I'M VERY SORRY, WORLD!

Several weeks have passed since this election and I'm still sorry. I am becoming sorrier by the minute. I have seen the website entitled, "I'm Sorry, World", and it describes my feelings exactly. I am probably more disappointed than John Kerry and John Edwards combined, because I feel that we are in the center of a nightmare that just won't go away, and that there is no waking up from it, no sir, it just goes on and on, a screaming dream that plunges you into disastrous events from which there is no way out.

First and foremost, there is Iraq. What are we doing there anyway? Who's idea was this? Was it cooked up in the proverbial smoke-filled back room of the political bosses, planned and carried out, while we dunderheads, the public, listened and believed? Oh, I know. Our president chummed with Chalabi, that thug who turned out to be a suspected spy for Iran, gave him a seat in the family section at the State of the Union, then pretended to hardly know the fellow when the real truth emerged. Then, too, there was all that misinformation from the CIA and the FBI.

The Terrorist Czar, as Richard Clarke was called, worked for several presidents in a position of importance until Bush, Jr. took office and he was demoted to a lesser position. But, if there is any doubt about Iraq and WMD, wouldn't you think the president would have consulted with the man who knew more about terrorism than anyone else put together? Wouldn't you think he'd have consulted with his father, who knew better than to attack Iraq? I know he consulted with his Higher Father, but he might have spent a few moments with his Lower one, too. Just maybe.

Well, all of that is water over the bridge, or blood over the bridge, you might say, or American bodies dangling over the bridge. The war is here and we are in it, and pulling out might please the "insurgents", but would leave Iraq to a very uncertain future, since the Shiites don't seem to agree with the Sunni or the Kurds, and we might end up with another rogue nation, running those schools that teach just two subjects, the Koran and Hate America. Of course, we won't consider the fact that this may happen anyway, no matter what we do.

Yes, I'm sorry, world! I'm sorry the price of tomatoes has gone through the roof and four hurricanes destroyed the crop in Florida. I'm sorry I had to spend several days worrying about my son who lives down there and was always...yes, always...in the path of the Big Blow. He survived, thank Heaven, but I'm sorry the whole thing had to happen and that there are still people living in tents and trailers, or crammed in with relatives, because they have no place else to go.

I'm sorry about Rumsfield, too. I'm sorry more wasn't done to go up the chain of command and find out whose stupid idea it was to treat prisoners like animals....no, worse than animals...using all manner of ridiculous methods to pry out any information they might have. I'm sorry for those low-level soldiers, who must have the intelligence of a flea circus, who have faced charges, while their leaders haven't faced anything that has been made public. And I'm sorry that future generations will see that picture of the hooded man, naked as a jaybird, laced up and wired, and when they see it, the United States of America, our beloved country, will come to mind.

I'm sorry that crowds of people, thousands strong, protest our President, and that I have a suspicion that they are right, that we deserve it, that we should have known better. I am sorry that our friends, the Canadians, have joined that throng of protestors. Who would have thought that day would come? Will we now have Freedom Bacon?

I'm sorry for the Dixie Chicks, those perfectly marvelous singers, who were subjected to such abuse that their music fell off the charts and they were demonstrated against and maligned. I'm sorry for that, because if a little girl wants to tell a crowd, "I'm just sorry he's from Texas!", she has a right to do so without being ostracized, criticized and stigmatized. What is our country coming to if a person cannot complain without being treated like that? I have visions of armbands with labels saying "Bush Basher! Unpatriotic! Doesn't Support Troops!" I get visions of people being stashed in secret prisons under provisions of the Patriot Act, left to rot, no access to lawyers, no one phone call. That nightmare again!

Moral values! Frankly, I'm going to throw up if I hear that phrase one more time! How can any party that changed the rules to protect Tom Delay call itself moral? How can any party that changed the rules in Texas to allow themselves several more Republican legislators call themselves moral? How can any party that promoted a recall of Gray Davis supposedly because of the huge deficit in California, while ignoring the tremendous deficit George Bush has inflicted upon this country, call themselves moral? They aren't moral! These actions are sneaky, corrupt and ridiculous! I'm sorry about that.

I'm sorry about the Religious Right, too! If they want to hurry along the Second Coming, let them do it at home or in church, and leave the country to wait at leisure! Religion doesn't belong in government, especially a religion fraught with prejudices against gays and minorities, a religion that promotes women slaving in kitchens, a religion that wants to destroy 200 years of progress with smarmy, bigoted amendments to the Constitution!

I'm sorry. I'm dreadfully sorry. I didn't shout "Hallelujah, we are attacking Fallujah!", because to me, it meant more American deaths, more bloodshed, more violence. I would welcome a president who would pull us out of Iraq immediately. I would welcome an end to such things as secret prisons, evasion of the Geneva Convention, prisoner torture, and Attorney Generals who approve of such things! I'm sorry, World, for all of this.

I'm sorry about John Kerry, too. I'm sorry he conceded before the Ohio vote was investigated. I'm sorry that, during his entire campaign, he didn't mention Abu Ghraib, he didn't romp and stomp about that ridiculous Christian Right that accuses Americans of being immoral and calls the FCC to complain about such things as Janet Jackson's breast just before they tune in to Desperate Housewives! I'm sorry, World, that John Kerry was such a damned gentleman. You can't be a gentleman and fight a crazed buffalo. You end up with your shirttails exposed, and blood on its ruffles.

So, you see, folks, why I am so very sorry! Please accept my apology for it all!