What Have We? What Have We? What Have We Done To Deserve This?

[Lancer]

I have tried very hard over these last months never to refer to President Bush as anything more derogatory than * or "shrub." I have tried to pity the man rather than hate him, while doing everything I can to denounce and make others aware of the dangers of his policies.

But this morning, I woke up paralyzed with both fear and despair and in tears -- it's awful to wake up crying -- that we are in for another four years of this nightmare, from which there is no real waking up.

I fear that by spending time here at the DU, in the company of mostly like-minded individuals, that I am blind to what a lot of America really sees and therefore believes.

I fear that they believe the man when he lies about Iraq, lies about our nation's safety, lies about the economy, lies about the strides made in education, and twists the words of John Kerry. I fear that they believe the President is a man of compassion and sensitivity.

Please, please tell me I am wrong. That there are millions of people out there who do not have access to the internet, nor the time to post to message boards who feel as we do.

Please reassure me that millions of people saw Aaron Brown interview the soon-to-be widow of Jack Hensley on Monday night. She knew her husband was a dead man, yet her composure and eloquence were a testament to the power of the human spirit to transcend evil. I do not know how she did it, but I admire her while I grieve with her and her family.

There are thousands of Mrs. Hensleys out there who are paralyzed with grief and rage at the senseless, obscene losses they have borne. My tearful despair is visceral, yet no less real to me.

Please reassure me that John Kerry can transcend the insanity and the filth that have sullied this campaign. Please tell me that if elected, his message of hope and his thoughful, intelligent, rational plans can begin to extricate us from this morass. That he is the right man to begin to reverse the myriad failed, insensitive, misguided, ill-conceived policies that have turned us on ourselves, and given us an unparalled view of the back of the rest of a world which was so willing to be allied with us only three years ago.

I do not wish to believe, to paraphrase Robert Browning, "though right is worsted, wrong will triumph."