateg y
seem s to be w orking. R ecent polls
show the public to be largely d issat­
isfied with the way President O bam a
is running things. A nd that's ju st
not the lunatic fringe talking; real
people feel that w ay too. A m azing.
It's as though the crow d at a fire
scene blam ed the firefighters for
destruction o f the building.
W ell, as H.L. M encken once said,
dem ocracy m eans giving the people
w hat they w an t—good and bad. A nd
it begins to look as though that's
exactly w hat w e're going to get.
If I sound a little more dispirited
than usual, it's because I am. I've
generally supported this president.
I've thought that he's a good man
fighting the good fight against diffi­
cult odds and m aking a decent jo b o f
it.
T he S hirley Sherrod affair, how ­
ever, gives m e pause.
By now you know the story: a
tw o-bit right-w ing blogger uncov­
ers a clip o f a black em ployee o f the
Ag D epartm ent confessing that she
had not done h er best for a client
because he w as w hite.
R acism ! A nd on the part o f a
black person! In the O bam a ad m in ­
istration! T he clip flashed around
the Internet and soon m ade ap p ear­
The W hite H ouse acted w ith a l­
m ost equal speed. In a flash and a
half, the w om an w as called to task
and fired. N o racism here, the adm in­
istration seem ed to be saying.
Except nothing w as as it seem ed.
T he w om an, far from being a racist,
w as a heroine o f the civil rights
m ovem ent and h er speech, taken in
the context intended, w as an object
lesson in the evils o f discrim ination
no m atter w hat the race involved.
The O bam a adm inistration, a ct­
ing slow er now , apologized and o f­
fered h er another jo b , as the "V ast
R ight W ing C onspiracy" laughed
out loud and con g ratu lated itself on
a jo b w ell done. It had been able,
w ith little effort, to m ake O bam a and
his m erry band o f H arvard g rad u ­
ates look like a bunch o f boobs.
The im plications are om inous.
The right and its m edia co h ort
have this adm inistration on the run.
So-called liberals have taken to look­
ing under their beds at night and
sleeping w ith the lights on.
O bam a's people took the w ord o f
a right-w ing pipsqueak o f evil rep u­
tation rath er than get the real story
from one o f their ow n.
That truly bodes ill for the future.
ances on Fox N ew s, thence to re­
spectable venues.
OtherWords columnist Donald
Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.