Alas, Poor Yorick
For some odd reason, it must be in the alignment of the stars and moon, I thought back on the quieter days. You know, the ones prior to the 2000 election.
I've heard the comment that events would have happened the same if Gore was president. I've never bought into it. Certain men have hearts set on power, wealth, control, and war and will do most anything to get it. Chaos and Tragedy divert attention from the grand strategy. And whatever that strategy is, we are victims to it.
Today's commentary regarding the antics of the GOP (primarily in regards to redistricting) from Joe Conason's Journal sums up, in a much better way, what I have tried to say in my blog since June. Let me include a few of my favorite paragraphs:
In power, the congressional Republicans who once promised "reform" have adopted all the awful habits of their Democratic predecessors -- except that the Republicans are behaving considerably worse. They have abused the old pork-barrel system to an extent that Democrats never dared. They have ripped House rules and violated bipartisan norms in a manner that even the most dictatorial Democratic leaders never contemplated.
Led by Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert, the Republicans have long since abandoned their vaunted commitment to term limits and other such showbiz props of 1994. Instead, they are pursuing an unprecedented, nationwide, centralized attempt to gerrymander themselves into perpetuity.
As Jeffrey Toobin lucidly explains in the New Yorker, the political perversion of congressional districts has been a game played by both parties since the nation's founding. Lately, however, Tom DeLay has played for Republican advantage with a blatancy that mocks constitutional notions of fair representation and competitive democracy.
MoveOn.com has planned a house party this Sunday, in which the documentary Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War will be shown. As a teaser for the event, MoveOn quoted Ambassador Joe Wilson--
War is a blunt instrument reserved for those instances when other, less violent actions cannot achieve our national security goals. In the case of Iraq, as you will see in Uncovered, those other actions were working very well. We did not need to go to war to meet the objectives set forth by the President and the international community in UN Security Council resolution 1441. Intrusive inspections were working just fine.
Going to war with Iraq has not made us safer. On the contrary, there are now several hundred million Muslims who hate us. We are now seen by a world that only two years ago stood by our side, as one of the greatest threats to international peace. 130,000 Americans are sitting ducks in Iraq, being picked off one or two a day, while the Iraqi population becomes more and more hostile to our occupation. And this war of choice on Iraq has kept us from finishing the job in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Uncovered very effectively deconstructs the case for war with Iraq, pointing out the lies and flimsy evidence that underpinned the justification. It is an important work because it goes directly to the credibility of this administration. You will come away wondering whether George W. Bush and his team are worthy of our trust or support. I know where I come down on that question. Others will benefit from this documentary in reaching their own conclusions.
Call me melodramatic today.....I don't mind.
All of this recollection reminded me of a poignant scene in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet when Hamlet overhears the gravedigger speaking of Yorick as he digs a grave to bury Ophelia. Hamlet, in the company of Horatio, takes Yorick's skull in the palm of his hand and lifting it up to his face, so that his eyes could scour over it, spoke to it.
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.
Yorick could be the America I once was familar with.
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