POLITICS AND NATURE

The holiday season is upon the United States in all its glory. Tis the season to go shopping. Phoenix stores opened at 4 a.m. on black Friday to get the season rolling. The local news stations showed people lined up outside a number of stores waiting patiently overnight for the doors to be flung open and the sales to begin. It is something of an anomaly to those who don't shop until quite nearer to the day of gift giving. But, is that all the season is really about?

Pondering the subjects of the holy days and the meaning of why it is that people give thanks, it is easy to begin to wonder about the consumption of today's social order. The past six years have been a time of testing for the nation. Anti-war activists and gold star parents take to the battlefield over the President's wisdom regarding placing troops in Iraq and the goals underlying the actions taken.

Anyone glancing at this journal can see with a fair amount of ease that I disagree with the President and his policies of what seems like endless warfare and the effects this is likely to have on the planet and its inhabitants. Through the course of the Thanksgiving weekend, Jean and I visited a friend who has been in the national guard for some 17 years and is now heading to Iraq. Other friends have children and family members over in the desert fighting for their country.

Whatever one thinks or feels about the hostilities created under the American Flag in the name of righteousness, it is imperative to give thanks to soldiers putting their lives at risk and living with the consequences generated by this country's leadership. THANK YOU to all those men and women who are and have been doing their duty and fulfilling the jobs they have been asked to perform with courage, tenacity, and passion. They have been doing admirable work in a stressful world, risking their lives and limbs.

These are true heroes in any sense of the word. A column saying thank you seems such a small gesture from the comfort of the United States. Rural America is removed from the politics of disaster and fear permeating throughout Washington D.C. and the benefits of high dollar contracts provided to politically influential corporate entities involved in reconstruction. There are times that the war is, to many Americans, all too surreal, as if the troops are fighting some sort of terminally dismal battle in the midst of Cold War Africa in which U.S. citizens hear about the conflict weekly on their preferred 1/2 hour news channel. At the health club this morning, I watched CNN Late Edition and it is so amazing how they consider it news to place 15 second sound bites of major candidates for the highest office in the land. The difficulty lies in parsing out statements based on the vindictiveness or comparatively controversial nature of whatever statement it happens to be. There is no wonder the people of this nation have lost the ability to disagree with respect and to converse about difficult issues with dignity.

Politics and Nature, as a journal interested in social and environmental issues, works to get beyond the simple sound bites so often the focus of national media and political pundits. A candidate for office has to be careful about what is said or done because they will only have a short few seconds, really, to make the news and improve the odds of winning. Is that what the young men and women of the United States armed forces are fighting for? A hysterically shrill and impotent political system built on the sandy foundation of division and win at all cost media coverage?

There are honest debates ranging around the issues that will affect the country for decades to come. Those military individuals are doing their best to secure the world in what their leaders have provided to them. Leaders that were voted into office in a democratic fashion who have the power to create better systems relying on the people of Iraq. It is important that people urge their representatives to do right by the veterans that fought for this nation. Faulty policy can not be blamed upon the soldier. Vietnam era actions by peaceniks branding soldiers with vile and horrific monikers was wrong and that has not been happening so far in this debacle of Iraq. Hopefully this will continue to be the case. 

At the same time, ignorant comments saying soldiers who disagree with the nation's policy are anti-American is fascism and it is perfectly fair to call it so. There is not only one view in America and this is what those brave people are fighting for. As one who opposes the war, the way it was handled, the methods used to care for soldiers, and a great many other issues, I hope the administration succeeds, astonishes the world, and goes down in history as one of the greatest ever. I have my doubts.

Again, the most important thrust of this article is to respect and honor those serving in the difficult and dangerous missions this country has sent them on. Thank You again. Americans of all political stripes are behind you, support you, and pray for you.