Clearing brush - down in Crawford

This Sunday, August 14^th, marks the 70^th anniversary of Social Security. You have not heard much about that in the news, have you? Perhaps it’s because a certain administration and its pals in the media hate to print anything that might irritate the President while he’s busy clearing brush for Freedom down in Crawford. Facts bother the faithful whether the facts are about the origin of species, the age and size of the universe, the effects of economic policies or the fact that over a hundred thousand Americans have left their families and risk their lives so that Bush can cut brush for Freedom down in Crawford.

Social Security and the changes it brought to the country have been a thorn in the side of Republican utopianism for a lifetime and just as they are still seething over the triumphs of Liberty and Justice for all that occurred when our leaders were young campus misfits in the 1960’s, they are still plotting to destroy a program that provides some measure of financial security for 33 million retired Americans and their dependents, 7 million survivors of deceased workers, and 8 million disabled workers and their families. But still, if he says it’s broken, it must be and those Iraqi weapons must be somewhere hidden in the Brush in Crawford along with the African yellowcake and the aluminum tubes.

The many people I know whose lives have gone from prosperous to precarious since they lost so much of their paper wealth in the Bush “recovery” and many of those I know who fought so hard for their right to vote ( sorry Florida , you’re still fighting for it) are becoming skeptical about our Presidential Nonesuch and his Washington Burlesque show. A few of them are beginning to suspect that Bush’s commitment to prosperity, freedom and education mirror his commitment to Family Values – so well illustrated by the support of selling America’s children and families as guinea pigs to the pesticide makers.