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Forgiving George Bush
by James Glaser May 24, 2007 A reader of my columns wrote asking if I could forgive George Bush for what he has done as President. I thought about it and how upset I get with the President, but as I thought about it, I had to admit to myself that the President hasn't hurt me directly. Yes, the man drives me nuts, and there is very little that he does that I like, but he is our elected President. The American people voted the man into office. . . twice! I have a good life, and really George Bush does not affect that life of mine directly. So I have nothing to forgive him for. The people he has caused to be killed and maimed in our country and the countries that he has directed our military to attack are the ones who have to work on forgiveness. I don't think I have to forgive George Bush, as much as I have to understand the man. George and I see the world in different ways. Maybe it is the fact that I was in a war, and he wasn't. I am sure that his upbringing with a rich extremely powerful father gave him a different way of looking at things. I have found that very rich people, if they have been rich from birth, have a different way of looking at the world. It is almost, an "us verses them" outlook. George Bush wants to help his friends, and his friends include the rich Saudi ruling family, the people with whom he grew up (Texas oil), the "old" money people from his family home in Maine, and the privileged classmates he met going to Ivy League universities. About 3% of American families are very wealthy, and that 3% are the ones who George Bush is working for. That 3% don't really care if a few thousand young Americans have to die in Iraq and Afghanistan to keep their standard of living where it is. The other 97% of the American people don't count in George's world. So, for me, there is nothing to forgive on a one-on-one basis. George will leave office, and it might take decades to repair what he has done to my country, but that repair will have to be done by my children and grandchildren. If the country doesn't fall apart with millions of immigrants sneaking in, if it doesn't fall apart because of racial problems, if we don't fall into actual class warfare in this country, well then my offspring might be able to hold on to this American experiment. |
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