Reply #8: Is their god your god?

[seemslikeadream]

THE DECEPTIVE STORM OF GREED AND PETTINESS


HONORABLE MAJOR R. OWENS
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Mr. Speaker, In his inaugural address President Bush left us with one profound image: the specter of an "Angel in the Whirlwind" guiding the fate of our nation. Democracy in America has survived and expanded despite the numerous whirlwinds and storms. At several critical periods our ship of state could have been blown off course and been wrecked on the rocks: from the challenges of Aaron Burr and Jefferson Davis, to the grabbing greed which spawned the depression and the racist totalitarian threat of Hitler's Nazism. Always, in the past, the churning American political process has produced the leadership capable of conquering crises. But now we are confronted with a new kind of subtle and invisible emergency. We are confronting an enemy that has no guns. Internal smugness, arrogance, and the lack of empathy and compassion are attacking the moral spinal cord of the nation. In a previous inaugural address President Clinton correctly identified America as the "indispensable nation." Will the "Angel in the Whirlwind" guide us to new leaders who will know how to use our great wealth and power to fulfill this mission? At critical and pivotal points in our past, that great "Angel in the Whirlwind" has delivered magnificent saviors: Thomas Jefferson with his bold ideas and actions; Abraham Lincoln, frontier toughness with compassion far beyond any of his peers; Franklin Roosevelt with the vision and decisiveness that ended depression hardships and defeated Hitler. Now prosperity has brought the United States to a different kind of pivotal point in history. The question is, shall a nation with the unprecedented means to enhance survival and the resources to facilitate a less difficult pursuit of happiness for all of its people; shall such a nation at this critical moment choke on its own pettiness and greed thus rendering itself morally disabled forever. We pray for deliverance by the "Angel in the Whirlwind."

ANGEL IN THE WHIRLWIND

Angel in the whirlwind,
Tell us where you've been;
Come steer us through the storm,
Halt all this public sin.
Angel in the whirlwind
Blow forth great truths;
All men are born equal,
Some men die great;
Profiles in courage
Never come too late.
Lincoln in the whirlwind
Blew powerful justice down:
Emancipation proclamation,
Magnificent sensation,
Plain ordinary people
Transformed to noble creations.
Sailors in the whirlwind
Forsake all ease,
Typhoons still lurk near,
Patriots must not fear.
Angel in the whirlwind,
Jefferson at your side,
Ships ashore at Normandy,
In every boat you ride.
Protect our future fate,
Martin King's posterity
Is waiting at the gate.
Angel in the whirlwind
Wrestle with the terror:
Tornado twisted greed;
Volcanoes belching
Ashes of indifference;
Human kind's highest hope
Strangling on a golden rope;
Merciful empire
That might've been,
Critically infected now
By the virus of public sin;
Giant graves reserved for midget men.
Angel in the whirlwind
Stay to save the brave and free,
Bring back judicial integrity,
Point us toward eternity,
Come steer us through new storms,
Angel in the whirlwind.