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February 23, 2004
THE KIND OF PEOPLE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION REALLY ARE
I was done for the night, but this story caught my eye. Bush's Secretary of Education Rod Paige called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization." Man, where to begin? Suggesting that teachers -- or even those who represent them -- equate with people who blow up bombs and airplanes and take innocent lives? Not only is that a massive and reprehensibly inappropriate insult to the members of the NEA, but it's also a tremendously offensive trivialization of the job being done every day by the soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen who fight America's enemy in Afghanistan and who are now fending off terrorist attacks while the US occupies Iraq.
But there's a larger issue - and this is what's even more significant. The "crime" that the NEA committed that resulted in Paige's slur? Opposing the Bush "No Child Left Behind" program. That's right... to a Bush Administration member, if you disagree with George Bush you are a terrorist. If you disagree with this Administration, you are labeled an enemy of our country.
We shouldn't be surprised. There's a guy in Albany, NY who was arrested for wearing a peace t-shirt in a mall who'd tell you they've been doing it all along. There are teachers in New Mexico who were suspended from their jobs for simply encouraging students to do art work that expressed their feelings on the war. When some students' projects expressed their opposition to the war, the teachers posted them along with the pro-war artwork... and were suspended for not removing the anti-war projects. It's routine for conservative talk show hosts and pundits to question the patriotism of anyone who dares speak out against the Bush war. The fact is, the modus operendi of the Bush regime is to equate opposition to Bush as opposition to America, a crime requiring swift punishment. These people try to squelch dissent by intimidation and propaganda techiniques worthy of history's most evil men.
Don't believe me? Try this quote on for size:
"Of course the people don't want war... That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Sounds like the Bush policy of dealing with opposition to the war, huh? You know who said it? Herman Goering, at his Nuremberg trial in 1947. Think about that the next time a Bush flunkie has a name for those who oppose Dubya.
