In the Custody of Bush and Cheney

I remember vividly that moment when the nurse placed my first-born child in my arms. I felt consummate love and with it a profound longing to protect my baby forever. Over and over in my mind, I said, “Please, please, don’t ever let him go to war.”

During my pregnancy, I had read all the recommended books and participated in Lamaze, yet I knew little about a day or night in the life of a real baby. I actually took my baby home from the hospital and thought that he would fall asleep at night when his father or I put him in his bassinet and would awaken the next morning when I was ready to arise. How naïve I was. My inexperience, however, in no way affected the quality of care I provided that beautiful little boy who has grown into a fine man. My second son received the same attention, which should be the birthright of all children, and he, too, is a fine man.

Now, by way of our mainstream (addicted-to-celebrity-scandals) news anchors, we learn that Britney Spears’ children are at risk in her presence. Their custody has just been awarded to her ex-husband. Someone said that “Spears has spiraled out of control.”

Let’s face it-even if parents were required to take an oath before having a baby, many children would still be in peril. What is in the best interests of the child is frequently at the whim of a parent whose reasoning is unreliable or deficient. Often the courts are forced to intervene and a judge must render a decision.

Like derelict parents whose children are denied responsible care, the custodians of our country, who do take an oath to protect and support the Constitution of our nation, have abandoned their duties to act in the best interests of the citizenry. Certainly, all but a few Congressmen and women have spiraled out of control-downward to the depths of catastrophe produced and directed currently by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the executive custodians of the United States.

Just look at where we are: war without end, most likely, preemptive war with Iran, the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act, torture and extraordinary rendition, suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless domestic spying, a neglected infrastructure, a broken, overextended military, and the demise of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Custody of our country was granted to Bush/Cheney through two fraudulent elections. During this tenure of fear, George and Dick have violated civil rights as brutally as a child abuser induces shaken baby syndrome. Congress is complicit as well. Isn’t it time that we, the people, invoke our own protective services to remove those who are responsible for acting against our best interests? Isn’t it time we take back the custody of our country?

 

Missy Beattie has written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. She was an instructor of memoirs writing at Johns Hopkins’ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in BaltimoreEmail: missybeat@gmail.com