Sunday

You Reap What You Sow or You Don't Plant Turnip Seeds and Harvest Carrots

The first thing I heard when I switched on the news early this morning was that the Mideastern countries now despise George W. Bush more than they do the leader of Israel. While, this does not surprise me but it makes me sad. No, it isn't because I like or respect GWB, but because this man continues to put our country in danger. (Worse, he'll pass off the mess to the next president.) I have two daughters and three granddaughters and I want them to live long productive lives. Last year when Rachael and her family moved away from Newport News--a likely target--I was relieved. Now, Jess, Ella, and Bob are moving from NOVA to Kansas City. Of course, I'm sad that they'll be so far away, but I am relieved, that they too will be safer as Washington is probably a greater target than the military installations in the Newport News area. Outside of the Cuban Missile Crisis--I was 14 and lived in St. Petersburg Florida--I have never feared so much for the country that I love. Even Viet Nam pales in comparison. However, we should have learned from that mistake. Is America asleep at the wheel? The baby boomers are a huge group. Have they forgotten Viet Nam (Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?)? Why have we killed more than 650,000 Iraquis who never have done anything to us? This number, of course, include babies and grandmothers. Why haven't we attacked Saudi Arabia, the homeland of most of the 911 hijackers? Why have we wasted more than half a trillion dollars killing innocent people when schools in this country are crumbling? [If you spend one dollar a second it takes about 11 and a half days to spend a million dollars. To spend a billion dollars at one dollar a second you need 31.4 years. To spend one trillion dollars at a dollar a second, it takes more than 31,000 years. America's innumeracy makes us complacent about large numbers.]

To all the neocon "Christians", I offer this song written and recorded by Bob Dylan, c. 1964:

With God on Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.