I’m getting so tired of…well, everything.
Every morning I get up, and every evening when I get home, I pop open my newsreader to browse through the day’s news and headlines. And every time, I find more and more that disgusts me, outrages me, and quite simply, makes me want to go back to playing ostrich and pretending that the world outside my own private little bubble doesn’t exist.
Iraq is in chaos due to our meddling, and that seems to be entirely acceptable. US soldiers stand by and watch while making racist comments (“Goddamn Iraqis will steal anything if you let them. Look at them.”), and Rumsfeld brushes off reports of hospitals being looted and priceless historical artifacts being destroyed as something that just happens (“Surprise me? I don’t know. Disorder happens every time there’s a transition.”). Meanwhile, it looks like the pieces are being set up for us to move into Syria (“PRESIDENT BUSH yesterday accused Syria of having chemical weapons. In the clearest sign yet that Washington is turning its sights on Damascus? links to terrorism, two of his most senior Cabinet members also warned the country against harbouring Iraqi officials.”).
Prominent Republicans continue to tighten their noose around America, working to extend the Patriot Act indefinitely, and Patriot II is still bouncing around Capitol Hill somewhere. Fully expecting Bush to run roughshod over any opposition in the 2004 Presidential race, rumblings are already being floated of who to put on the Republican ticket in 2008 — with the current front runner being Florida Governor Jeb Bush (“”If Jeb is in the mix” for the nomination, says a top GOP official, “it’s his.””).
I’m getting so tired of all of this. This isn’t the America that I grew up in, and have leared to respect over the years — even at times when I didn’t agree with its actions, the ideals our nation was founded on were strong, and until now, they’ve generally stood the test of time. Not anymore, however.
Admittedly, little of any of this has affected me directly. I’m lucky enough to be a white male, and therefore not too likely to be arrested and held indefinitely without being charged with a crime, as has happened to Mike Hawash. However, how much longer before we all start feeling the effects of the current regime’s drive for power and control? Not long at all, I’m afraid.
Anyway. Just grumbling, I guess — a little bitching and moaning to start my week off. Out of time now, though, so hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to work I go. Hope your weeks are starting off better than mine.
(Various links above via Chronicle Corvidae, Xeni Jardin, Stavros, and Tom Tomorrow [here, here, and here])