The International Writers Magazine

THE THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS OF A BUDDHIST AMONG BAPTISTS
• Reverend Father Antonio Hernández, O.M.D., A.B.F.
Founder of the Independent Order of American Buddhist Fathers
suriak@yahoo.com

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STATE OF THE UNION It was the fateful night of January 20th. Settling down, cappuccino in hand and feet snuggled warmly, I braced for the worst. It was Bush's State of the Union address, and I was expecting some unbelievably hot air. What I got was much worse than that. It occurred to me that this man needs psychiatric attention.

Democrats (which pop into my mind before I start) have really loused up this race. Their candidates are all over the map and all over each other; they are shrieking losers and, worst of all, we were treated to a weeping Richard Gephardt announcing his withdrawal from the race. We shall place a well-deserved veil of charity over Howard Dean's apelike behavior after the Iowa caucuses.

Anyway, I can't recall the last time I heard such a fascist State of the Union speech. Bush promises war, more spending on war, giving jobs away right on our own soil to illegal foreign migrant workers, and then wastes the last 10 minutes he has left, reeling off his "accomplishments". (There was nowhere for us to go after his years of destruction except back up again- what accomplishments?)

Bush has this country in tatters with the biggest loss of jobs in history (nearly two million lost since he took office), a huge deficit that somehow seemed to spring horribly from Clinton's surplus, and THEN Bush dragged us into two major wars. His bird-brained ideology is supposed to be inspiring?

No wonder Senator Kennedy looked like he was going to vomit during the address. Bush promised war on anyone threatening him, no permission and no alliances required. In fact the entire address revolved around him, him, and more of him. He spent, as I reckoned it, approximately between 85% and 89% of his allotted time patting himself vigorously on the back. He waggled his brows like Groucho Marx and smirked at the Democrats.

It occurred to me that this man needs psychiatric attention.

Did he make any kind of positive impression? I don't believe so. He mugged for the camera as he bragged about Medicare- this from the man who plundered all the wrong funds for all the wrong reasons. He bragged about the rebounding economy... how could it do anything other than rebound? He bragged about new jobs right after he congratulated himself on the illegal-alien-can-work-here-anytime idea. He reminded us that "Saddam Hussein was found in a hole", but he never addressed the lack of weapons of any real caliber in Iraq. Forget about him mentioning the terrible loss of lives and resources.

Meanwhile, Democrats did nothing to illuminate Bush's errors. The topic of gay marriage, which for some reason seemed to be a major highlight in the minds of Democrats, was severely and tersely dealt with: Bush will die fighting to preserve "the sanctity of marriage." THIS IS NOT A THEOCRACY, I yelled at the television. Some weeks ago, a member of congress stood up, in session, and hollered the same thing.
Here Bush blatantly did what he often does: shifted from campaign stumping into his "minister" gear so as to preach. We should tremble when a president uses the word "God" more than once during a SOTU address; the president has no religious pulpit. Bush doesn't see it that way. I wonder if he's considering buying himself a star-spangled stole.

The trouble is, Bush is such a four-alarm menace that one really loses track of all the things he's done and said wrong during any given address.
We are left wondering what sort of Damage Control Plum will soon fall into Bush's lap. This happens to him with a spooky regularity. At the end of the day, his SOTU was illustrative of the entire Bush presidency: stupid, self-contradictory, confusing, terrifying, occasionally funny, and complete horse crap.
© Rev Antonio Hernandez Jan 22nd 2004

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