I saw soon to be ex-president Bush’s farewell address on TV last night. Well about 3 minutes of it anyway. That was more than enough remind me of why I am glad to see him go.

 

In that brief span of 3 minutes I managed to catch this quote that in many ways typifies Bush. It was “If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led” Of course he stubled through it unable to get the words out easily. That was possibly because it is an example of hideous english.

 
No one “leads a cause”. You can lead IN a cause, or lead the fight in a cause but a cause is a reason for behavior, fighting or leading. This might be a lttle nit picky but it explains why I had to replay the sentence over and over on the DVR to try to make any sense of it. I got totally stuck at “that cause will not be led”.

 

Mr. Bush followed with: “I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise.” This is republican rhetoric at it’s best. There is good and evil, US and them. And if you are not one of us … well just figure it out. (This is from the the president who came to office vowing to be a “uniter not a divider”. )

 

All Mr. Bush’s good and evil point of view does is assure that nothing will change. He is essentially saying that we are good and you have to believe as we do. If you do not then you are evil and must be destroyed, contained, sanctioned, vilified or other wise eradicated as a threat. Negotiation with you is not an option.

 

My hope is that with a new leader we can move away from that point of view, that our belief and way of life are correct and any one who disagrees is evil, the point of view that they don’t have the right to believe differently. Essentily the relegious, right wing, recent republican point of view that has gotten us where we wre today.

 

Maybe Mr Obama can lead the cause of betterness.

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