Column: Each must examine himself to decide what is his highest sense of right
Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 9, 2006
Love Cruikshank, Love Notes
I listened to the president’s State of the Union speech last week. My expectation being small, I was in no way disappointed.
Most of what the president said, having been said before with the utmost sincerity, the greatest interest for me lay in the fact that two women were taken out of the audience and one of the two actually arrested for silently expressing their opinions.
Apologies were later offered to both and I find myself fascinated in imagining the conversation that brought about the change in attitude. Probably some public relations guy working on behalf of the GOP got the zealous one apart and said, “Uh, ur, um, ur. Well, boys, it’s good to see you so alert, but some da–mmed liberal is apt to get all talky about freedom of speech and the Constitution and stuff like that and …&8221;
“But look, we gotta protect the president. That one woman actually had on a shirt that had a total, well almost a total, of the young Americans killed already in Iraq. And you know the big guy doesn’t want defeatist stuff like that being spread around.&8221;
“But the other woman, you know had a shirt on which was printed ‘Support Our Troops.’&8221;
“Yeah, but did she mean it? Have we tapped her telephone? Maybe she’s a secret agent.”
There was a lot of clapping, foot stamping, and standing ovations for the president. Particularly effective was his oft repeated vow to protect the American people.
I’m sure that President Bush’s intentions are good, just as they are concerning the situation in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Being an unrepentant Democrat, I tend to remember Eric Hoffer’s statement, “The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep.”
Our elected leaders are our servants, not our masters. I can’t remember who it was &045; though I totally agree with him &045; who said that unless we are governed by God we shall surely be governed by tyrants.
In the conflict in Iraq we were first given to understand that we must support the president. When things started looking doubtful we were told that we must believe that we were winning, now we are given to understand that not to agree with the administration is an act of treason.
I wouldn’t have agreed with those who almost 400 years ago conducted the witch hangings in Salem either.
I’m not saying that I’m right and that everybody else is wrong. I’m saying that we each must examine himself to decide what is his highest sense of right. No one else can do that for us. The late John Kennedy once said something to the effect that we could make this the best or the last century of civilization.
In his address to the United Nations (Sept. 25, 1961) he said, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.&8221;
Every war, however terrible, has its hero. I am convinced that the hero of this one is Cindy Sheehan, whose son died because truth was not told.
(Albert Lea resident Love Cruikshank’s columns appear on Thursday in the Tribune.)