Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
THE BUSH / REGAN AD
In a few days you will be seeing an ad run on TV sponsored by a Republican organization. It shows President Regan at the fall of the Berlin wall and President Bush at the fall of the World Trade Center. The add purports to suggest there is a link between the two men and circumstances. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The successful way Regan fought the Communists in no way reflects the mess Bush has created in Iraq.
If that were the only issue concerning the ad, its untruths, I wouldn’t even bring it up. Most Repubo rhetoric concerning Bush is filled with untruths. The concern here is for the wishes of the people involved.
After Bush ran his first ad showing the World Trade Center, victim’s relatives came out against the audacity of using their loss for political gain. The president ignored them. The Repubo’s will do so again and again, against the wishes of the victim’s families.
Not only that, as soon as the Regan family heard of the plan to run this ad, they immediately issued a statement pleading with the Repubos not to run any political ads using President Regan’s name or image. The Repubo response? President Regan’s name and image are in the public domain so it’s legal for them to use both. Apparently the wishes of the Regan family are not important to the Bushites.
There are times when what is legal is not what is right.
Let’s face facts. There are very few similarities between Bush and Regan. Yes, both were presidents and both were Republicans. It about ends there. Regan, a former Democrat sat well to the left of most of the members of his party. Bush sits well to the right. As his son said, Regan didn’t wear his religion on his sleeve. Bush uses it as a mandate for pre-emptive strikes on other nations. Regan’s tax cuts helped poor people. In fact, he eliminated taxes for people below the poverty level. And, he raised taxes when it was necessary. Bush’s tax cuts, on the other hand, helped only 2.5% of the richest Americans and corporations – the people who are now funding his re-election efforts. Regan could speak to Americans on every economic level and of any political persuasion and he did so often. Bush needs to hand pick his audiences to be sure they will agree with him and cheer and no president has held fewer news briefs than Bush. If you’ve watched any, you’ll understand why.
Ronald Regan didn’t need to name drop in his political ads. He asked America, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” I doubt George Bush has the spangles to ask America that question. The answer is too obvious.
So Mr. Bush, you are not a Ronald Regan, you will never be a Ronald Regan, and unlike Ronald Regan, you will NOT be re-elected. No matter who you try to compair yourself to.
©2004 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
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Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
GAYS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
One has to be a bit amazed at the current activities of the Catholic Church. In Boston, they’re selling off churches in order to pay legal debts accrued during the recent sex scandals. On top of this, their bishops are touting punishing Catholic politicians that don’t toe the line concerning the Church’s stance on abortion and gay rights by withholding the right to communion. In Phoenix, they’re going back to the Latin mass in order to encourage long time Catholics to forgive the Church of its recent sins and to come back on Sunday. It isn’t working.
People being people, they can’t help but notice the hypocrisy of the Church’s activities. The separation of church and state is a very important issue in this country and when the same church that fought so hard to cover up its guilt and withhold punishment of its clergy in the sex scandals comes out against politicians to influence their leadership, well, it’s just too much for most American Catholics to stomach. It will take more than masses being held in Latin to smooth this over.
The other issue is the Catholic leadership’s embracing of the bigotry of the religious right concerning gay marriage. The Catholic point of view is, gay people are God’s children and are not evil but they should abstain from sex as God calls their sexual acts an abomination. According to the Church, being gay is “curable,” although millions of gays who KNOW they are born gay would disagree. Marriage for gays and lesbians is out of the question, period.
On May 23rd, Pope John Paul in an address to visiting US bishops had this to say: "Family life is sanctified in the joining of man and woman in the sacramental institution of holy matrimony. The Church teaches that the love of man and woman made holy in the sacrament of marriage is a mirror of God's everlasting love for his creation."
People can see the hypocrisy of an organization which continues to insipidly force its own clergy to remain single, even in the face of that clergy’s sexual violation of young people, yet tries to imply that there is something wrong with homosexual men and women who have been together for 5, 10, 20, 40 and over 50 years who desire to bind their loving commitment in marriage. It just doesn’t make any sense. In Massachusetts, gays may legally marry now. According to the Catholic Church, they’re not supposed to have sex? “Abstain,” the church says. What are they supposed to do, masturbate? The Church's view is absurd.
Even the apostle Paul understood that people could not control their sexual drives. He said, “Now to the unmarrieds and widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry.” Of course Paul also said the leader of a congregation should be "a man with one wife" but the Church refuses to follow that as well. The really telling remark to Timothy that Paul made is as follows: “Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry...”
It’s time for the Catholic Church to get out of American politics and straighten out the problems in their own church or a lot more properties will be flooding the real estate market.
©2004 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
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