Monday, May 08, 2006

May 15th and the Senior Tax

This obscene deadline is fast approaching -- any seniors who've not signed up for the unfathomable Medicare plan will be penalized for life under the Bush Administration's guidelines. Every real Democrat in House and Senate opposes the plan, but fat lot of good that will do.

There is something truly obscene about the thinking of this administration. They have an arrogant and casual disregard for human dignity. They have an arrogant and casual disregard to the delicate balance of nature and contribute actively to the destruction of this balance. They have an arrogant and casual disregard for human life in their blind pursuit of control of foreign oil and their own personal greed.

We really stand at a tipping point, and most Americans are asking how we got here. We got here because we tend to abdicate responsibility in favor of watching "reality" television. Our addiction to being entertained at all times means we don't have to read, we don't have to think, we become numb and asleep and one day we wake up at the brink of real disaster and say WTF?

Still, I retain hope that those of us who oppose this administration are making our voices heard. Dinner on Saturday with dear friends -- a gay couple who live in a hotbed of Republicanism, Orange County -- and one of them is a lawyer and Republican (I tease him that being Gay and Republican is an oxymoron) -- anyway, he's no longer a Bush supporter, and is quite concerned about what's going on.

Another friend, a woman who is Republican only because her parents were (she's 65 years old!) said to me on Sept. 11, 2001 "We've got the right man for the job, don't you think?" -- I was horrified, having just lost a good friend on AA11; I said "absolutely not". Anyway, now she's so frustrated by Medicare; she's so appalled by the Iraq war, the lies, and the probability we'll invade Iran as well that she no longer supports Bush.

Two small examples of change. I retain hope.

No comments: