Tannishblog

In light of today’s Immigrant Walkout across the nation, I ponder the legacy of the Bush Administration. I must say, our president is doing so much to ensure a larger voter turn-out in the next election than any other person I can think of…

Kudos to you, sir! The list of people you’ve angered – sometimes repeatedly – is growing at an exponential pace. With less that one thousand days left in office, it is conceivable that you can alienate everyone before you give up the Oval Office without breaking a sweat.

Here’s a list of the people President Bush has angered during his tenure:

• Education professionals by mandating a testing regimen without adequate funding which punishes the schools and administrators for being unable to meet arbitrary standards because of under funding. Many good teachers and administrators lost their jobs because No Child Left Behind never had money to back up the initiative with comprehensive support across the board.
• Senior citizens who have believed for their entire working careers that the government would help them in their retirement through Medicare and Medicaid, only to find a confusing and inadequate restructuring of the programs.
• The entire State of Louisiana.
• Environmental-minded citizens who believe there should be a clean, healthy place for their children’s children to live, who have been cringing every time an attempt is made to roll back clean air and –water policies in favor of the polluters, or attempts at selling national treasures to the wealthy for vacation home property.
• Thousands of families tragically touched by death and maiming as a direct result of warfare.
• Gays, Lesbian, bi-sexual and Trans-gendered people, unduly persecuted because they believe in living differently than others, and because they’re not afraid to express themselves openly.
• Proponents of abortion.
• People of non-Christian faiths for creating an exclusionary “Faith-Based Initiative” favoring Christian charities and organizations at the expense of other helpful religious benefactors.
• People who would rather our armed forces be used to alleviate the suffering of poor Nigerians, instead of being used to force regime change in an oil-rich nation that doesn’t want our type of government.
• Indigenous Americans who tried to create a better life for their people by working within the faulty system of government only to be betrayed yet again by greed and callousness.
• Anyone who calls himself a Democrat, Libertarian, or Progressive, or anyone who believes in accountability in government.
• Muslims throughout the world.
• Over 70% of the citizens of New York City who haven’t heard a satisfactory explanation for the September 11 tragedy, who were lied to about the resulting air quality after millions of tons of concrete becoming particulate matter, as well as many throughout the nation who are beginning to suspect foul play on that fateful day.
• Neither people who believe a family’s private medical decisions should not be used for political purposes, nor become fodder for news outlets worldwide because of a few scheming politicians.
• Anyone who still holds ethical standards regarding conduct in public offices.

I’m sure the list is longer than this, But my point is made. Feel free to pipe in, my three readers, if I’ve missed something.