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Catastrophically Ashamed

As I write, two million people in Massachusetts are under a boil, baby, boil alert after a water “leak.” When I think of a leak, I hear a drip, drip, drip. Like from a faucet that requires washer replacement. The word “leak” minimizes what some are calling a catastrophe in the Boston area.

Same with the use of the word “spill” in the Gulf of Mexico. Let’s place the responsibility not just on British Petroleum’s greed and our cavalier consumption of oil but on all politicians whose bodies are bathed in donations from Big Oil. This is an event of epic proportions, an ecological and financial catastrophe whose ramifications will unfold for decades, but it is not, as Texas Governor Rick Perry claims, an act of God.

Reports about the number of gallons gushing from the rig each day are conflicting. One account says a million but another doubles this. If there’s a “blowout,” 378 million gallons will spew. Or more, depending on which statement is accurate.

Four hundred species of animals are at risk.

Yes, we are scalp deep in catastrophes.

The AfPak-Iraq war, also is spewing—blood, tears, and immorality—while producing damaged DNA, destroyed lives, and environmental disaster.

Acknowledge, too, the criminal surges perpetrated by Israel’s Zionists, who with the unwavering support of the US government and the Zionists in our midst, continue their genocide of the Palestinian people.

The botched Times Square vehicle bomb could have been catastrophic. Simply put, this is retribution for our invasions and occupations. The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, is a US citizen of Pakistani descent. According to an article in the New York Post, Shahzad was living the American dream but went to Pakistan where he was eyewitness to our drone warfare. Perhaps, Shahzad had family and friends who were collateral damage when our aerial vehicles unleashed their vengeance on a “terrorist target” and killed 60 or 70 civilians. How many chickens will come home to roost before we GET this?

We are living a multitude of catastrophes, whose genesis did not occur with the inauguration of George W. Bush but, most certainly, escalated when this infantile embarrassment was fighting his own demons, making them our demons, and creating new demons.

Sure, Obama inherited Bush’s legacy, a weapon of mass destruction, but he’s done nothing to amend the damage. Instead, the man who brought hope to countless voters, who inspired a new generation of young people to work on his behalf, has increased the demons for everyone except the power elite whose privilege he’s protected at the peril of the majority of the world.

During this time of international despair, Barack Obama, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, joked about Predator drones, eliciting some positive reviews for his comedic skills. The audience salivated. Oh, those funny drones—and silent, too, until they explode a missile, melting civilians, babies, toddlers, teens. Hey Jonas Brothers, stay away from Malia and Sasha or one of these absof**kinglutely hilarious machines might hover above and, then, cremate your asses to bone fragments and dust.

Obama’s stand-up is about as humorous as his oppressive policies—the policies that are irrefutable proof he never intended to drive this big machine away from the status-quo road. He’d never have won the party’s nomination if his agenda had REALLY been to travel the moral highway.

I haven’t even addressed the catastrophes of healthcare, homelessness, the bailout of banks and corporations, diminished quality of education, racial profiling, and lack of employment opportunities. Or our abysmal one-party system.

Essentially, we are inundated with catastrophes and we are catastrophically gullible. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us over and over, shame on us. Shame, shame, shame.

If the planet still exists when the next election is held, let’s not be catastrophically gullible and ashamed. Again.

Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She’s written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she’s a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,’05, she has been writing political articles. She can be reached at: Missybeat@aol.com

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