The Amazon Trail
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The Amazon Trail What is Their Problem? |
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by
Lee Lynch
What is their problem? Can't this
Republican administration hear the poor call, "We're hungry!"
Can't they see the middle class is drowning in layoffs? Can't they feel
the groundswell of frustration about fighting wars in countries as hot
and oil-rich as Texas?
The answer seems to be yes, they can hear
and see and feel all of it, but they're going to make hay while their
sun shines and they obviously think it's going to keep shining. Do they
have a hat trick the voting public can't anticipate? Is their confidence
and arrogance based on further shenanigans at the voting booths or on
something even more reprehensible? Do they think we're going to sit back
and let them have their way again after four years of being trampled by
the greediest herd of elephants ever to come down the pike?
What will it take to stop the stampede?
Every week there is some insult to the trust of Americans. Last month
it was the recess appointment of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering
to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after senators responsive to
the desires of constituents successfully blocked his confirmation.
And then there was the insult of the announcement
of a $1.5 billion election-year initiative to "promote marriage,"
especially among low-income couples and, one could assume, only among
couples comprised of a woman and a man. People are homeless in
the United States. Cancer and other killers are boring through our population.
The old and ill are going without necessary medications. Millions of women
and children are being abused inside the holy institution of marriage.
Illegal drug use continues epidemic. And we're spending the country further
into deficit to promote marriage?
Ask the young man who works at Burger King
and Mailboxes ETC and pours cement on the side to support his new baby
- ask him which he'd rather spend this money on, decent housing for his
family or on a program to make sure he and the mother get to an altar,
any Christian altar.
Ask the woman receptionist with three kids
what she would rather the government spend this loose change on - making
day care centers available and affordable or giving her and her husband
marriage lessons. Ask the runaway gay kids whether they'd rather be herded
into two-gender relationships or have funding invested in street-kid shelters.
Ask the soldier patrolling the desert in Iraq if s/he would prefer to
protect marriage or get a raise.
This is ridiculous! His Bushiness takes
our tax dollars and squanders them on playing war and playing house. If
everyone is settled in a honeymoon suite at the Baghdad Ritz Carlton,
will our problems be solved?
I actually know what their problem is: they're
running scared. One state after another is recognizing that it's the sanctity
of love which should be recognized by society and that there is nothing
inherently sacred about marriage. Whatever name is used to describe a
commitment between two people, love makes the bond, and that can't be
strengthened by any amount of money.
These reactionaries and their fear are driving
too much of American policy today. To those who believe that this is a
Christian country, a boondoggle like this one is nothing more than a get-out-the-vote
reward. Who else but the churches will be entrusted with shoring up marriage?
$1.5 billion is going to recruit a lot of new worshippers who in turn
will vote for the party that gives the handouts to their churches. This
tactic of buying religious votes is both insidious and seditious. I am
appalled by the brazenness of the white boys who would ignore the safeguards
put in place to discourage religious power grabbing. I am appalled at
the misuse
of funds so urgently needed elsewhere. But then I am appalled that such
an administration has inserted itself into our corridors of power.
I feel like the abused wife must feel -
trapped by a conscienceless batterer. I feel like the shivering street
kid and the old woman in pain, forgotten and despised by those who control
the purse strings to entitlement programs. I feel as confused as the guy
working three jobs who still can't afford to take his kids to the dentist.
I feel helpless before the amoral decisions coming out of Washington,
D.C.
But I am not helpless. I have a voice and
a vote.
Lee Lynch is the author of eleven books including The Swashbuckler and the Morton River Valley Trilogy. She lives on the Oregon Coast, and comes from a New England family.
© Lee Lynch 2003