I've developed this coping mechanism with the Bush Administration where I avoid many major forms of media and try to forget he's President. I can go deaf in two seconds flat if I hear his minions on the television and have been known to turn my back on the motorcade. Pieces of the wall I have built between myself and this Administration began crumbling down on Monday afternoon. Though I wasn't really watching it, I had left HBO on while I was folding laundry. When I saw Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke was coming on, I knew I should change the channel. I ended up in another room fiddling with something else. It had started by the time I had returned to the blue room. I was trapped.
As I watched the interviews and the Administration's attempt at a nonresponse, I was transported back to a year ago. Livid. Bush. Cheney. Vacation. Barbara Bush's comment in Houston about how many people are probably making out better because of the hurricane. I was red hot. I was cursing at no one...everyone. I threw my remote across the room. I remembered the war we were in, the funding he had cut, the fucking people he had turned his back on. Feeling helpless stoked my temper. This man who calls himself leader has spent the years not doing a damned thing for people who really need him. I want to block it out again. I want to not remember he's president. I can't even hope for a fucking coup because the only bastards that would pull it off are the ones just like him.
My Bush administration mechanism is a little different. Whenever I hear "Bush" on the news I gasp and go, "WHERE IS TONY BLAIR!?!!?!" and get super excited.
ReplyDeleteI have a very similar coping mechanism. mine also often involves putting my fingers in my hears and yelling 'la la la i can't hear you' very loudly.
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh, i couldn't agree more. angry is an understatement. i happened to be watching CBS Evening News last night because i was interested in seeing Katie Couric, and she had an interview with him. i so badly wanted to change the channel but i was at the gym on the treadmill. instead, mid run, i just start laughing and trying not to yell at the television (ala my grandfather watching his beloved Giants). Katie asked "our president" if his moving the high-level detainees to guantanamo was a "tacit acknowledgement" that the way the military/government had been conducting interrogations wasn't right or working...and his answer was (smuggly, i HATE the smug...that's the one thing i hate most about him) "no, it's a tacit acknowledgement that we are doing everything we can to protect the american people and save american lives." i almost fell off my treadmill. the man, the leader of our country is such a f*cking moron. he doesn't even know what TACIT means! i swear to god. he has got to learn some new soundbites. he's been saying the same thing since 2000.
ReplyDeletehere is my problem. Where is the outrage about Ray Nagel and the money he didn't put toward the levees. Where is the anger at the Clinton admin for not making sure it was done, or Reagan or Carter. This dam system in NO has been falling apart for years and it just happened to happen on this presidents watch. There are so many more people that are at fault here. The government has known for how many years that this could happen...20, 30? Why wasn't something done about it before then? Because nothing ever happens until after the fact. We always feel that nothing will happen until it happens that then we whine because we aren't prepared. How many people in Florida do you see every year that don't leave because they have ridden it out before. How many of us in the DC area don't have disaster kits for when we get bombed again...because we will get bombed again. I don't, I keep putting it off because it's so much money to spend on all that stockpile of stuff. Ok you can yell away at me now...*hears mutters of damn republicans in the background*
ReplyDeleteHaha, I <3 Stephanie:)
ReplyDeleteHa, I'm with Connie! :)
ReplyDeleteI can't stand to hear Bush or Cheney talk. About anything. Every word seems so contradictory to what I think/feel. So I can totally relate.
I also agree with Amanda on that smugness thing. I swear this administration, and the dude at the helm, thinks they never do anything wrong.
Argh.