I was coming out of the grocery store a few days ago when my eyes trailed to a photo of Bush with the words IMPEACH under and above it. I was unable to resist glancing at it for a few more seconds (Can anyone resist those lovely words under that not so lovely face?)when an arch voice summoned me:
Miss, come over here please.
Of course came the speeches about Bush and the economy, the end of the world coming as soon as Bush's time was up. Well, the end of the world and the beginning of a new good one. Just a penniless, doomed one.
I listened and nodded while glancing along the table they'd set up against the chilly weather. Books and pamphlets all with titles like "Bush is Hitler", and "Satan's Children" with a picture of Cheney underneath it.
I don't like it. I think Bush and Cheney are incredibly evil and stupid. But what good does it do us to make comparisons like that? It's just the same as them. It makes us all look arrogant.
So I nodded and he held out a form asking for a monthly fee of $300 dollars to "rebuild my country". I then explained I was a student and he pulled out another form filled with cheap thrills of Bush in bad poses. This was a much cheaper form. This was my form. This was my duty. This was my new community. I was not alone.
I told him I was an on and off Crawfordslister.
And a democrat.
Then I told him not to worry.
He guffawed at me "Well, I
am worried!"
And as I walked away pulling my hat a little lower I thought that I was too. Worried about everything I'd been worried about and worried that even though it was great people were getting involved I didn't like the extremes of it. Who did it and who does it help to compare Bush to Hitler? It's too simple to say, and too crude. What comes next? Killing off people to save them from a daft civilization? Because that's better? It isn't a good beginning. I didn't like it.
So does not signing up with the angry extremist with a cold red nose make me un-patriotic? Or a bad American? Would signing up make me a good American and very patriotic?
I don't know, but I don't like it...any of it.