Was Blind but Now I See

I have a confession to make and I want to do so publicly. I voted for Al Gore. I don't know what got into me. Maybe it was reading the book, 'Earth in the Balance', years ago; maybe his long years of service to our nation. But I was wrong, I see that now. It has become so very clear to me in the past two months that compassionate conservatism is exactly what this nation needed. How could the MAJORITY of Americans have been so blind?

Thank God the Supreme court had the guts to hand Bush the election! I shudder to think what kind of trouble we'd be in had all the votes been counted and Gore had won.

Now I can put my grandkids to bed at night knowing they'll have their daily dose of arsenic in their drinking water. Its a naturally-occuring substance, so it has to be good for us. And we need more carbon dioxide in the air we breathe. So what if it causes global warming? I'm sick of these cold winters anyway! It will save me from moving to Florida. Besides, too much oxygen makes one light-headed --everyone knows that.  Increased cancer rates? Well, we'll use that to teach the surviving children important math skills!

Let's open up the Smoky Mountains to mining and foresting. There's got to be a goldmine in them thar hills. Let's drill for oil while we're at it! We could put a rig up on Mt. LeConte, disguise it as a tree and no one would ever notice. Rainbows glimmering off of oil slicks down the mountainside would be a REAL tourist attraction. Who needs to save a national refuge, monument or habitat so people can drive through every summer to gawk anyway? It's a waste of our national resources. "W" has opened my eyes to that, let me tell you!

And thank goodness all those impoverished women in third world countries can now reproduce freely without those immoral family planning and health services we were helping to provide. Let their own governments educate them about HIV, AIDS and birth control.. it's not our problem.

All those years Clinton spent trying to broker peace between the Koreas, in the Middle East, in Ireland and around the globe? Another waste! In less than two months, Bush has kick-started the cold war with Russia, both Koreas and China. So what if Europe has to step in to mend the fences? We don't need them anyway. Time to get back to basics and work on our National Star Wars missile defense. Get the old War Machine moving again. How I loved the 60s !

And the unions.. all along I thought they were there for the workers; but boy howdy, Bush sure has put them in their place! Ergonomics rules, employees being able to file lawsuits -- nonsense. And how dare those Northwest employees think they have the right to strike for better wages and working conditions. Why, they're lucky to have a job at all in Bush's economy! Especially since we're trying to deal with folks who think voting should be easy or that they can just willy-nilly move around changing their residence and still vote!! Or have the same name as a felon in another state and not expect the inevitable repercussions.

What kind of crazy tyranny have we been living under, lo, these past 8 years??

Yes, I see things clearly now -- through the haze of chemical pollutants and smog-filled air. Veto that Patient's Bill of Rights - we all know patients have no rights. And if I'd wanted my medical records kept private, I'd have contributed more money to Bush than the HMOs did! To heck with the national debt, Social Security and Medicare. My kids and grandkids can worry about that. I want to buy a new TV this year with MY tax refund. Cut the HHS budget for child care, child abuse prevention and physician training so we leave a BUNCH of kids under five behind -- they don't vote anyway, and they sure don't pay taxes. We'll save them a nice bed in our rapidly expanding industrial-prison complex!

How compassionate Bush was, comforting the nation by calling the Santee school shooter a coward. Lord knows, cowardice is the root of the problem -- it certainly couldn't be the proliferation and availability of guns, the devastating psychological effects of bullying or other social ills. If every child were sent to school "packing", why, they could defend themselves and not be at the mercy of "cowards" !

The Democrats pulled the wool over my eyes, but good. How evil it was of me to think that all Americans should have affordable health insurance, to decry the ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest, to demand a decent living wage, to insist that corporations must balance concern for the environment with the bottom line, to think that all Americans have the right both to vote and to have those votes counted, to wish all women the right of reproductive choice without government interference, to decry the obscene influence of soft money bribery of parties and candidates, and to wish to restore human dignity to all Americans regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disability.

Yes, I was blind, but now I see. Thank God for "W" and those "compassionate conservatives". Where do I sign up?

Kay Gardner/P.Walsh
Bush's House of Horrors