I spend a lot of time thinking about what I can do to help move things in this country I love in a positive direction. The reality that keeps coming back to me is that we can’t just “look forward” as President Elect Obama would like, we have to look back and address what we can about those actions our government has taken which are wrong – and the list is much greater than most of us are aware, or even that we want to know. But you can’t move forward by ignoring the past. The past that we CAN’T afford to look beyond, at this point, isn’t quite here yet – by that I mean the Bush administration. Every day I’m finding out more of what they have done to undermine the very fabric of what has made this the strongest nation in the world. And the reality is that the world is suffering right along with us due to all the indiscretions of GW Bush and his cohorts. The damage, as I’ve mentioned many times on this site, is huge. I firmly believe we will be reliving and re-experiencing the “costs” of the Bush administration for years, possibly decades to come.

The outward damage, by that I mean the damage that we can all readily see, is enormous in its own right. As I mentioned in my last post, Keith Olberman went through a list of known improprieties of the Bush administration and it was startling. These people started undermining our country right from the first day they were in office. As I also mentioned in the last post, within hours of GW Bush putting his hand on the Bible and swearing to uphold the laws of the land and to defend the constitution he began the process of undoing them. And his reach went beyond our own laws, but into the very things we think we stand for but depend on our government to uphold. For example, no matter where people stand on the Arab/Israeli conflict, most people I know agree that the US involvement in helping to secure a peaceful resolution to the crisis is something we can all support. On that line, most people, including myself, don’t (or didn’t – I learned this a couple weeks ago) understand that Bush withdrew America from the actual Arab/Israeli peace process within hours of taking office. This has put us in a precarious position as this conflict is heating up again – We have no part in attempting to “cool” things off and the entire Arab world believes that anything Israel does is with the complete sanction of the US. Now, I’m not naive enough to think that their invasion of Gaza doesn’t have the approval of the Bush administration, but I believe our public needs a lot more information to be able to decide what we believe our leaders should be doing to resolve this potential HUGE conflict. Just the knowledge that my government has been AWOL from the process for the past eight years is one of the “discoveries” that makes me feel even stronger that Bush/Cheney et al need to answer for their actions legally – as a way for us to demonstrate to the rest of the world that we are a nation ruled by law. In other words, I don’t like the idea of feeling responsible for actions taken by my leaders which I had no idea they were committing.

There seems to be an endless list of these actions. Take for example the problem with mercury levels in the water supply being at dangerously high levels to the point that children are being born with disabilities directly related to this problem. When science creates an awareness to a situation such as this, it is the role of government to be a leader in finding and implementing a solution. In this case, as I understand it, during the latter part of the Clinton administration, upon evidence of this problem becoming indisputable (at least in the scientific community), an executive order was put in place requiring power companies, who had been excluded from previous legislation regarding the issue of mercury contaminating our water supply, to come into compliance with the existing law. High levels of mercury in the drinking water can lead to a variety of issues, the most significant that I see as a school teacher, is an alarming increase in autism among children. Bush reversed this order almost immediately upon entering office to save his “constituents” a significant amount of expense at the expense of millions of American families. I believe there are an almost endless number of issues such as this, where the interests of the business supporters of the administration have trumped the interests of the general population and “We the People” have been routinely kept in the “dark” about what is really going on.

I also think back to Vice President Dick Cheney meeting with leaders of the oil industry and others associated with “energy” including the CEO of Enron to formulate the administration’s so-called “energy policy.” And, of course, as with much that took place in the past eight years every aspect of these meetings were kept secret – even to this day. It’s almost as if they thought “We the People” were working for them instead of the other way around. These abuses seem to go on and on and now we are all paying the price for them (at least all the people I know). This stuff will continue to be uncovered as we stumble our way through the next few years with, hopefully, an administration that is totally focused on “righting the ship.” But, I for one won’t be satisfied with that. I have three children and my second grandchild is due to enter this world next summer and I feel a sense of shame knowing that it is essentially my generation which has allowed this travesty to happen. We can’t just sit idly by hoping that everything gets better and think that we can continue living with the expectation that if our lifestyles don’t progress at the rate of inflation, or some such nonsense, that we are being cheated somehow. WE HAVE TO START ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LAST 30 YEARS AND CHANGE “BUSINESS AS USUAL.”

The way to start is to institute a thorough investigation of the Bush administration (and I’m OK with going back further to previous administrations) so that we fully understand the gravity of what they’ve done and we leave a very clear impression that this type of action is unacceptable. That is the bare minimum. Once we understand what has happened we can simultaneously undertake the corrective actions and make a decision whether or not those who have violated the laws of the land should face prosecution. If you’ve read any of my recent posts you know that I stand firmly in the camp of those who believe prosecution is necessary. Even if that wouldn’t transpire, THE INVESTIGATION IS CRITICAL! We have to know what these people have done in order to fix the problems. And, I believe, there are millions of Americans who don’t want our government to ever go down this path again. I believe if this country is ever genuinely threatened again the world would not believe the response (with proper leadership) – which is what should have happened after 9/11. Had George Bush followed through on his promise to “get” Osama bin Laden we wouldn’t be having this discussion (of course that could have only happened had he not been determined to find a justification to “annex” Iraq’s oil fields and finish off the man who threatened his father).

When you think about it, the fact Bush allowed bin Laden to escape so that he could invade Iraq tells us all we need to know about his motivations. And, as I’ve tried to point out in a small way tonight, we will be finding the remnants of that failed thinking for years to come. The military services need to be rebuilt, the justice department needs to be rebuilt, our infrastructure in our country needs to be rebuilt, our schools and their relationship with the federal government needs to be rebuilt, Wall Street needs to be rebuilt, our banking system needs to be rebuilt, and I could go on. The point is that the mentality that gave us GW Bush was one devised by takers. We have multi-millionaires who have been brainwashed into thinking that paying taxes is an infringement on their “freedom” instead of an obligation they have to give back to a society where they could experience such blessings. We have investors that are still thinking this national disaster is an opportunity to gain great wealth – and many of them will be trying every way possible to avoid paying taxes – should they get “lucky” – kind of the “I got mine, screw the rest of you” philosophy of being a citizen. I can tell you that as a public school teacher I’m trying to instill a different attitude into my students regarding their responsibility as citizens once they have achieved adulthood.

When has one president left another president two wars (both being managed completely ineptly), an economy with the financial sector in almost complete ruins – getting progressively worse and looking at the potential of complete collapse, unemployment numbers spiraling upward with income levels spiraling downward, Wall Street surviving on government handouts, housing foreclosures at the highest levels since records have been kept, our military operating on fumes, a national deficit exceeding a trillion dollars, a justice system turned into a partisan tool, an environment bludgeoned of oversight and controls, businesses by the millions facing failure, state after state looking bankruptcy straight in the eye to the point that vital services will have to be cut, an education policy which has led to an alarming rise in the dropout rate, a healthcare system with millions added to the uninsured and millions of children unable to get medical care, and millions of working Americans looking at retirement accounts that have been cut in half or worse (and claiming “I’m proud of our accomplishments”). I will say it again: THIS IS BAD!!! This will not go away by “looking ahead.” With the hope that he will do the right thing as he tackles this seemingly impossible task, Let’s all say a prayer for President Elect Obama.