A National Near-Death Experience

[Hissyspit]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-morrison24jan24,1,7501383.column?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

Patt Morrison:
A national near-death experience
We're getting closer to the light -- the one at the end of the George Bush tunnel.
January 24, 2008

One year from this very moment, someone other than George Bush will be sliding behind that antique desk in the Oval Office. In embassies and outposts that fly the Stars and Stripes, photographs of a face other than Bush's will be going up on the walls.

At long, long last. It is seven years since Bush plopped down behind that desk, seven years when hope and honor and good faith and goodwill died a little for me, for many other heartsick Americans who love this country, and for millions around the world who looked up to this country.

I say "died," and I mean that. The psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross laid out the basic stages of grief and coming to terms with loss. And Kubler-Ross' five stages track almost perfectly the arc of how we've grappled and grieved over the sickening power crusade of the Bush administration against the nation for these last seven years.

Denial: It can't be happening. Who could expect that the man who had to win election in court, not at the polls, would instantly, arrogantly go on the attack -- wiping out environmental protections unmatched since Teddy Roosevelt, throwing out scores of health and safety and accountability and privacy rules and protections that made life better for typical Americans, and making "caveat emptor" the only motto of U.S. business? There must be some mistake, doctor.

- snip -

Can I hold out for one more year? Can the nation? Will another election save us? Are we suckers to believe, still, in the ultimate curative power of that brilliantly conceived human instrument, the Constitution? What other choice do we have? I'm ready for a last-minute miracle cure.

Bring it on.

[flashl]

1. Americans must first realize the death of the constitution and government ...

before they can go through the stages of grief.

[librechik]

2. plopped down behind the desk? I sorta pictured him hanging from a swing above it

by one toe, while chewing on a banana and pooping on the desk.