A Memorial for what we have Lost

As we engross ourselves with scandal after scandal after mind-numbing outrage, and as multitudinous evils are effected around in the world in our name, I think we often lose sight of something terribly important: This United States of America is a truly great country.

We lose sight of the fact that the true ideals of this nation are progressive, timeless and eminently noble.

And that this above all--the perversion of everything truly great and noble about America itself--is the greatest crime of all that these corrupt traitors have perpetrated on our nation.

Indeed, our ideals are set forth in stone all over our nation's capital.

There is something about engraving words in stone that gives them a timeless authority.  To engrave words in stone in a public place in the heart of a nation's government speaks, in many ways, to values that run even deeper than its temporary codes of law, dress, behavior.  Examining what our people have, over time, decided is worthy of engraving in stone in our nation's monuments speaks volumes about our values.  It is an uneffacable tattoo of our deepest desires, hopes and dreams.

Tonight, I want to remind my fellow Americans--Americans who I know today are ashamed to be Americans--of what some of those ideals are.  Because no matter how badly these assholes have sullied them, they were, are and remain OUR VALUES.

My first selections will be from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial.  The following quotes are engraved in large letters on the stone for all to see, free of charge.

On distribution of wealth:

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Yes, that's right.  Right on the stone, in plain view.  But in the world according to one George W. Bush, we get the unforgettable: "This is an interesting crowd: The haves, and the have mores.  Some might call you the elite; I call you my base."  Could there be any greater contrast between two heads of state?

On civil liberties:

We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens whatever their background.  We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

He's talking about YOU, Mr. Brownback; YOU, Mr. Frist; YOU, Mr. Rove.  REAL AMERICAN VALUES dictate that we guard the rights of our Muslims; our immigrants; our gays and lesbians; and all others whom you choose to victimize as WEDGE ISSUES to divide and destroy our democracy.

He's talking about YOU, Mr. Bush; and when we excoriate these villains, we do nothing less than stand with Mr. Roosevelt, pointing at the engraved tattoo on our national character--a character that this administration's crimes can NEVER wash away.

On war:

I have seen war on land and sea; I seen blood running from the wounded; I have seen the dead in the mud; I have seen cities destroyed; I have seen children starving; I have seen the agonies of mothers and wives.  I hate war.

This is how REAL Americans think of war--even the ones who reluctantly take us there.  Traitors to the American way say things like "I'm a War President, heh heh" as if it were all a parlor game.

On the post-war economics of other nations:

Unless the peace that follows recognizes that the world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind.

TRUE Americans understand that one does not profit oneself by profiteering from war and exploiting the economies of the conquered or subjugated.  TRUE Americans understand that unless we are just and righteous in our dealings around the globe, that resentment will flourish, leading to terrorism and future catastrophic war.

Only traitors to our nation's ideals believe that the globe is our war profiteering and global corporate playground to exploit, and that anyone who gets upset about that should be nuked.  They are traitors to the American way.

On multlateralism (from Eleanore Roosevelt):

The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation; it must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.

You know, that multilateralism thing that respects the U.N.?  Only mutachioed traitors want to see the U.N. building destroyed, and only those who have defected entirely from the American Way think that unilateral pre-emptive war is anything but corrupt and evil to its core.

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Let use travel now around the Tidal Basin to the impressive Jefferson Memorial, which stands straight to the south of the White House, in full view of its windows.  Location-wise, the President cannot look out his front window without gazing onto the beautiful and timeless Jefferson Memorial.

And any decent person, looking on it, would be reminded of the words etched in stone--yet more embodiments of our nation's guiding principles.  More tattoos on our nation's soul, never to be forgotten.  Let us examine a couple:

On strict constructionism:

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.

As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners of opinions change, with the change in circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.  We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Of course, such brilliant words are wasted on the likes of Scalia, Scalito, Thomas (also known as Scalia's manservant), and good ol' boy Roberts.  And wasted on the assholes who put such people on the highest bench in the land.  If it were up to the people who have hijacked our government, our laws would be founded on the principles of the same church that condemned Galileo and Darwin.  For these UnAmerican bastards, the "regimen of barbarous ancestors" is the "good old days" devoutly to be restored.

For us REAL Americans, the good old days means returning to a time when these ratfuckers are out of office--permanently--and unable to stain our nation's good character further.

On education:

Establish the law for educating the common people: this it is the business of the state to effect, and on a common plan.

You hear that, my voucher-loving and religious homeschooling friends?  You hear that, you misleading cowards at Fox News?  Education of the common man and woman is the duty of all Americans ON A COMMON PLAN.  And REAL Americans understand that.

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Finally, let us end our tour at the gravesite of John F. Kennedy, where the eternal flame above his body is matched across the memorial square by some of the eternal words, etched in stone, of his magnificent presidency.  Two of these quotes follow here:

On America as world's policeman:

What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by an American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living...not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women; not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.

That's right: the fuckers at PNAC are UNAMERICAN.  They want unending and perpetual war, financed on the backs of America's disappearing middle class, and funneling money to the producers of every bigger and more brutal American weapons of war.

They are UnAmerican scum of the highest order, and I for one refuse to be sullied by their taint.  What about you?

On Social Justice:

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

No comment is really necessary here; just listen for that slow, slow drip of filth and sewage that is "trickle-down" or supply side economics, and feel it dripping down onto the heads of us REAL Americans in a form of water torture not yet outsourced in extraordinary rendition to our rich Saudi friends.

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THESE ARE THE VALUES OF AMERICA.  THEY ARE ENGRAVED IN STONE IN THE HEART OF OUR NATION.

Never forget it.  Never forget.

Never forget that these criminals are not America; they are a CANCER on America.

And our only task now is to decide on the speed of the removal of those who betray our essential goodness and our deep-seated values.

[Cross-posted at The Daily Kos]