The Sports Wannabe

“Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.”

-Edward R. Murrow

It seems that everyone from presidential candidates to PTA members are very quick to blame the George W. Bush for the current state of our nation, as well how we are viewed internationally. While Mr. Bush may have had the final word on most of the decisions that have destroyed our country’s reputation, not to mention our economy, a closer look reveals that the American people shoulder just as much blame.

Time after time, we allowed this faux cowboy to charm us with his cute mispronunciations and naive slogans. We preached his mindless rhetoric, in an effort to impress our co-workers with our vast foreign policy knowledge. We demanded that we “smoke them out of their holes” and rationalized major setbacks by explaining that “(insert whatever the latest blunder from the executive branch) is hard work”.

Your bravado was reinforced by your daily glance at fox news and adding cnn.com as one of your favorite websites. Why would Tony Snow lie to you?

Did you ever consider these “news outlets” may have an agenda? Were people blindly supporting this crusade because they feared the perception of not “supporting the troops”? Was the Bush Administration coming down with a bad case of McCarthyism?

Instead of questioning authority, you decided to go buy a god bless America bumper sticker and play “Born in The USA” over and over (naturally not listening to anything but the chorus, and contemplating how you could be as patriotic as The Boss). You clamored for every piece of news on the war, but never sought out independent information. Why do something as inefficient as that when watching 24/7 news channels is so much more exciting?!? The sexual energy Bill O’Reilly brings to a newscast in undeniable. His show was a newscast right?

Yep, you remember the good ol’ days. Crank up your John Mellencamp, because you won’t want to hear this.

This is all your fault. All of it.

As a 14 year old sitting in my 9th grade civics class, I distinctly remember our teacher telling us how we needed to invade Iraq to prevent another attack. At least half of our class was confused. Isn’t Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan? Why are we going into some other country that they say is making “Weapons of Mass Destruction”? If they had those why would they have to use a plane as their weapon to take down the towers?

I swear to you, I asked all these questions. All of which were met with scoffs and assertions that my mental capacity was insufficient to comprehend an issue this complex.

I say this not to parade my own foresight, as I wish I was wrong. I use this as an example.

I didn’t watch news networks. I didn’t try to dissect the President’s barely coherent speeches. I just put together the non-specific, completely factual pieces that contained no spin or bias.

In other words, I was ignorant enough to see why this was illogical.

Now, I may be expecting entirely too much from the American public, but I would hope we can learn from our period of low brain oxygen mistakes.  My advice: Stop being so damn stupid. Think for yourselves. No, wait. Just think period. Use your brain. For one WHOLE DAY, don’t read, listen to or watch anything that has to do with celebrity gossip. Go read the world news section of the newspaper. Write down the definition, in your mind, of the following phrases: supporting the troops, patriotism, terrorist, Anti-American, Diplomacy.

Now, remove any non-tangible words or objects from those definitions. If there is anything left, way to go. Looks like two of those brain cells bumped into each other and out came logic. If nothing remains, go ask your mother why she decided to pollute the gene pool.

Remember Mr. Murrow’s words at the top of this post. If we ever plan to regain our standing in the world, that is where we need to start.

Till the next time I watch Good Night, and Good Luck,

Samuel