"George W. Bush Is A Gangser"

When I first sat down and started thinking about what I was going to write I remembered something that I heard while watching a speech on T.V. by Aaron McGruder, the creator of the comic strip “The Boondocks.” Mcgruder’s speech was called “Free Speech in a Time of War” and he made the observation that whenever George W. Bush or any of his cronies are asked legitimate questions that they don’t want to answer they pull the gangster routine and tell us all: “mind your business.” Did candidate Bush use cocaine and then happily send thousands who did likewise to prison while he was the Tough on Drugs Governor of Texas? His answer: “mind your business.” What got discussed during Dick Cheney’s Energy Commission meetings, and can Congress see the notes? Cheney’s answer: “mind your business.” Is the United States applying the Geneva Convention’s rules regarding the treatment of POW’s to alleged Al Qaeda fighters held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? Rumsfeld’s answer: “mind your business.”
When a street gangster tells you to mind your business, I imagine that you duck your head down instantaneously, hoping all the while that you don’t get shot for your impertinence. I’ve never actually had a street gangster tell me to mind my business, but I have a pretty good imagination and I’ve seen enough Mafia movies to know how the system works. McGruder then went on to make the best point I’ve heard in quite a while. “The Bush Regime has already pulled off the ultimate scam, they stole the election. Not only did they steal the election, the actual winner (and can you find a sorrier excuse for a Democrat than Al Gore?) rolled over and played dead, and so did the Democratic Party. So now, the Bush Regime is emboldened. They know that there is no one, at least in the mainstream, who dares oppose them. They are on the ultimate power trip. They know all they have to do is tell us all to mind our business, and most people will do just that.”
We have, quite simply, a gangster in the White House. We have gangsters running the entire Executive Branch of our government, except that it isn’t a government that is any way, shape or form responsive to We the People. As the Bush Regime has so amply demonstrated in seven years, they don’t give a damn about us. They don’t care what we think, what we want, who we are or what we care about. If they did, they wouldn’t be where they are right now. They wouldn’t be ready to send even more troops into Iraq and kill even more innocent people than the U.N. Sanctions and bombings already have. They wouldn’t have exploited the genuine tragedy of the World Trade Center disaster to undermine our Civil Liberties and warmonger in the most detestable fashion. They wouldn’t be chomping at the bit to take military action that will further destabilize the Middle East, a region that is notoriously unstable even in the best of times. Israel, Pakistan and India, all allies of the United States in the Middle East, have nukes. It’s not such a stretch to foresee a scenario where the region gets even more destabilized because of the Bush Regime’s military action. What if someone in one of the countries is crazy enough to actually use those nukes? Where the hell are we going to be then?
This is why it is more important than ever that anyone who has even the slightest inkling that there is something rotten going on must take a stand. We must make our voices heard. We must organize. We must demonstrate. We must support one another. We must focus on the similarities we share with other activists to achieve the larger goal of making this world a peaceful place, rather than getting bogged down and defeated by infighting over whose agenda is more important or who is more punk. When you choose the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil. Don’t get me wrong – these people must be voted out of office. But I want to encourage you to look beyond the two dominant parties when you vote, and think about who will really represent and fight for what you believe in.
American involvement in the Vietnam War ended, not because President Nixon had a change of heart, or because the military decided to throw in the towel, but because enough of the American people, despite overwhelming amounts of propaganda to the contrary, made it politically unfeasible for the government to continue fighting it. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen without sacrifice, but ultimately the American people prevailed and the war ended. That war ended because enough of the American people had the courage of their convictions to be activists, to demonstrate, to do something instead of waiting for someone else to do it. Now we need to do the same. It won’t be any easier, or any less daunting than their task was. In some ways it might even be more difficult. But it won’t get done unless we get off our couches and make it happen. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get up and do something.