The Fire Next Time

(noted in flight, Friday, 3/25)

I have to confess to a fantasy, Bush, as I watched the images arriving from Kyrgyzstan last night.

My fantasy was that hundreds of thousands of outraged Americans awoke one day to the autocratic theocracy you are creating in their country, and marched on Washington to demand your removal from office. They had suddenly had enough.

They’d had enough of your budget deficits, with the drastic cuts in essential services like education, and antipoverty programs, and medical assistance to those in desperate need, not to mention your indefensible tax cuts for the wealthy.

They’d had enough of your arrogant misrepresentation of the American spirit to the rest of the world.

They’d had enough of your cronynism with the corporate world and your rush to despoil the natural environment for their profit.

They’d had enough of your kowtowing on every issue to a relative handful of fanatics of the religious right and their self-righteous moralism.

They saw you for what you are. They saw what you are doing with the Constitution that they hold so precious. They saw your vision for America and judged it to be one they could not and would not share.

And all these good people descended on Washington in their outraged hundreds of thousands, waving their banners and shouting their slogans: Enough, they screamed. Enough of Bush! Demanding a return to sanity, and goodwill, and tolerance, and fair play, and justice.

That was my fantasy, Bush. I don’t expect you to share it. But may it one day become a reality, before we get the firestorm that they got in Kyrgyzstan.