Don't Be a Hater
With elections approaching, it is useful to look back to where we've been, to give us perspective about where we are now.
Once war began, our President became the object of many attacks.
He was often compared to an ape.
The Chicago Times wrote that Americans must be filled with shame because of a speech he gave during the war, describing it as "silly, flat, and dishwatery."
In London, the capital of our closest ally, it became accepted as simple fact that the President was brutal, a warmonger, a nightmare.
The U.S. itself split in two, with half the country despising the man and his war of aggression.
He was blasted for using unappropriated money to wage the war, and accused of lying when his projections of the cost of the war were proven woefully inadequate, and debt continued to mount dramatically.
He was slammed for demolishing the Constitution, abridging civil rights in favor of security.
The war I am speaking of is the Civil War; the President, Lincoln; the speech, the Gettysburg Address.
Our current President has, of course, been through much of the same, now 150 years later. As with Lincoln, the short-term pain of Bush's war was inevitable, but it is the long-term -- and currently unknowable -- effects that he will be judged by.
Lincoln's actions helped preserve the Union and made it stronger. Will Bush's actions help transform the Middle East, making it more free, more prosperous, and more peaceful? What fate awaits Bush in history books of the future?
Only time will tell, and none of us may be around to find out. In the meantime, it might serve us well to keep some perspective, lest our own words become similar fodder for writers 150 years from now.
Once war began, our President became the object of many attacks.
He was often compared to an ape.
The Chicago Times wrote that Americans must be filled with shame because of a speech he gave during the war, describing it as "silly, flat, and dishwatery."
In London, the capital of our closest ally, it became accepted as simple fact that the President was brutal, a warmonger, a nightmare.
The U.S. itself split in two, with half the country despising the man and his war of aggression.
He was blasted for using unappropriated money to wage the war, and accused of lying when his projections of the cost of the war were proven woefully inadequate, and debt continued to mount dramatically.
He was slammed for demolishing the Constitution, abridging civil rights in favor of security.
The war I am speaking of is the Civil War; the President, Lincoln; the speech, the Gettysburg Address.
Our current President has, of course, been through much of the same, now 150 years later. As with Lincoln, the short-term pain of Bush's war was inevitable, but it is the long-term -- and currently unknowable -- effects that he will be judged by.
Lincoln's actions helped preserve the Union and made it stronger. Will Bush's actions help transform the Middle East, making it more free, more prosperous, and more peaceful? What fate awaits Bush in history books of the future?
Only time will tell, and none of us may be around to find out. In the meantime, it might serve us well to keep some perspective, lest our own words become similar fodder for writers 150 years from now.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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