Thursday, January 04, 2007

Ready for Change

Mikaela says:
While I'm feeling more and more like a career professional these days, complete with no internet surfing and little interest in being on the computer at night, rest assured that I'm still managing to be outraged by several recent news stories.

  • The ongoing abuse of the constitutional balance of powers by our President through signing statements ... the latest one claiming the right to open YOUR MAIL anytime they want. Uh-oh. This one affects everyone.

  • The death of the first elected Black mayor of Louisiana days before his swearing in. Coroners have ruled it a suicide, but it sure doesn't feel like that to me!

  • The rushed hanging of Saddam Hussein for minor crimes before he could be put on trial for the larger crimes he perpetrated with support and knowledge of the U.S. government. Convenient, no? And now our government won't even condemn the taunting of this man moments before he was put to death. We're one of the only "civilized" countries that still puts people to death, despite the fact that each method of capital punishment eventually is ruled "cruel and unusual punishment" when it's discovered to torment the dying. Maybe it's just me, but the evidence pointing to a lack of "painless" executions may lead to the conclusion that execution itself is cruel and unusual... and not really a punishment at all.

Despite the bellweather news out of D.C. today with Democrats taking over Congress, I'm still left with a dreadful sense of foreboding and simmering rage. If Bush submits a "balanced budget" cutting federal programs like Social Security and medicare without even mentioning the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I just don't know what I will do.

There's just so much to do, where do you even start? Congress has got to come out swinging and take these first weeks to change the ballgame. Forget the past issues. Claim new ground. Name new rules. Remind this country what's at stake and why things like social programs, environmental protections, and efficient use of goverment benefit us all.

I am so ready for signs of change.