Tip O’Neill, beloved Democratic Speaker of the House, often cautioned those who strayed too far from home base in favor of the more heady atmosphere of the Rich, Famous and Powerful in Washington, that “all politics is local.” He would also quip that “People like to see us carry our own baggage.”

President Bush would do well to contemplate both pieces of advice carefully. Failing to have lived by such wisdom resulted in his being held hostage on his 1,600 acre ranch by a mother, Ms. Cindy Sheehan, grieving for her fallen 24-year old son, Casey.

When Bush met with her and the family two months after Casey’s death, Sheehan said he acted as though he were at a party, didn’t know Casey by name, and kept calling Ms. Sheehan “Mom.”

That doesn’t surprise anyone who has paid even partial attention to the president’s demeanor during the war, hiding a kind of hidden glee just below the surface, over a game whose agenda is hidden from all but a few.

Somewhere in the Archives of this Web site, is an article about a five-year old little boy in Mountain View, California, who was leaving the orphanage to live with his new adopting parents. At the door, he took the hand of the woman to whom he had been closest, and asked, “Will you carry me?”

“No,” she answered kindly. “You will be fine. But I’ll walk with you to the car.”

“I mean, will you carry me in your heart for always?”

“Yes, of course, dear. Forever and ever.”

Emboldened by the promise, the child began his new life, holding on while letting go, for, with kindness and insight, the woman had embraced the youngster, his dreams and fears, preparing him for the certain and uncertain future.

Who can say that President Bush has carried our people, the parents, the troops and their friends in his heart, beyond the rhetoric his staff supplies him for a photo-op?

A leader, who carries his people in his heart carries the baggage of their care into the Pentagon, weighing with his generals the pros and cons of going to war, the risks to the people, and to the overall health of the nation.

He also carries the baggage, the responsibility, for truth-telling, gaining and sustaining the trust and support of the nation in peace and war.

Every democracy rests firmly on respect for just laws, without which dissension will eventually evolve into anarchy, which in turn, granting the government’s use of force, will give rise to fascism. Little by little, the people will accept the peace of a police state over the confusion of lawlessness, and in the acceptance, bind themselves to the pilloried post of slavery, surrounded by relinquished freedoms.

If lies, major and minor, have brought us to this war, we know with certitude that the surest way to true democracy at home is to demand the truth here before fighting for it abroad.

The truth? Where to find it? A good place to start is an excellent book by Aaron Glantz, about which John Stauber, co-author of Weapons of Mass Deception, has written: “Shut off your TV, put down the paper, and read the gripping truth of How America Lost Iraq.”

It’s a book, born in painful isolation and determination to get the stories out, straight as a dye. And we are the winners if we will but take advantage of what Glantz is offering us —298 pages devoted to walking the ravaged streets and sitting with families, who had also, like Ms. Sheehan, lost many members, first to Saddam, then to the Americans. They’ve lost something else Hollywood wouldn’t understand: a culture little respected by the West. Tamar, a native of al-Mufwrakiyya, takes time out on a Thursday afternoon to explain the plight of his people to Glantz:

I listened to Bush’s speech and Bush said that Iraq has all the necessities, but it’s been a month and there are no services. We only want him to keep his promises. The American soldiers are now using sexy pinup pictures and showing them to our children, but we are an Islamic country and we refuse this thing. At last we got rid of Saddam. He did whatever he could against the religion and now the Americans come and they have their sexy pinup pictures. These attitudes are not moral. We want an Islamic state in Iraq. We want the American leader to act against these things and to work with Islamic opposition parties to make a government.

For what is Islam asking? Electricity, clean water, jobs, schools, and liberators who respect their religious way of life. American’s suggestive photos and films threaten to destroy the values the people hold dear for themselves and their children.

If Bush really wants to win the war, he’ll begin to listen to the people, to our American troops, fighting and dying, to the supposedly freed people of Iraq, who have yet to taste true freedom from fear and want.

Lord, open our eyes and ears, lest in preaching to others abroad, we might lose what we treasure at home. Bless our troops. Hold them and the people of Iraq in your heart. And especially, bless Ms Sidney Sheehan, who, for all of us, awaits a president’s word of clarity and hope on a ranch, where he appears to be far removed from both. Amen.

Home

Archives