I find myself mourning what might have been.

[Cyrano]

We called ourselves the "Greatest Country in the World." We believed that somehow, we were well down the road toward creating Utopia. We thought we were special. We thought we were different. We thought we were the best hope for humanity. But last night, we found out it was an illusion.

We watched a handful of people who occupied the positions once held by giants like Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, and others who gave us the gift of liberty, betray us. They came like thieves in the night and they stole our sense of well being, our freedoms and our country.

I spent most of today burning with rage. But all I feel at the moment is deep sadness, discouragement, and the fear that perhaps many years may pass before that which we have lost will reemerge on the face of the earth.

We are in a frightening, terrible, dark moment of human history. The barbarians are in control, decency is in remission and those who believe they can somehow change it (through force or other means) are in denial of the reality of absolute power.

Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and even Lyndon Johnson (if you can, for just a moment, put aside Vietnam) labored to bring fairness, justice and human decency to us. But last night, it was all taken away. It was an American Kristalnacht. It was a bonfire that destroyed our constitution and everything it stood for.

We are all now at the mercy of one man and his henchmen who will decide who is to be spied upon, deprived of their rights, imprisoned, held without charges, disappeared, tortured, or murdered.

In six short years, and one brief moment of insanity, all of our dreams of a better world have been shattered. And we can't even blame ourselves. It was accomplished through stealth, misdirection, maliciousness, a plan that had been in the works for many years, and a small group of people who knew how easy it would be to get the majority to buy into pure evil.

What's most amazing is that this small group of people are not battle-scarred veterans, heroes from Greek mythology, leaders with the ability to inspire, or even people of courage.

Unfortunately, they are the real terrorists. Small, sociopathic, men and women who represent the worst of the human species. They are con men who sold a lie that was believed by too many in this country. A country that we may never again be able to call our own.

[file83]

1. What you have going for you is that you are at least AWAKE to the truth.

That is something to be thankful for. You ain't alone in your sulking - I'm right there with you Cyrano. :hug:

[Cyrano]

2. And I will be with you if and when the opportunity for meaningful

resistance ever comes. Would that it be that it comes in our lifetimes.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

3. My faith in things was gone when they killed the Kennedy's & w/Nixon

at a pretty young age. I was 10 and I think that just made me into a cynic. I was around a lot of racist people when I grew up and used to yell at people (including my grandmother) for using the "N" word etc at a very young age (about 6 or 7). So I pretty much knew that that there were a lot of fucked up people in this world.

I think I was born a cynic or something because NOTHING shocks me. I have to admit - alot of stuuf that BUsh has pulled has shocked me though. The 2000 election pretty much woke me up even more - and I haven't been shocked by too much since.

I don't know if that's good or bad...

[Cyrano]

4. At one time in my life, I believed we would never again see the likes of

Richard Nixon. And I never thought we'd ever have an administration that would make Nixon seem benign.

As miserable a human being as Nixon was, no one ever compared him to Hitler. But Molly Ivins wrote a column today which included the word "Nazis" in reference to the Bush administration.

Molly is about as level-headed a person you can find. But when she makes that comparison, you can be pretty damn sure we're living in a world gone mad.

And as for people using the "N" word, disenfranchising black people is one of their core tactics for stealing elections. But it goes further than that. Trent Lott publicly complemented Strom Thurmond for his racism. George Allen has no problem tossing out the term "macaca" (the meaning of which it has since been documented that he was fully familiar with). And which party has members of groups known as "Citizen's Councils" formally known as the KKK?

Then there's New Orleans. The majority of people sitting on those roofs, many of whom drowned, just happened to be black people who, for the most part, don't vote for Republicans. I'm shocked, shocked, that George W. Bush didn't notice the disaster taking place. Not to mention his mother's remarks about how good the people had it in the Astrodome.

But I'd better stop here. There's just too much that has taken place in the past six years. Who ever thought that Richard Nixon would look good compared to the malicious thugs who currently hold all the power?