Dick Cheney only has one thing on his mind, according to this morning’s New York Times: death, death and more death. While trucking through the swing states with his wife, Cheney avoids the issues of jobs, the economy and the environment. He sticks with the War on Terror. In California, where our votes are sewn up, we can only imagine what that sounds like.
Maybe something like:
“Our country is at a crossroads today. As we speak, terrorist cells are organizing to bomb major cities. It’s the truth, it’s unavoidable, and it could be happening on your block, or in your home, or in your bathroom, or even under that chair in the first row.
"Osama bin Saddam is planning on using massive nuclear weapons to kill thousands, millions, of innocent Americans, and most of you have only one option: stay home in a bomb-proof basement. Make that bathtub in the southeast corner your personal nest. Bring provisions such as food, water and radioactive-repellent clothing that can last for four to six months.
"My good friend Tom Ridge says those particularly targeted by Al Qaeda-Taliban-insurgents are black men between the ages of 18 and 84 residing in Florida, Michigan, and Illinois. They should not leave their homes in October or November, under any conditions.
"Terrorists and those who harbor them have enough personal-sized nuclear weapons to take out each Arab-American twice over. All Arab-Americans should simply lock the door, not leave home, and avoid using the mail for bill-paying, sending letters, or casting absentee ballots until 2005.
"Coastal states -- including Florida -- and central states -- including Minnesota -- are vulnerable to a hailstorm of atomic pain raining on them in the next few months.
"Registered Democrat? The terrorist networks have your name on a list. And they will use that list. Especially if that list is from Ohio.”
Both candidates have made the War on Terror the central issue of their campaigns. Fear is the chosen method for getting people to the polls. It’s a sad day for democracy when talking about annihilation is the only way to convince voters to vote.
Union Square was the center of protests at the Republican National Convention in New York. I was there on August 31, watching assorted liberals, lefties and angry New Yorkers mount bicycles to disrupt car traffic or hand chalk to anyone feeling the need of self-expression.
A short man carrying, it seemed, most of his possessions in two plastic grocery sacks walked up the steps toward the other homeless people who were shoved to the square's border
All of these protestors, many claiming to care deeply about the economy and what it was doing to the common person, brushed past the little man. They wouldn’t look him in the eye; afraid he’d ask them for a quarter or something.
He didn’t ask. He listened to a friend who talked at top-speed about what Bush says and what Kerry says. He started walking away, but the friend followed, nettling him some more about Bush and Kerry.
The man stopped, his shoulders rounding as if he carried the election itself in his two sacks. He turned back to the crowds, and yelled, “We get tired.”
When it comes to the War on Terror, and watching faces on television explain that the current security alert level means we’re all doomed, or listening to politicians sensationalize our fear of painful death, I can only say one thing: I get tired.
Posted by Lisa Lambert at September 27, 2004 02:53 PM