Saturday, September 10, 2005
Faith and Policy
People sense president's soulless sensibility
By Marianne Williamson
Something very important is happening here -- something more than simply a
hurricane, or the suffering of thousands who were neglected by their
government during a time of great need. Most worldly occurrences reflect
deeper truths. What is happening is a gigantic reckoning, as Americans are
forced to come to terms with how very, very naked is the emperor who we
thought had such incredible clothes.
We are raised in the United States of America to believe our government is
the strongest in the world, that as Americans we are basically protected,
and that our country is basically good. It is cognitive dissonance for us
to be confronted with evidence to the contrary, and yet such evidence has
been piling up fast and furiously during this odd and potentially
catastrophic phase of American history.
There is nothing strong about rushing into a unilateral war based on
faulty intelligence, squandering the resources necessary with which to
take care of your own people; there is nothing protective about a
government that apparently didn't monitor events on the ground in New
Orleans any better -- in fact, less well -- than the average viewer of
CNN; and there is nothing good about taking care of the rich at the
expense of the poor.
If it took a Category 5 hurricane and the huge suffering of thousands to
bring those facts to light, then at least it can be said there is value in
this horror. If enough Americans are beginning to wake up and face the
awful fact that our country's basic functioning has become infected by a
soulless sensibility, then perhaps the suffering on the Gulf Coast will
not have been in vain.
Regarding the abysmal response of our government to the hurricane's
aftermath, there is a lot of talk right now about accountability. Some
argue we should have the discussion today, while others argue that that
discussion should wait for a more propitious time.
But there is a danger in waiting, for a governmental status quo has talent
for co-opting criticism as long as it can buy enough time. Passions cool;
memories become revised and faded.
Six months after a disaster, the government appoints an independent
commission to find out what really happened but by the time the commission
releases its final report, there is never much sense that too many people
are listening. The people are exhausted by then; they're trying their best
to move on.
And the status quo knows this; that's part of its game. Do whatever you
want; act horrified and remorseful for a minute whenever too much
suffering results as a part of your actions; then put off the
accountability conversation until people are too tired to care anymore.
This is not a new pattern in America. What might be new -- what I sense
might be happening -- is that people are waking up to it now. And as soon
as we wake up, then the pattern will end.
Abraham Lincoln said there is not too much evil any American government
can perpetrate, as long as the people remain vigilant. He was referring to
the fact that we have federal elections every two years, through which we
can replace the entirety of the House of Representatives and one-third of
the U.S. Senate.
The ultimate accountability conversation is written into the U.S.
Constitution; it is called elections. At this particular juncture, that
means the mid-term elections of 2006.
The president prides himself on running the government like a well-run
business. That, of course, makes him the chief executive. And if the
government failed, then he failed.
Fool us once, and maybe their tricks were dirty; fool us twice, maybe
their public relations was too good; fool us now, and perhaps we just
deserve to be fooled. From war to hurricanes, oh, America, the alarm bells
of needless human suffering are going off everywhere.
A nation that refuses to wake up at this point is in a dangerous slumber.
The nightmares are upon us now. They will remain until our eyes are opened
and we have awakened to the truth.
Marianne Williamson is a best-selling spiritual author from Metro Detroit
( www.marianne.com). Send letters to The News at 615 W. Lafayette,
Detroit, MI 48226 or (313) 222-6417 or letters@detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0509/10/D08-309629.htm
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