Making Declarations.

I had to stop watching the news a long time ago. It just makes me sad, angry, distraught, disturbed, etc. Really anything in an array of negative emotions. I yell at the TV, swearing at it, shaking my fist. I'm still relatively informed as I read the New York Times on-line almost daily and I allow myself the occasional Daily Show. I, however, do watch morning shows. As I eat breakfast each morning I watch the Channel 7 news, and am given the daily headline stories by Diana Sawyer as she gives us the Good Morning America teasers. This is generally enough to evoke all of the above mentioned emotions in me. Karl Rove is cleared....Booooo. Donald Rumsfeld is still a pompous, ignorant a-hole (and apparently a ninja). GW is taking surprise trips to Iraq. "Look, here I am. It's so safe. Oh and...Freedom, Liberty, Nuclear, Terrorist...Strategery." And today, the House voted in a bill against the withdrawal troops from Iraq within a six month period.

When the bill is titled "Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary," how can you expect that people will vote against it? If a person were to vote against it, look what they're saying. "I don't want the United States to prevail." "How important really is a Global War on Terror?" "We're too free as it is." And while I may have at one time or another uttered one or more of these statements, it's not really something an elected official would want the public to hear them say. But let's say, we rename the bill for what it really is. How about "We've already lost 2500 soldiers and countless civilians have died because of our War. Maybe that's enough." Or "Declaring that the United States could use the money better elsewhere, say to fight the Global War on Poverty, Disease, and Hatred, rather than contributing millions of dollars a month to these atrocities." Maybe then something could be done.