Since hearing that Obama has decided to send an additional 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, I've been thinking about what I could do to express my disappointment. Then, a few minutes ago, I visited a blog I'm partial to and found that Professor Zero had put up a letter to the President this afternoon. Her letter inspired me to come back to Why Am I Not Surprised? and delete fifteen posts published between January, 2008, and January, 2009, focusing on Barack Obama's campaign and election.I work hard at my posts. They take me hours to write and I often re-write them for days. For me to throw them in a trash heap is the strongest statement I can make. Shame on you, sir. This is not a change. And why am I not surprised?
17 comments:
makes you wonder what power must do to the soul of a man..
I wish I thought he ever really had any. Whoever's running this train wreck is not in the oval office. At least, that's what I've come to believe is true. Obama may have actually thought he could control some stuff himself, but I'm not even sure of that. I suspect the soul is probably already dead before the electoral process is over. Sigh.
I've also felt it necessary to comment on this disastrous decision. He should not accept the Peace Prize after this.
http://forwantofanail.com/2009/12/osama-bin-laden-is-emmanuel-goldstein/
Hey, Tinsmith. My thoughts exactly. In fact, I was disgusted and disheartened when they named him as this year's recipient. That's supposed to be for your work of note as a peacemaker, not what you have the "potential" to do. It degrades the whole Nobel prize process and, I'm afraid, demonstrates how far we've already traveled toward Brave-New-World-speak.
I have a few thoughts on this but have two questions first, Changeseeker.
1. Did you really delete them, or just check the edit box, so they're there but only you can read them if you want to?
2. How long did you go in making this decision? Your anger over the Afghanistan expansion took a few days or weeks to build up, BUT, did the actual idea of deleting them hit you, for example, noon on a Saturday and by dinner time (or a day or a week later) were gone?
Putting troops in Afghanistan is a border line Bush move. The question will soon come up just like Iraq as to why are we there.
Actually, Kit, they're completely deleted forever. I made the decision and deleted them all in the time it took to do it. But I had been thinking about Obama's decision (if it was even his) since the announcement was made.
As far as Bush moves go, Art, I'm afraid I'm not really a party politics kind of girl. I teach my students that "conservatives" and "liberals" are not much different. Neither wants to change the system. Radicals, on the other hand, want to change the status quo and that's where I sit. So this military escalation (the likes of which have been the base principle and practice in this country since before it was a nation and right up to the present) doesn't surprise me at all. It just disgusts and disheartens me (as I said in the post). And pretty much everybody who's being honest with her/himself knows why we're there, don't you think?
This is what worries me. I think this country felt hope for the first time in a very, very long time. I do believe that feeling of hope is the catalyst for a real change. Now, I think we're set back more than pre-yes we can. Okay, let me try to explain my worry exactly. Louisiana had so many close calls with hurricanes before Katrina, that when "the big one" finally came, many innocent lives were lost because no one really believed it would happen. After Katrina, everyone was understandably trigger happy. We have gotten a few close calls since, but no major disasters. Eventually we will again have the "it's never really going to happen" mentality, which will again put us in harm's way. I don't know how well that explains my fear of the false hope campaign with Obama, but I tried. I think people were really hoping and believing a long overdue change was in store, but now they're back to the "it's never really going to happen" mentality. One step forward, two steps back. Sigh.
Good morning, Offspring. There's no question you're right. The difference is that many knew all this before -- even during the election. The signals were all there. But hope springs eternal. It's why the human race has lasted as long as it has. And the street boys I talk to in Haiti tell me, "Where there is life, there is hope." Coming from them, I'm not going to argue.
Whatever happens in the future may be worse than Katrina, but those who don't die will survive and carry us forward. That's what 'remember and resist' means.
Social Offspring, for example, is a very hopeful choice of commentator identity on this blog.
Hi there!!
I am not the least bit surprised.... when Obama was elected... I wrote a post "After The Tears" and I was trying to point out how eager black voters were to create this delusion about Obama being a "magical negro"!!
Hmmmmph.
BWBTT: Nobody's "magic." The quickness with which people in a collapsing society will clutch at straws, rushing to look for a simple (and often individual) solution to huge social problems is what can send that society into fascism. At least that's what Naomi Klein says. Hmmmmmph and more hmmmmph. Sigh.
I agree seeker, I believe that what you say can happen if the people are not educated. I also believe people are not patient and Obama seems like he is trying to please too many people at the same time. He has inherited a cumbersome mess that will not be resolved in 4 years but people won't understand that.
You're right, Art, in a simple sense. My concern is that there's no intention in resolving any of it. The greater implications of that are mind-bending.
My hope wasn't that there would be big change, it was that things wouldn't be this bad. I thought closing Guantanamo could be real, health care could be real, and that repealing the Patriot Act was a real possibility. I knew he was going to stay in Afghanistan and worried he'd escalate. IE: I expected *some* mitigation of the situation.
When I voted, I promised it would be the last time I voted for a Democratic presidential candidate on hope and faith that it really would make a difference.
What has Obama done that *is* better than the McCain/Palin program? I should ask this on my blog, see what people say.
I think McCain/Palin would have been way worse, which gives you some idea of how bad I think it would have been since I hate what's happening now.
the people have to make the change not the president! ;D
One of the posts I deep-sixed said exactly that, Defiant. The president is NOT the problem. The system is. And that makes it an issue for the people to deal with. At some point. Nice to see you around. :^)
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