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Edited on Sat Jul-10-04 12:51 PM by DebJ
Oh my god that was sooooooo hard, to stand and listen to those lies, and the crowds' blood-thirsty cheers. Oh my god. I even had to say out loud many, many times, Oh my god in heaven above help me I can't take this. I was almost crying just before we left.
Still, I would like to read the speech somewhere, because what got me even beyond his particular lies was the sequencing of his speech, and with emotion and fatigue, (and old age, ha ha) I've forgotten some of it, I'm sure.
One of the first things he did was knock Kerry and Edwards. Talked about Cheney's magnificent experience...puke, puke...to cheers from some of the crowd. Then he knocked Edwards for lack of experience. He knocked Kerry for being wishy-washy and jumping sides, saying if you don't like what Kerry said today, wait a few days, and he will change it. You all know how that routine goes, as many of us knew it would go as soon as we saw the Democratic debates, and knew what would happen if Kerry was selected. He came close to, but did not say, that Kerry has voted for and is promising to do Bush's program that Bush is already doing, something forecast here during the primaries, I recall vividly.
Dubya said the Democrats want an isolationist economy, that we want to close our borders, but internationalizing is good for business and good for jobs. Of course he quoted HIS numbers on a gain in jobs, as did another speaker. Both times this was said, I had to say very loudly (but not shouting) oh yeah, Walmart jobs, at $8 an hour. Go Walmart greeters!
One nauseating part was that his very next topic was the high cost of medical care. Hey, what happened to internationalizing prescriptions, huh!!!! I was furious as he explained the problem is tort law and malpractice cases. Again I said loudly, hey, why can't the poor import their drugs from Canada so they can afford all the medicine they need!!!! Damn, I was so angry. I could not believe he rolled from saying 'we need to be international in our business practices' right into the high cost of medical care. And these dolts just swallowed it right down, most of them.
And his speech topics kept rolling into each other, just like that. I could just see the say one thing, do another, topic after topic. That's why I'd like to see a written copy of his speech.
He talked about how SMALL businesses make America strong, how health care costs are hurting them....Mr. Big Business speaking as if he helps small businesses! Puke. Then he says,his economic plan is working and we need to make the tax cuts permanent. As the crowd cheered loudly, my husband screamed out "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" like someone being stabbed. My husband said all he could see was an America that had become like a feudal territory, with the big tax cut guys owing everything and the rest of us are slaves. A young man and his wife, in their early twenties, said to us that "but businesses are what create all the jobs"... All I could say was honey, I've worked for big corporations, some of them in the top three internationally in their fields, for over thirty years, and you just have no idea what you are talking about. I couldn't say anymore; my wealth of experience has seen toooooo much, and when I was his age, I felt the same. I bought the trickle down shit at first myself. He saw how incredibly sad I was as I said this. He said nothing. The bulk of the people there to support Bush were very nice, good old Americans....I mean that as a complement. Their hearts seem very good to me; I would like them as people, as friends, as neighbors who need to get educated instead of preached to in holy roller fashion. But then, there were the War Mongers, the Blood Thirsty.
Blood Thirsty from my couch potato seat, it turns out. Bush asked the audience to raise their hands if they had family, friends, loved ones in the Armed Forces. I raised mine, as I looked about. My nephew is in the Air Force, and his wife. A very close family friend has a son in Iraq, and a very good Marine friend of my daughters just got shipped there as well. I did not think of this at the time, but as I related this to a fellow demonstrator on the street a few minutes later, she said to me, I bet not too many people raised their hands, did they? And I had to confirm that was true. I could see the entire audience, and I'm telling you, not more than 12-15 people or so raised their hands....and I was one of them. So easy to support a war fought by others children. It is not just the members of Congress, as pointed out by Moore. It is also present in the general body of American citizens. The draft will wake them out of that, won't it?????
But the real horror for me was the people screaming out things like "Go get them!" Horrible, blood thirsty war cries. I was so sickened. During the protest outside I lost control a time or two and said to some Bush supporters, YOU put YOUR ass on the front line. Put YOUR kids there! Leave my kids alone! You like blood, YOU go do it! And YOU pay for it!
I actually heard these words out of Bush's mouth yesterday: that we went to Iraq because of the Weapons of Mass Destruction! Oh my god! And these people still buy that shit!
I started repeating, Vengeance is Mine, Saith the Lord. Thou Shalt Not Kill! I told my husband, I have to leave. This craving for blood is making me ill. I was crying; I was shaking. I was heart-broken for my country, for my children, for the world. As we walked out through the (surprisingly thin) crowd behind us, I kept saying those bible quotes, shaking my head No, and trying to stop crying. People there looked at me with sympathy. If I reached just ONE person, that hell was worth it. Just One, Lord, I pray. And I was praying in that hell hole disguised as patriotism. The nationalistic ethnocentric fervor was really pictching up as we left. And yet, I did see sympathy on the faces of many of the crowd, as I left weeping.
Next post: the demonstration
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