I try to avoid too much discussion of politics on this blog. I’m no expert, first of all; second, I generally dislike the tone of blogs that exclusively discuss politics; and third, there’s nothing more annoying to me than a blogger suddenly abandoning the usual tone of posts to blog about politics. It’s jarring, isn’t it? Especially if you disagree with them politically. You end up thinking, “Well, I used to like her, but now I think she’s a boob and an idiot and I want her to shut up.”
Still, I’m going to momentarily be a boob and an idiot and make you wish I’d shut up.
I want to say a little something about our incoming president and our outgoing president and then I’ll be done, okay?
Something is bothering me and that’s this:
Why is it that neither of these men, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is allowed to be human?
Why are they viewed with such ridiculous hyperbole?
George W. Bush is subhuman, a devil, a demon, the man who’s ruined the world, whatever. He’s made mistakes as our president, but he’s positively reviled for his mistakes. That bastard! How dare he screw up?? And because of his mistakes, it seems to me, he’s now deemed subhuman. And it’s not fair.
Barack Obama, by contrast, is superhuman, an angel, a savior, the man who will redeem the world. He doesn’t make mistakes, it seems, or won’t, or if he does, we will likely not hear of them. He’s “The One.” He’s superhuman. Also not fair.
These men are human, for God’s sake. Bush is not subhuman; Obama is not superhuman. Bush made mistakes; Obama will make mistakes. I abhor this black-and-white thinking. It degrades both men, actually, when neither of them is allowed to be human beings. It’s ridiculous and unfair. I actually heard the NBC Washington Bureau chief say yesterday (I’m paraphrasing), “People don’t know just how much of his presidency Bush spent working out.” Seriously, dude? Are you a moron? If that’s the case, why didn’t we hear about it long before this? I’m sure we would have. What a lame-ass parting shot. Bush — that lazy work-out devil.
Then today, on the radio, I heard a woman from Maryland say, “It doesn’t matter that Maryland is broke if Obama is president.” Really? Why does it suddenly not matter? Because our guardian angel is here? That’s insane, lady. It’s nonsensical.
Can we modulate our thinking towards these men? Is it possible at all?
I didn’t vote for Obama, but I wish him well. I do. I’m not one of those extreme positionalists who can’t do that. I hate the kind of thinking that wishes, even longs, for his failure. I’m selfish enough to realize that any Obama failure could negatively affect me. So I wish him well, but I do not expect perfection. I don’t deify him and, frankly, the people who are doing so are wearing me to a nub. I have a God already, thank you.
I wish Obama his humanity as much as I wish George W. Bush be allowed to own his again.
One last thing occurs to me:
Whatever one may think of Bush, it cannot be denied that we’ve been safe, SAFE, in the seven years since 9/11. This is a huge duh, I know. I’m not the first person to say this, but you know what? Last week, when I first heard a plane had crash-landed in the Hudson, I immediately thought terrorism. I did. That is my first thought now when something falls out of the sky. And I wonder, is it yours too? How many of us think terrorism when we first hear of things like this? That’s the legacy of 9/11 on the psyches of many — that question is always there, front and center, when events of this nature occur.
And you know something else? That has been my first thought in these situations ever since Halloween 1999 when my aunt and uncle were murdered on Egypt Air 990. I’m not saying this to say I’m special because of it. No. I say this to say my family and I were forced to become aware of the issue of terrorism somewhat before the rest of the country. And when terrorism hits your family, your tribe, you quickly became accustomed to ruminating, probably too much, on issues of personal safety. If we can thank Bush for nothing else, let’s thank him — seriously — that he was vigilant on the issue of our personal safety. Are we so quick to devalue that? Our very lives? Our survival? My elderly aunt and uncle were terrorized in the moments before their crashing deaths by a horrific, aerial roller coaster ride courtesy of a rogue Muslim pilot. On 9/11, people exploded in jet-fueled fireballs. People suffocated alone in darkness. People burned to death. People jumped from those buildings, soaring too long in that open air before death came up to meet them. People sat trapped in those buildings, frantically calling loved ones, when they felt the buildings start to cave and collapse, sweeping them into oblivion — a person, now part of the pile of rubble.
My God. My God.
Do we truly devalue our lives so much that we cannot thank this man for our safety — that those nightmarish fates have not been ours?
I hope not. I truly hope not.
That human being who was our president, George W. Bush, made our safe lives his priority and I do thank him for that.
