A Return to Decency
Do you know why this country is repudiating Bush and Cheney and Rove and all of their bullshit? It's bigger than the war, Katrina, 9/11 and all of that. It's a fundamental shift back to decency that neither party understands but that Democrats might be unwitting beneficiaries of.
This is what typifies the shift back to decency:
LANCASTER, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The widow of a gunman who killed five girls and injured five others at an Amish school thanked the Amish and others in the community for their "forgiveness, grace and mercy."How does something like this happen in America? The tragedy, we can't understand. The motivation of this man to shoot those girls? There's no good explanation for it.
In a letter released by a family spokesman and addressed to Amish friends, neighbors and the local community, Marie Roberts says she and her three young children have been overwhelmed by the community support since the October 2 shootings.
"Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need," she wrote. "Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. ... Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."
Since the shooting, members of the Amish community have said they forgive Charles Carl Roberts IV, who killed himself as police closed in on the West Nickel Mines Amish School.
Contrast that with every show, which seems to be about delivering payback, revenge and an ass-kicking. Now, Pale Rider knows what an ass-kicking is--and it is justified in a lot of cases. But the American mood after 9/11 was all about revenge. Sorry, I wasn't here for it. Uncle Sam had dumped me overseas and I wasn't here for 9/11. I have no connection to it--there are huge chunks of it that I have no memory of because we went on thirty days of running around with our hair on fire which accomplished nothing.
But forgiveness? Mercy? I think those people in Iraq would like a little mercy right now. I read today that the government is putting up posters, trying to get people to maintain some hope. How much mercy they're ever going to get from Bush/Cheney, I can't tell you. But there is some forgiveness in this country, and maybe if we learned not to sneer at the forgiveness expressed by the Amish, we'd figure out what it is.
In Bush/Cheney's America, this guy represents our enemies, their enemies, whoever opposes them. In their world, they react by dividing and conquering, declaring war and bombing civilians, demonizing their political opponents and generally behaving in a merciless, unholy manner. And this is the Born Again Christian President, kids. A man who has now gotten more people killed than his four or five previous Presidential predecessors. In Bush/Cheney's America, revenge is sweet and the law means nothing--winning is everything.
In the real America--the victims of a horrible tragedy forgive the perpetrator and reach out to comfort the family of the man who did them incredible harm. This is not what every American would do, obviously, and the Amish are a special sect that lives a life rooted in the 19th century. But the fact that this is America, and that they have the freedom to live their lives the way they do makes them quintessentially American.
So how do you reconcile the presence of the Amish forgiving what happened to them in a country led by Bush/Cheney?
I have no idea. But what it tells me is that their craven, vicious way of doing business is about to come to an end thanks to the ballot box, and while I don't think we're all going to live on farms and drive around in buggies, we're definitely not going to keep going the way that we're going.
And by the way, can you imagine Bush/Cheney forgiving someone for any slight, real or imagined?
Didn't think so...
I'll tell you this much--those Amish are more American than Bush/Cheney and their ilk. By a damned sight more, they are.
