I'm Sorry
Charles Karel Bouley
READ MORE: Iraq, George W. Bush
John Kerry should apologize for a bungled joke. Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner should apologize for blaming the generals, blaming the troops and not the Commander in Chief for the debacle in Iraq. Apologies are flying out of politician's mouths faster than Foley could turn a page (OK, had to). And like most apologies, they mean little because anyone can say they're sorry, but not many can actually mean it these days.
The fact is there's a lot of things to be sorry about these days, and not one has been uttered by John Kerry or John Bohner, at least not this week. And while apologies and claims of responsibility fly, as the buck may stop somewhere that stopping means little, as everyone fesses up and then performs the obligatory mia copa the fact is it all means very little.
But, since it seems to be fashionable, I thought I'd join in with the only difference being I really mean it when I say "I'm sorry" and follow those words with actions.
To the Iraqis: I am so sorry that we invaded your country, deposed your ruler and then completely destroyed your world by our very presence. I am sorry our President seems to think its OK to destroy your country in the name of "doing it over there so it doesn't happen over here." I'm sorry he doesn't get that his mission, not matter what it may have been, failed and is too stubborn to say "uncle." I am sorry Americans have taken so long to stand up to this corrupt and soulless administration and that we have allowed this to happen on our watch. I am sorry you are vilified and that somehow your lives seem worthless to us. They're not. I value you and your country. I want you to have a safe and speedy return to your way of life, whatever that life may be. I am sorry we have not made it your choice, that we have tried to inflict a way of government on you one for which you never asked and one for which you appear to not want to keep. I am sorry for your dead children, for making sure your country will be in shambles for years to come. I am sorry we don't listen to what you want and put the interests of multi-national corporations first. I am sorry you live in fear and that your children have armed gunmen in American uniforms in their schools. I am sorry we tried to make these positive changes at the end of gun, that we rounded up your men and took them to a prison where unspeakable horrors happened and that no one at our highest level of government had to pay for that. I could go on, but let me just say, I'm so, so sorry for it all. I'll do what I can back here to make it right, knowing nothing will ever be enough.
To the Fur, Zaghawa, Massaleit and non-Baggara people of the Darfu region of the western Sudan I am so sorry that my people have claimed to be caring people, compassionate people, even people of God with values and yet have all but turned a blind eye to your unimaginable suffering. Tot the spirits of the 400,000 people who have died (according to the Coalition for International Justice) and the more than 2.5 million displaced people all I can say is I'm sorry, because I have no reason why a nation that remembers the Holocaust often refuses to do anything of substance to help, that it ignores your cries. I am sorry you have no real resources anyone wants and thus makes you disposable in the eyes of most of the world leaders. I am sorry we turn our heads and block our ears to rape, murder of the most heinous kind, torture of women, children, horrible butchering of your men. I am sorry we have spent one-half-a-trillion dollars on a war we neither needed nor wanted, and in comparison not really a dime to help you. I am sorry our President, who calls himself a Christian, does little to help, betraying his God and our professed values. I am sorry I cannot do more than give to organizations that help, rally my leaders, tell my audience of your plight, and wonder how we let it get so terribly bad.
To the poor in America: I'm so sorry your plight is invisible to most, that in one of the richest countries in the free world you go to bed hungry if you have a bed, that you suffer illness because you can't afford health care or medicine, that we consider you almost litter or human waste. I am sorry that programs are set up to help that become unusable by you because of their bureaucratic red tape and behemoth administrative rules that make them irrelevant in your lives. I am sorry your children do not get a quality education, that if you find a job you must work for a wage that hasn't been changed in nine years while the people responsible have raised their often. I am sorry we leave you to churches or do-gooders to handle, instead of making you a priority. I am sorry those in distant lands get more financial help than you, and that you are trotted out come election time as a campaign issue but once the election is over you are put away, no better than before. I am sorry you have to see those around you every day have more, my nature of nothing more than circumstance. I am sorry the nation pretends to care.
To American youth: I am sorry we have left you more debt than you can ever pay. I'm sorry we are destroying the planet so you may not be able to inhabit parts of it in the next few decades.
I'm sorry we claim to do everything in your name and then betray you at every turn, by sending you to die needlessly in foreign lands, making your schools laughable, denouncing your family if it doesn't fit some mold of what is correct. I am sorry our foster system is so flawed, sorry some of you have no place to sleep at night and that so many of you go hungry. I'm sorry we don't teach you real things in the name of political correctness, that we have squandered your inheritance, that we have failed you in so many ways. I'm sorry no one speaks to you as equals, as people, and that we think telling you not to have sex will actually save you from disease. I'm sorry we don't properly deal with those that would harm you, and that should you turn out to be gay or lesbian we make you feel so isolated that you kill yourselves more than any other group of your age. I am sorry that adults have managed to screw up life for you in almost every area, so when it comes your time at bat you may not even have a ballpark in which to play or the urge to do so.
To our military: I'm sorry you're more of a political tool than a fighting one. I'm sorry we talk of supporting you while so many go without adequate armor, head gear, benefits upon return from your battles. I'm sorry some of your husbands or wives have to use food stamps for food, or that your housing is often inadequate. I'm sorry we sent you to die in a dessert for no real reason. I'm sorry many of you won't return.
To the Republicans: I'm sorry you abandoned your platform of less government and financial responsibility, that you took the party of Lincoln and turned it in to nothing more than a tool for rich white men and theocratic neocons.
To the Democrats: I'm sorry you lost your way and your courage to govern.
To the American People: I'm sorry you refuse to actually participate in the process of government by educating yourselves, by making informed decisions based in fact, not religion, not in soundbytes, not in a negative campaign ad. I'm sorry you are so easily manipulated that you've become lemmings instead of leaders. At times, I'm almost sorry to be one of you, until I remember that at times, you show such promise. I'm sorry you care more about vanity than the planet, driving Hummers and other obscene land barges. I'm sorry you want to destroy anything different or things you don't understand. I'm sorry you've forgotten you are members of the once greatest society in the world and have let us slip in every area from health care to education, from involvement to compassion, from doing what's right to doing only what's popular. I'm sorry you've lost your way have no one to guide you back.
I could go on, but you get the point. There's so much to fix, so much for which to be sorry. Nothing of recent pass has risen to any of these real issues, and apologizing for the above is a futile as Kerry or Bush or anyone saying they're sorry.
Stop apologizing. Do something for god's sake. Even if that something is shutting up if you are paralyzed by your own impotence. Stop being so sorry and actually take some responsibility for the mess the world is in. Or we will fall as a nation, and the world will collapse as an echosystem and there won't be anyone left to say "who's sorry now..."
LinkHere
READ MORE: Iraq, George W. Bush
John Kerry should apologize for a bungled joke. Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner should apologize for blaming the generals, blaming the troops and not the Commander in Chief for the debacle in Iraq. Apologies are flying out of politician's mouths faster than Foley could turn a page (OK, had to). And like most apologies, they mean little because anyone can say they're sorry, but not many can actually mean it these days.
The fact is there's a lot of things to be sorry about these days, and not one has been uttered by John Kerry or John Bohner, at least not this week. And while apologies and claims of responsibility fly, as the buck may stop somewhere that stopping means little, as everyone fesses up and then performs the obligatory mia copa the fact is it all means very little.
But, since it seems to be fashionable, I thought I'd join in with the only difference being I really mean it when I say "I'm sorry" and follow those words with actions.
To the Iraqis: I am so sorry that we invaded your country, deposed your ruler and then completely destroyed your world by our very presence. I am sorry our President seems to think its OK to destroy your country in the name of "doing it over there so it doesn't happen over here." I'm sorry he doesn't get that his mission, not matter what it may have been, failed and is too stubborn to say "uncle." I am sorry Americans have taken so long to stand up to this corrupt and soulless administration and that we have allowed this to happen on our watch. I am sorry you are vilified and that somehow your lives seem worthless to us. They're not. I value you and your country. I want you to have a safe and speedy return to your way of life, whatever that life may be. I am sorry we have not made it your choice, that we have tried to inflict a way of government on you one for which you never asked and one for which you appear to not want to keep. I am sorry for your dead children, for making sure your country will be in shambles for years to come. I am sorry we don't listen to what you want and put the interests of multi-national corporations first. I am sorry you live in fear and that your children have armed gunmen in American uniforms in their schools. I am sorry we tried to make these positive changes at the end of gun, that we rounded up your men and took them to a prison where unspeakable horrors happened and that no one at our highest level of government had to pay for that. I could go on, but let me just say, I'm so, so sorry for it all. I'll do what I can back here to make it right, knowing nothing will ever be enough.
To the Fur, Zaghawa, Massaleit and non-Baggara people of the Darfu region of the western Sudan I am so sorry that my people have claimed to be caring people, compassionate people, even people of God with values and yet have all but turned a blind eye to your unimaginable suffering. Tot the spirits of the 400,000 people who have died (according to the Coalition for International Justice) and the more than 2.5 million displaced people all I can say is I'm sorry, because I have no reason why a nation that remembers the Holocaust often refuses to do anything of substance to help, that it ignores your cries. I am sorry you have no real resources anyone wants and thus makes you disposable in the eyes of most of the world leaders. I am sorry we turn our heads and block our ears to rape, murder of the most heinous kind, torture of women, children, horrible butchering of your men. I am sorry we have spent one-half-a-trillion dollars on a war we neither needed nor wanted, and in comparison not really a dime to help you. I am sorry our President, who calls himself a Christian, does little to help, betraying his God and our professed values. I am sorry I cannot do more than give to organizations that help, rally my leaders, tell my audience of your plight, and wonder how we let it get so terribly bad.
To the poor in America: I'm so sorry your plight is invisible to most, that in one of the richest countries in the free world you go to bed hungry if you have a bed, that you suffer illness because you can't afford health care or medicine, that we consider you almost litter or human waste. I am sorry that programs are set up to help that become unusable by you because of their bureaucratic red tape and behemoth administrative rules that make them irrelevant in your lives. I am sorry your children do not get a quality education, that if you find a job you must work for a wage that hasn't been changed in nine years while the people responsible have raised their often. I am sorry we leave you to churches or do-gooders to handle, instead of making you a priority. I am sorry those in distant lands get more financial help than you, and that you are trotted out come election time as a campaign issue but once the election is over you are put away, no better than before. I am sorry you have to see those around you every day have more, my nature of nothing more than circumstance. I am sorry the nation pretends to care.
To American youth: I am sorry we have left you more debt than you can ever pay. I'm sorry we are destroying the planet so you may not be able to inhabit parts of it in the next few decades.
I'm sorry we claim to do everything in your name and then betray you at every turn, by sending you to die needlessly in foreign lands, making your schools laughable, denouncing your family if it doesn't fit some mold of what is correct. I am sorry our foster system is so flawed, sorry some of you have no place to sleep at night and that so many of you go hungry. I'm sorry we don't teach you real things in the name of political correctness, that we have squandered your inheritance, that we have failed you in so many ways. I'm sorry no one speaks to you as equals, as people, and that we think telling you not to have sex will actually save you from disease. I'm sorry we don't properly deal with those that would harm you, and that should you turn out to be gay or lesbian we make you feel so isolated that you kill yourselves more than any other group of your age. I am sorry that adults have managed to screw up life for you in almost every area, so when it comes your time at bat you may not even have a ballpark in which to play or the urge to do so.
To our military: I'm sorry you're more of a political tool than a fighting one. I'm sorry we talk of supporting you while so many go without adequate armor, head gear, benefits upon return from your battles. I'm sorry some of your husbands or wives have to use food stamps for food, or that your housing is often inadequate. I'm sorry we sent you to die in a dessert for no real reason. I'm sorry many of you won't return.
To the Republicans: I'm sorry you abandoned your platform of less government and financial responsibility, that you took the party of Lincoln and turned it in to nothing more than a tool for rich white men and theocratic neocons.
To the Democrats: I'm sorry you lost your way and your courage to govern.
To the American People: I'm sorry you refuse to actually participate in the process of government by educating yourselves, by making informed decisions based in fact, not religion, not in soundbytes, not in a negative campaign ad. I'm sorry you are so easily manipulated that you've become lemmings instead of leaders. At times, I'm almost sorry to be one of you, until I remember that at times, you show such promise. I'm sorry you care more about vanity than the planet, driving Hummers and other obscene land barges. I'm sorry you want to destroy anything different or things you don't understand. I'm sorry you've forgotten you are members of the once greatest society in the world and have let us slip in every area from health care to education, from involvement to compassion, from doing what's right to doing only what's popular. I'm sorry you've lost your way have no one to guide you back.
I could go on, but you get the point. There's so much to fix, so much for which to be sorry. Nothing of recent pass has risen to any of these real issues, and apologizing for the above is a futile as Kerry or Bush or anyone saying they're sorry.
Stop apologizing. Do something for god's sake. Even if that something is shutting up if you are paralyzed by your own impotence. Stop being so sorry and actually take some responsibility for the mess the world is in. Or we will fall as a nation, and the world will collapse as an echosystem and there won't be anyone left to say "who's sorry now..."
LinkHere
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:15 PM
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