archived: 25 Sept - 1 Oct, 2005 Back Next
UPDATED: September 29, 2005
A MATTER OF JUSTICE
TPJ readers will be focused today on the indictment of Rep. Tom Delay. The story is a relatively simple, if too frequent, story of political hubris and greed:
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee. . . .
Delay has a history of ethical lapses, even being “admonished” by the Republican controlled House Ethics Committee three times last year. Delay will now be judged by a jury of citizens.
Examples of Republican abuse of power are becoming legion. But, the abuse of power, however tawdry, pales in comparison a Republican Party that does not value the citizens it is supposed to serve. These two recent examples that follow demonstrate the point.
Bill Bennett, an icon in the Republican conservative movement, recently made these comments:
Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down." – Media Matters
In regard to the catastrophic flooding of New Orleans, a State Senator in Alabama proclaimed:
A state senator in Alabama says Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment on a sinful part of America.
State Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, wrote in a weekly column for news outlets: "New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness. It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."
Erwin, a former conservative talk-radio host and now a media consultant, wrote the column after a tour of hurricane-wrecked Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., and Bayou La Batre on the Alabama coast.
"Warnings year after year by godly evangelists and preachers went unheeded. So why were we surprised when finally the hand of judgment fell?" Erwin wrote. "Sadly, innocents suffered along with the guilty. Sin always brings suffering to good people as well as the bad." -- WWLTV (emphasis added)
Americans have a right to expect a Party elected to power to care about the citizens it serves. The radical Republicans have abandoned this fundamental principal of government and humanity.
Dr. Steven Jonas makes exactly that case in his column today in the final installment of The Bush Flood. He conveys an important message for Americans that should not be missed.
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THE MARCH
The Republican war in Iraq is over.
The day and hour that American troops will be withdrawn cannot be predicted. But Republican neoconservatives have lost; lost the moral authority to continue waging war.
The March in Washington Saturday was the funeral dirge.
The Washington Post has the best early coverage of The March that TPJ has found. The WP appears to be estimating between 100,000 to 150,000 marchers.
It was not the size of the demonstration, but it was massive. It was who marched. Two years ago, the march that preceded the war was filled with those 40 years old plus. Saturday, those 40 plus year olds returned, but The March was dominated by teenagers and those in their 20s and 30s. America’s younger citizens were everywhere – with passion and creativity.
Perhaps the highlight message of The March was delivered by an 8 year old:
Some of the biggest applause went to someone not even on the program. Adam Hathaway, an 8-year-old who became lost while mingling in the crowds. Before he was separated from his mother, Adam was showing people his jar of pennies and proclaiming that "President Bush is taking lots of this and using it in the war."
Several announcements were made seeking help in finding the blond boy from Maine. He was reunited with his mother, Julia Hathaway, as the crowd cheered.
TPJ concurs with the WP’s estimates of The March’s size. The March started at 12:30 p.m., but Junkie and family waited in line for over an hour and a half “marching” five and ten feet at a time, then standing for five to fifteen minutes, in a sea of demonstrators, just to get to The March’s official starting point as this photograph demonstrates:
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Having reached the starting line at 2:00 p.m. Junkie and family had to march two and one-half hours to reach the finish line that was some 24 blocks away (approximately two miles). We marched on streets four and eight lanes wide, streets that were packed. As we approached the “finish,” we looked back and were amazed that groups were just starting The March. At 5:00 p.m. when our North Carolina buses were departing, marchers were still crossing the “finish” line.
Two and one half hours to walk some two miles? Understandable when one considers this picture of the throngs on the actual parade route:
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The Washington Post’s description of The March’s flavor and energy is apt (emphasis added):
It was the first time in a decade that protest groups had a permit to march in front of the executive mansion, and, even though President Bush was not there, the setting seemed to electrify the crowd. . . .
People came to the Mall and Ellipse in waves. Organizers said that several thousand never got there because of an Amtrak breakdown on the New York-to-Washington line in the morning. Others who took Metro faced delays because of repairs on the Yellow and Blue lines. . . .
Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Riffs on Vietnam-era protests were plentiful, with messages declaring, "Make Levees, Not War," "I never thought I'd miss Nixon" and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam." Many in the crowd had protested in the 1960s; others weren't even born during those tumultuous years.
The Band played on – TPJ just wishes we knew their name! A percussion Band from North Carolina led the North Carolina contingent of marchers at the start of The March and for over four hours they never quit playing. They were simply wonderful.
Somewhere in the mélange of people, our section of the North Carolina contingent got separated from The Band. A half-mile from the “finish,” the 60s generation among us were – how does one say it politely – flagging. Suddenly, from a side street that had been blocked off by police, The Band crossed the empty connecting street pounding out a snappy marching rhythm. The echo in the empty connecting street rained over us. The police on our street politely rolled back their motorcycle blockade and let The Band lead us again. Tired bodies snapped to the beat and we finished with a modicum of respectability, imaging our younger days.
Who was THE Band?
Bush and Cheney were not there; both with more than adequate justification. The only element missing from The March was ANY of the national Democratic Party leadership. TPJ will write later on the failure of the Democratic Party leadership to appear. But, at the end of The March, one individual stood with an inspirational reminder of what lies at the heart of The March:
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Americans were there!
A SIDE NOTE
The Washington Metropolitan Police and the
National Park Service Officers were exquisitely professional in their handling
of The March. TPJ kudos.
The size of the counter protest was miniscule, about 400 people. The
authorities watched the inevitable verbal exchanges between the two sides but
never interfered. Both sides respected the other despite the traditional sharp
exchanges in views.
Police on the “lines” were approachable and gave protestors assistance in locating streets, bathrooms, etc. As the size of the crowds grew on the parade route, marchers overflowed onto the sidewalks, parks and side streets. Police accommodated.
Police officials also accommodated behavior that may not have strictly been in compliance with law. One creative group literally “bared” their opposition to the war. One young gentleman stood on a street corner near the end of The March completely nude with a protest sign “delicately” placed. Beside him a number of young women bared their breasts and delivered a most perky (pun intended) message, “Boobs not bombs” (the X-generation’s version of “Make love not war” in an era of abstinence?). Police not twenty feet away wisely chose to ignore the creative energy.
Police officials are to be commended for a job well done. Only three arrests were reported by the Washington Post this morning.
Last Update: 03/27/2006