Hard Pill, Heavy Spill, Halting Will

Disillusionment can be a hard pill to swallow.

The president is being tarred and feathered over the Gulf oil spill: He's either doing too little, or too much.

The Brits are up in arms because they see President Obama as being too passionate, unfairly attacking their favorite-son company, British Petroleum.

Some in Parliament are urging the Prime Minister to scold our president, to tell him to put a sock in it. If British Petroleum was an American company called U.S. Petroleum, and the English coastline was the first line of defense against an oil spill of the magnitude we're experience here, I don't think that our congress would be urging our president to tell the Brits to tone it down. Further, I don't think that the American people would be jingoistically attacking the Brits, just because an American company was single-handedly destroying their fragile coastline.

I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Ironically, the president, here at home, is seen as too dispassionate over the oil spill. He's not showing enough emotions .

Many pundits see this oil spill disaster as part and parcel of a Bush-Cheney oil policy, their cavorting with Big Oil, a frolicking that President Obama was more than willing to join--although in a limited fashion--an acquiescence to offshore drilling, coming a mere few weeks prior to this oil-spill disaster, now calculated as the worse in our nation's history.

President Obama's presidency will be judged as much by his cleaning up the mess that Bush-Cheny-Republicans had a hand in making--two wars, torture, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Iran's nuclear bomb ambitions, a faltering energy policy, an economy teetering on a depression, a deteriorating national image around the world--as by his cleaning up of another mess, the Gulf oil spill that's threatening livelihoods, a fragile ecosystem, and is poised to be put additional strain on an economy already struggling to rebound.

Along with the tar balls rolling up on coastal beaches, we're now seeing an all too familiar picture of the damage to wildlife that and oil spill can produce--our fine-feathered friends drenched in the sticky goo that's preventing flight, restraining movement, and destroying their natural food source.

Figuratively tarred and feathered, the president is fighting the political fight of his life, as he takes full responsibility for this oil-spill disaster--and it's becoming clearer, that there's little that he and congress can do, but appoint a commission, and hold hearings.

But the tarring and feathering doesn't end there. A recent article, by Dorothy Rabinowitz, for the Wall Street Journal, is casting the president as not quintessentially American--going so far as to calling him an "alien," one who is "wanting in certain qualities citizens have until now taken for granted in their presidents. Namely, a tone and presence that said: This is the Americans' leader, a man of them, for them, the nation's voice and champion."

Frankly, blacks have always been seen by most in the majority as "alien," and not quintessentially American. Americanness was peculiar to whites, and not even native Americans could share in that Americanness, a sense and presence that came into existence upon the formation of this nation, but were seen as something to be dealt with, something to be cast out, or thrown away.

Because, I, to this day, after living in this country all my life, continue to feel outside of the American mainstream, in exile, as it were, I don't fly the American flag, and only say that part of the Pledge of Allegiance that I feel is relevant, and leave out the other. Lest you see me as not patriotic, let me disavow you of that notion--because you'd be sorely mistaken.

I'm ultra-patriotic, a true son of this Republic. I believe in the Constitution, perhaps more than those who do wave their flags, and give lip-service to their allegiance. I believe in "liberty and justice for all." I believe in the American Dream, the dream that the founding fathers dared dream, when they formed this country, and declared their independence from England and the Crown, with these words:

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Yet, how many times have we seen red-blooded Americans, so-called "real patriots," and true Americans, flout these "unalienable Rights"?

These were the things I used to believe that America stood for. I don't anymore. And although for many years I was deprived of these things, and because of that deprivation prized them more, I've learned that these Rights aren't the things that this country value most, not at the heart of her, not deep within her bosom, the locus where patriotic fervor live, flourish and flow, where the heart and soul of this country reside, within a collective body, multiracial, multicolored--with many colored plumes of cultures representing most of the cultures of the world.

I say, I used to think so. But not anymore.

Whether we all did once, I can't say. But here's what I can say:

At some point we lost our way. We began to put money ahead of everything--our conscience, our integrity, and our American values of "liberty and justice for all." And to add insult to injury, we used the people's money to bail out wall street. We learned later, that certain financial institutions had become too big to fail, and that their failure would have brought down the whole economy; at least that's what we were told, and I've no reason to believe otherwise. What we got in return was something called TARP. TARP sounds a lot like the word, "tar," those tar balls that waves are washing up on our Gulf coast beaches. TARP. Toxic (or Troubled) Assets Relief Program.

Let me ask you a question: Do you know what those toxic assets are? How forthcoming was our government in telling us what "relief" was provided with our money, and the nature of that relief? Here's a list of those companies that received TARP, and how much, but we still don't know the specifics: How many malls did we take possession of? How many office buildings, and where are they located?

We know why we did it (the bail out), and we know how and why we fell in this economic sinkhole we call a recession, but what is our Federal Government doing about it now, now that those toxic assets that blew up in its face much like the Deep-water Horizon, and toxic assets washed up upon our national shores, much like the oil in the Gulf?

Well, the fear is that congress won't do much about it at all. The problems that created the problem will be allowed to remain, much like the oil gushing in the Gulf and the carcasses of wildlife.

Follow the Financial Reform Bill here, U.S. Congress : Financial Reform Watch, as it works its way through the congress.

Just as BP had no real response to deal with a catastrophic explosion upon its deep-water platform, or know how to repair a blow-out preventer that failed, our congress is crafting an economic response that fails to address the problems that precipitated the economic crisis--a lack of transparency, too big to fail (this nation's six largest banks control assets equivalent to about 60 percent of our gross national product), and the derivative market (a shadow banking system valued at around 600 trillion dollars, an amount larger than the collective GNPs of all the world's nations, including our own).

Are you beginning to see a pattern here. We have a government colluding (by not regulating, or failing to regulate various industries) in order to keep business thriving, corporations sound, oil companies drilling, and coal companies digging, notwithstanding the cost to taxpayers, the ecosystem, or the toll in human lives.

It's not by happenstance that, in recent years, we've seen our august Supreme Court take a mostly pro-business, pro-corporation stance in its rulings, placing corporations either above the people, or on an equal footing with.

It's not by happenstance that lobbyists with the most influence on Capitol Hill are those with the most money--and, that too, spells corporations.

It's not by happenstance that congress repealed laws, and created new ones to enable the economic fleecing of America--and won't do what it takes to prevent another economic collapse, a collapse similar to the one that we're now witnessing.

It's not by happenstance that the oil-drilling moratorium established by President Obama has met with stiff resistance by effected businesses along the coast, and by their workers--those whose livelihoods depend on Gulf-oil drilling, deep-water or otherwise. So, as complaints pile up, and dwellers along the coast tear out their hair, and rend their clothes over this oil-spill disaster, others are ripping Obama for the moratorium. I've seen Catch-22s, but this has to be the pappy of them all.

It's not by happenstance that green energy projects are slow to take hold, and even slower to be embraced, when so many of us are dependent on the money that comes to us by way of the coal and oil industries.

Here's the thrust of it, the hard, but indisputable truth: Money, the pursuit of prosperity, as though it and happiness are one and the same, money, that green lubricant of industry--and I bet you thought it was American ingenuity--is the real oil that greases the wheels of our giant industrial machine, our vast industrial complex. Money greases the palms of congress. It greases the palms of just about everyone. And anything that prevents the flow of that money--moratoriums, for example--will meet with an untimely demise, whether it's drilling for oil, developing businesses that provide jobs, or supporting those governments you believe belong to you.

Money owns the government. Money calls the shots. Money makes the decisions, sets the agendas, establishes the policies, and enforces them. Money owns us. We dare not complain, or do what's necessary to stop the flow of that green stuff, or stop digging for it. We dare not regulate. We dare not pass laws that are too draconian, that actually address the problem, for fear that the problem will grow worse--and businesses, and corporations will fail, people will lose their jobs, capital will become scarce, governments will founder, and America will lose her greatness.

Disillusionment can be a hard pill to swallow.


Pill image courtesy of: Free Images - Free Stock Photos