TheBanyanTree: This is My Country

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I have my country back again!  I woke up the morning after Election Day with
a smile on my face and there was peace in my heart.  The American voters who
disappointed me in 2000 by electing Bush as President, although I think that
election was fixed, and re-elected him in 2004, another fixed election, came
through this past Tuesday, perhaps the GOP couldn’t fix this election, and
voted the Democrats into power, not just in Congress, but also in the
statehouses.  What a night!

The best part, and this is a gift for veterans of all wars, is that Rumsfeld
is gone.  He has almost single-handedly destroyed our military.  What if
another country would have attacked us?  We have almost no one left here to
defend us.  What if we wanted to attack North Korea for its nuclear weapons
testing?  We couldn’t, because our few forces are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And we have destroyed Iraq.  Iraq was much better off under Saddam Hussein,
evil as he was, than it is with us there.  Hundreds of thousands of people
have lost their lives, the US puppet government is a sham, and there is no
infrastructure.  Meanwhile, Cheney’s companies, Haliburton, for example,
have flown in like buzzards and are making money picking the meat off of the
carcasses.  Is this something to be proud of?

We have a President and his advisors who favor torture, not giving legal
rights to prisoners, and sent legislation to Congress to take more of our
freedoms away.  We have Congressmen who have taken bribes, molested
under-age pages, and broken other laws while trying to tell the American
people how to live.

There has been a quiet movement to begin the impeachment process against
President Bush.  He is an embarrassment to the United States.  He is an
embarrassment to the world.  He should never have been President and has
caused the United States much harm with his policies.  I don’t support
impeachment, because he’s only going to be around for two more years, and
with a Democratic Congress to hold him in check, he can’t do too much more
to hurt our nation.

The Democrats have also regained power in Minnesota.  We elected the first
Muslim to Congress.  We also elected our first female senator and our first
black person to Congress.  Our state legislature is now solidly Democrat
working with a Republican governor.  I didn’t like our DFL candidate for
governor.  He lost his slight lead going into the election by losing his
temper with a reporter and calling him a “Republican whore.”  Not a good
thing.

Our current governor, Pawlenty, sold his soul with GOP, but was smart enough
to back away from them during the campaign.  His policies, like having a
permit to carry a gun, cutting funding for education, for social services,
etc. had almost destroyed our state, but now we can move forward and once
again be the progressive state we were before.  As the lone Republican
surrounded by Democratic leaders, he’ll have to play ball and play fairly.

And with the Democratic sweep on Election Day, the cold air followed, and
our taste of summer disappeared with freezing temperatures, and some heavy
snow south of the Twin Cities.  Amidst the cooler air and positive forces
now moving through Minnesota and the United States, Ray and I got married in
a short five minute ceremony in a judge’s chambers.

Our love for each other will carry me forward as I begin the grueling
process of filling out all these forms from work to add Ray to my benefits.
Yikes!

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be
careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.
~E.P. Powell