Mary Pitt: "About that patience, Mr. President"

ABOUT THAT PATIENCE, MR. PRESIDENT
by

Mary Pitt

You know, the patience that you are asking the American people to provide while you continue to slog around in the quagmire called Iraq; while the "surge" creates conditions that will unite the Iraqi people. May I be so bold as to remind you that one of your campaign promises was to unite the American people? Seven years later, the United States is more divided than at any time since the infamous Civil War. And that is only problem one.

How many more of our sons, daughters, brothers, sisiters, husbands. wives, fathers and mothers do you intend to be slaughtered or totally broken in mind and body before they are allowed to come home to salvage their homes, marriages, and family relationships as they work to restore the long-neglected framework of American life? You have stated that your goal is to establish democracy in the Middle East, a laudable goal on its deceptive face, but the problem is much deeper than that.

You say that the Iraqi people want peace and perhaps they do, on a temporary basis. However, even there, your premise is fatally flawed. First, there are no "Iraqi people"! Never were and probably never will be. Their religious, cultural, and historical differences are too deep and any reconciliation will take thousands of years because they have been just as they are for that long already. You see, history tells us that the whole area of the former Mesopotamia was populated by bands of nomadic warriors, loyal to nobody except their tribal leaders and willing and able at any time to shed the blood of anybody from any other tribe. They were eventually placed under a British "protectorate" but the Englishmen found nothing but a perpetual war on their hands and never did create anything resembling a peaceful state among them.

When England proposed to end their protectorate, the world leaders met in conference to decide what could be done with Mesopotamia as a whole. They recognized Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria as independent nations and turned Kuwait over to the governance of the sheiks. Other small nations were carved out, which left them with a large area containing the tribes which either did not fit anywhere else or whom they did not trust with independence. Turkey did not and does not want the Kurds because they might unite with the Turkish Kurds and start a revolution in that country. They would not allow Iran to include the area because it would make Iran too large and powerful, and culture of the remaining tribes was so worrisome that they would cause trouble in any nation that might accept them.

And so, in an agreement of inspired practicality, they bundled them all together, gave them limited acces to the sea, and placed them under the rule of a brutal despot under the theory that only by force could they be controlled. And it worked! While the Kurds did cause trouble for Turkey from time to time, or the Ba'athists did start a row with Iran occasionally, they were largely kept under control by their ruling tyrants. Even your father, President George H. W. Bush, put them back within their borders after they invaded Kuwait and sanctions were imposed upon them by the United Nations. This caused them great suffering but it kept them inside their assigned space and they were no threat to anybody.

Now, back to the subject of patience which, by the way, has never seemed to be your own long suit. When the conglomeration of Egyptians and Saudis flew those planes into the World Trade Center, the patient and prudent thing to do would be to allow the criminal justice system of the world to work, to track down their instigators, and to bring them to justice in the same way we did with the first group who thought they could bomb our most prominent landmark with inpunity. But you were not amenable to patience and prudence and, instead, launched an aggressive war aginst the nation of Afghanistan.

You had none when you, for your own reasons, decided that it was necessary to invade Iraq and those reasons changed as often as they were proven wrong. Now you tell us that our goal is to provide "peace. freedom, and democracy". You could have left the problem, (whatever it was), in the hands of the UN and let that body have all the patience in the world, taking all the time that was necessary to assure that the Iraqi penchant for violence was once again under control. However, then, it was yourself who had no patience. You could not wait to invade an already weakened nation of illl and half-starved people because, you said, they were a threat to us. With a hastily-assembled "coalition of the willing", the bribed, and the coerced as cover, American soldiers were diverted from Afghanistan and Al Qaida to this never-ending war in Iraq


No, Mr. President, you have exhausted our patience. This is a one-of-a-kind war, unlike any that our nation has ever seen, and we view it as a failure and a wild goose chase. You have destroyed our nation's economy and caused enormous suffering among the populace of this nation as well as that of others with your blind devotion to an endeavor which can only be compared to the folly of the numerous Crusades of the Middle Ages. This nation is tired of your incessant war, of having our men taken from us and asked to fight on to the death against a number of enemies who are simultaneously fighting each other. After six years of your ineptitude, profligate spending, and destruction of our national resources, when you ask for even more patience, you may find that we are already fresh out

Mary Pitt is a septuagenarian Kansan, a free-thinker, and a warrior for truth and justice. She is non-partisan but steeped in true patriotism and pride in \nbeing an American and a daughter of the Founding Fathers.

Mary Pitt: "Is 200 years long enough?"

IS TWO HUNDRED YEARS LONG ENOUGH?
by Mary Pitt

A mere two centuries is not long in the history of previous great nations of the world, but it does seem that Americans are eager to end their era of influence in world affairs. We are soundly in the grip of the two-party system, made up of professional politicians, the parties locked belly-to belly in a danse macabre to the music of the multi-national corporatists until it is nearly impossible to discern one from the other. In this artificially-elongated campaign season, the feeling that arises from the grassroots of the mountains and the prairies is a heartfelt prayer for a sensible person with no ties to any of them to arise and save our democracy.

While the Houses of Congress are involved in the acquisition of political power, we are led by a putative President who began his reign with the declaration that our archaic laws do not apply to him or to his minions, dancing a jig to the music while waving his middle finger at the helpless sheeple who must labor ever harder for the necessities of life. By way of compensation, they are entertained by the antics of the super-rich as they flaunt their worthless charms in lifestyles of worthless degradation in their search for fame and fortune. Never mind that you cannot afford the health care that will equip your children for a solid future; see what Paris Hilton has done this week! Will she really have to go to jail for flouting the law? Of course not! Nor will the vice-President's aide serve a day for his obstruction of justice, while a pair of lawmen rot in a cell for shooting and injuring an international drug smuggler.


Are we supposed to search among the small army of candidates to choose someone who will have the vision and the courage to restore our nation from the ravaged shadow of its former self which it has become under the present system? It seems that they were all cut from the same roll of cookie dough, the only difference discernable being the shape of the cookie cutter and the amount of time that they spent in the oven. Is there one person there with the with the guts and the wisdom to correct all the mistakes that have been made in eight years of mis-management? If there is, he/she has yet yet to stand above the crowd and point out the difference.


History is rife with examples of the unfortunate ends of governments such as ours has become. In every case, those governments were either overthrown by the revolutions of their own working class or, having become fat, inbred, and over-confident, were overcome by other nations which they had previously considered were not a match for their vaunted strengeth . Most notable of the former was France whose government was dissolved by revolution, the heads of their leaders being paraded about the streets on the end of pikes, and the latter by the ignominious fall of the Roman Empire. Even England had periods in which the King was forced to concede power to the working class in order to avoid the same fate. We should be reminded that such a rebellion resulted in the famed Magna Carta upon which our own Constitution is based.


As time goes on and the "middle of the road" becomes so crowded that progress seems impossible, there is no choice but to find a different path. There are some who would prefer to go to the right and gut our government still further but, by and large, the majority of the people are finding the "left" side of the road appears to be the better route to the restoration of our freedoms and the betterment of the working class. We are sick unto death of those who feel that their bank balances are the result of their human superiority while others are not rich because they are inferior beings. Our Congress of "representatives of the people" has become a conclave of millionaires with no concept of the trials in our ordinary, everyday lives while the corporate lobbyists are more than happy to make them richer still in return for their favorable votes.


Across the nation, those who label themselves "Independents" are growing in number as they deliver the benediction of, "A pox on both your houses!" and turn their backs upon the greedy, squirming mass of preening, futile wannabees whose very existence is epitomized by the invisible "For Sale" sign above each of the bobbing heads. If we, as a nation, are willing to accept and tolerate this situation, then the fault is ours alone. After the end of World War II, it was assumed that the world had learned its lesson and large wars and revolutions would be a thing of the past and could therefore never happen again. As the result, the history of the world was given short shrift by our educational system and several generations of Americans have no idea of things that occurred in the world prior to that time. We began electing officials as we chose movie stars, those who were most attractive were assumed to be superior and those with more money to be more intelligent.


If this is the state of mentality which prevails in our country, then, yes, two hunded years is long enough for the greatest democracy in the history to suffer an upheaval of the people or to fall of its own complacency.

Mary Pitt is a septuagenarian Kansan, a free-thinker, and a warrior for truth and justice. Huzzahs and whiney complaints may be sent to mpitt@cox.net

Mary Pitt: "Who grieves for them?"

WHO GRIEVES FOR THEM?
by Mary Pitt, Woodson County

While spending my usual Sunday morning, watching the news shows on television, I founds myself in total empathy with the parents of the slain college students at Virgina Tech. Having lost a child of my own a year ago, I understand intimately the pain which they now must bear. I thought of how nice it is that some find solace in speaking to the nation which mourns with them about their lost sons and daughters via the television interviewers. Also, according to the news, grief counselors are being sent in to help the students and families to deal with this intense grief.

Then, as it is wont to do, the news moved on to the war in Iraq and so did my thoughts. Without taking a thing from the sympathy for the Blacksburg parents, I realized that these young people who are dying in Iraq are contemporaries of the college kids. Who grieves for them? While we have lost a hundred children in that conflagration for every student who fell prey to the mad gunner, the nation mourns only those who were presumably safe from harm while those who fell in service to our country are hidden from our sight and rarely mentioned by name unless they qualify as "heroes". They fly home under cover of night and then are treated as baggage on commercial flights until they are taken to their home town. Their family, friends, and neighbors turn out for their funeral with none taking notice except, perhaps, Rev. Fred Phelps and his little band of ghouls. The funeral over, the families go home to deal with their own desolation as they reflect on the life that was lost and the hopes and dreams that will never come to fruition. They will forever wonder why.


But these loving families are forbidden from learning the specifics of the untimely death which their child suffered. Only rarely are any details given and then only after a long, painful investigation by people who are ill-eqipped for the task. Cindy Sheehan went to Washington to ask why. She was told, in essence, "Your son is dead. Accept it and move on!" Government officials and their partisans regard her as a mentally ill person and a pariah. The Tillmans have been more fortunate in that they did uncover the fact that their son feel to "friendly fire" which was covered up in order to provide the warmongers with a famous "hero". When all is said and done, these two families may be more responsible for bringing this war to an end than will any other factor.


As the youngest child in a large family, I saw five of my seven older brothers march off to war against "Hitler and Tojo" in the company of many others from our community. The pain of missing family members was a common one as almost every home wore the placard of stars in a window, denoting the home of a member of the armed services, blue for a stateside deployment, silver for one serving overseas, and gold for one who had fallen. I recall all too well the sense of emptiness on departure and the tension that pervaded the home when a "missing in action" notice was received. The sight of a Western Union delivery boy brought the neighbors to learn which son had disappeared and all prayed that he had been captured rather than perishing. A military car at the curb brought neighbors with food and sympathy and the whole community joined in the mourning. There was an article in the local newspaper with a photograph and a letter of condolence from the President.

During that war, the soldiers who did not volunteer were drafted and the burden was borne by all. Now, with the "all-volunteer army", the fear and grief fall upon young wives and small children in most cases as the fighting is done by a few who are having their service extended until it must seem to them that the only way home is "in a box". When they are killed, they are little more than numbers on a tote board and little grief is known outside their intimate circle. Their survivors will not have the comfort that is brought about by televised funeral services, on-camera interveiws, and the knowledge that the whole nation is sharing their grief.

It simply does not seen fair, during this Sunday morning contemplation, that while the sky-scrapers are going up in New York City as a memorial to the fallen in the World Trade Center and we mourn the loss of the lives and potential of the students at Virginia Tech, several more young men and women will lay down their lives in Iraq in what seems as senseless an endeavor as whatever the troubled youth was trying to prove in Blacksburg. If the citizens of the United States cannot stop our government from hiding them away like so many little dirty secrets, we should at least be all owed to mourn them.

Mary Pitt lives in a house by the side of the road in a little rural village in Kansas where she can observe the world both as it is and as she would like it to be. Questions and comments will reach her at mpitt@cox.net

Mary Pitt: "The peril of doing nothing"

THE PERIL OF DOING NOTHING
by Mary Pitt

After November's election, the people were feeling optimistic, having elected a Democratic majority in the House and more than an even balance in the Senate. Speaker Pelosi announced her "first 100 hours" strategy and we were ready to watch the reform take place. However, the euphoria was short-lived as the House passed first one "non-binding resolution" only to have it squelched by the Republican bloc in the Senate. The Democrats, unlike the Dixie Chicks, are still convinced that they need to make nice. Perhaps they were in the minority for too long and it was simply easier to fall back into the same old habits of huddling helplessness. In addition, the next election campaign is on everybody's minds and key figures are playing to the power structure rather than to the electorate.

Now they trying to put together a plan to force the President to withdraw our troops from Iraq by one method if not another. However, the President dares them to "bring it on" with a threat of veto while the Republican Senators again threaten to filibuster. The Right shouts and threatens while the left huddle in a closet and plot like a family that is totally cowed by a domestic abuser and the public stand outside shouting, "Do something even if it's wrong!" It is of the utmost urgency that Bush and the Neo-Con agenda be stopped before their takover is complete and our beloved democracy is turned into the totalitarian corporatocracy which they envision. The groundwork for their evil empire has already been laid with the authorizantion for declaration of martial law which has already passed.

So every plan that is created runs up against the threat of filibuster. Let them talk! Debate cloture and then let them spout their hate hour after hour, day and night, show it on television so the people can hear every word! Let us hear every last word of their boring and falacious talking points over and over until we are sick of them and even the semi-conscious "sheeple" realize that they are nothing but parrots speaking the lines that were written in the White House. Otherwise, we will hear no original thinking nor will we hear any proposals that amount to anything other than a continuation of the blank check which was presented to Mr. Bush by the last Congress and that got us into this mess in the first place.

By the time the Republicans are suffering extreme laryngitis, papers of impeachment can be prepared, first for Mr. Cheney for the illegal outing of Valerie Plame and for meddling beyond his responsibilities in our foreign affairs, and then for Mr. Bush for usurpation of the powers of Congress and the Courts, for his war crimes, and for the devastation he has brought upon our economy by the squandering of our national treasure on the over-blown contracts with business cronies. It would be an even greater crime to allow these people to escape unscathed after being responsible for sending American men to die on foreign soil for a lie to enable their dreams of empire. Even if the Senate cannot be expected to convict, the filing of a bill of impeachment in the House would keep them busy, conferring with attorneys and trying to fend off their own personal disaster. It worked with Clinton, didn't it? Put a good, aggressive special prosecutor on it to find the evidence. Fitzgerald will soon be at liberty and he already has a load of information on White House operations.

Before the election John Conyers and others were collecting signatures in favor of impeachment and seemed ready to lead the charge in that direction but, as soon as the Democratic majority were seated in the house, that was "off the table" Suddenly, the Democrats were back in the old pattern of "coalition and compromise", playing by the old rules, and seeking the easy way out. If the last election and the polls don't prove anything else, Congress should get the message. To borrow an expression from the black-and-white boxing movies of my childhood. "Hit 'im ya bum! Ya got da wind wit' ya!"

Mary Pitt is a septuagenarian Kansan, a free-thinker, and a warrior for truth and justice. Huzzahs and whiney complaints may be sent to: mpitt@cox.net