...Let's Look At Bush From Both Sides Now...."

Lately, “legacy” seems to loom largely on the landscape.

And aint that an abundance of awesome alliteration.

Up front, let me offer that I’m probably as weary of poking Dubya as you are reading me doing it.

So, while I cant make a pinky swear promise that you’ve read the absolute last of it, believe me when I tell you that, like the high carb stuff that has been flowing like water since Halloween, I’m going to start doing my best to wean myself off of it.

Today, though, I’d like to ponder, for a moment, the concept of fairness.

Bush’s detractors, and I count myself among them (well, come on, I’m relentless, but I’m not stupid…) suggest that there isn’t a single redeeming factor to be found in the eight years that America gave the guy to lead and/or inspire.

Which, by the way, aint always one and the same.

But that’s another blog.

And since he leaves office the most “unpopular” president in the history of the presidency, I don’t think it unfair to say that his is a failed presidency.

Okay, there’s that fairness thing again.

Bush’s advocates, on the other hand, while doing a pretty good job of staring at the floor and shuffling their feet when almost any discussion of the guy comes up, do express their belief that if he accomplished nothing else (and, again, even his advocates admit, if only in private, that nothing else about sums it up) suggest that he should be given credit for the fact that America, under his administration, has not been attacked again since 9/11.

Okay, let’s be fair.

That statement is, factually, true.

America has not been attacked, directly, since 9/11.

And for the sake of not wandering too far off the point, I’m willing to reserve, for another day, discussing the idea that, were the administration as militarily savvy as it has always wanted us to believe, the 9/11 attack shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

So, let’s just give the guy a little wiggle room and say that the Bush administration didn’t actually begin on Jan 20, 2001 and that it began on September 12, 2001.

Fair enough?

In that light, it is absolutely fair to say that America has not, in fact, been attacked directly since 9/11.

And since Bush has been in the White House every day since then, he should rightly be credited.

It’s only fair.

And those folks who hold fast to the idea that the legacy of George W. Bush should be, at the very least, his keeping safe from foreign attack the United States of America deserve to have the point conceded.

Fair is fair.

And since Bush has been in the White House every day since then, he should also be saddled with the responsibility of an economy that has taken us all to the brink of the second great depression, an environment that grows more poisoned every day, a health care system that ignores the heath needs of its citizens and makes fatter the wallets of the health corporate, an education system that is neither systemic, nor educates and a disillusionment about the entire political process that has not been experienced in this country since Herbert Hoover was sent packing in 1932.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair.

It’s said that, in life, we can’t have things both ways.

Actually, we can.

Actually, in certain cases, we are required to.

The simplest of those, taught from our very first cognitive moments, is that we are accountable to each other, not to mention God, for both the good and the bad we do.

The right and the wrong.
The good, the bad and the ugly.
Can’t have one without the other.

Love and marriage, love and marriage….

Sorry. I tend to hear songs in my head at every turn of phrase.

If the legacy of George W. Bush is to include his successful safekeeping of America, it must also include his failure to accomplish almost anything else.

Otherwise, the legacy would be incomplete.

And that wouldn’t be fair.

Would it?

"...God Help Us....Everyone...."

This Christmas season, I’ve rediscovered an old passion.

Acting.

No, not acting out.

That’s been a part of my basic psyche since first I had a psyche.

I’m talking about acting.

The stage, the lights, the costumes.

The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd.

There’s NO business like SHOW bu…….

Okay, so, really what I’ve done is take a part in a community theatre production of “A Christmas Carol”.

And before you start contemplating which character would most befit me, let me spare you the wasted time by sharing that my schedule would only allow me to take a bit part.

Community theatre being what it is, though, the “bit” players always end up multi-tasking.

So, according to the Playbill, I am, in order of appearance:

Second Charity Man.
Dick Wilkins.
Townsperson.

Oh and while it doesn’t appear in print, I’m part stagehand, as well.

The play will exist on DVD in a week or two and, for grins, I might just post it here so you can witness my triumphant return to the stage.

I’m told that my “Second Charity Man” is one of the great moments in theatre.

Of course, I’m the one telling myself that.

As usual, though, I digress.

Being in the play has been more than a lot of fun.

But it’s also gotten me to thinking.

And, as we all know, nothing good can come from that.

I’m thinking about a version of the classic Dickens play that could easily be written these days.

The main character would be a man who has spent his life in the single minded pursuit of his own agenda, with no ability to see that while his heart may have always been in the right place, the unwillingness to consider the consequences of his actions resulted not only in failure, but in pain and suffering for those around him.

And then, one night, he is visited by three spirits who walk him through the collected results and/or ruins of the life he has thus far led.

The Ghost of Weapons of Mass Destruction past.

The Ghost of Home Forclosure Present.

And, in the most chilling and haunting scene of all, The Ghost of Possible Great Depression Future.

In this play, the man would, like his Dickensian counterpart, see the error of his ways just in time to change his ways, turn the page, start anew, make it right.

Unlike the original script though, this one would require not a changing of the ways, but a changing of the guard.

After years of living with the man’s dogged clinging to his values and the results of that clinging, the townspeople finally rise up and replace the guy.

And he would slowly fade into the shadows, stage right (wink, wink) to count his coins and write his own history, as it suited him.

This play, unlike the one that inspired it, has no happy ending, per se.
It simply ends.

Ebenezer Scrooge came very close to becoming a tragic figure.

Dickens pulled him out just in time.

Turns out the founding fathers took care of that for us when they wrote that thing about term limits.

In the spirit of seasonal giving, though, I'd like to make an offering.

So, I think I'll make a contribution to the forthcoming presidential library.

A copy of "A Christmas Carol".