IT’S MORE THAN TACOS

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (2/12/06)

It’s more than tacos, this immigration thing. It’s cultural more than economic although the economic issue seems paramount. The immigration of the Chinese in the 19th century and the Irish during the Potato Famine generally brought in people at the bottom of the economic ladder. Of course, one of the biggest immigrations in our history was the slave trade for southern plantations. The western railroads wanted Chinese workers on the cheap. The New England mills wanted impoverished Irish labor. The Southerners wanted no-wage labor. So what’s new? Bush’s corporate buddies want cheap labor. The Republicans, corporate toadies that they are, have done nothing about immigration from Mexico. In a day when we fear terrorists infiltrating our borders, the Mexican border remains porous because corporations want cheap labor.

The Mexican immigrants work hard for a pittance, but they bring something unseen with them. They bring a culture of subordinated women and an oligarchical society in which a few own and run everything with everyone else at the bottom, the purpose of the Bush Administration’s assault on the middle-class. No wonder the Bush Administration has failed to stop illegal immigration.

Perhaps, they’re in for a surprise. A former client married a Thai woman, anticipating servility and subordination. American women were too assertive for him. After about three months, his bride put assertive American women to shame, neatly putting him under her thumb. A child of the 70's, he said, "Maybe, I should’ve married one of them damned bra-burners."

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2006

IF I WERE A REPUBLICAN

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (2/8/06)

If I were a Republican, which I once was for 55 years, I would feel betrayed by President Bush and the Republican Establishment in Washington. I knew I’d been betrayed just after President Bush was elected the first time. He lied about W.M.D. Deceit is a betrayal. However, now the betrayal has gotten worse with the passage of time. 800 people killed in Iraq in the month of January ‘06 alone for the establishment of an Islamic state.

The betrayal is deep. It is the wedding of the Republican party to right-wing zealots who call themselves Christians. I’ve been a believer in Jesus since I was a boy, but these ideologues bear no resemblance to the faith in Jesus in which I was reared and which I believe. They preach a religion of exclusion, vindictiveness, harshness, and condemnation, and viciousness, not the Gospel of Jesus Christ in John 3:16-17: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."

The Republican alliance with this religion of hatred will come back to bite the Republicans. People are weary of it and will weary of the Republicans. Short term hatred and fear may work, but long term they fail.

The betrayal goes to the Republican Establishment’s assault on the middle-class. It’s called tax breaks for the rich and the corporations, but cuts in benefits for the veterans, the elderly, the poor, and the students. Eventually, these groups will realize what the Republican Establishment is doing to them, and they will weary of the Republicans.

Then the betrayal goes to the beginning of a repressive state with snooping on our telephone calls and emails. George W. Bush is a Thomas Hobbes Redux, planning to repress society for some so-called stability. Privacy is the foundation of freedom, and if our privacy is breached, our freedom will be lost. In case President Bush has not noticed, there is no peril of insurrection amongst the citizens. Our peril is from terrorists and from a President and Republican Establishment who have used an external peril to begin a program of internal repression.

If I were a Republican politician, I would worry about the star to which I have hitched my wagon. People are weary of false prophets preaching the bad news of hate under the guise of Christianity, of snoops, of political hacks sticking these noses in deathbeds and wombs, of debts that will hobble our children, of a government that wants to expand and take over, of an economy that benefits only the rich and the corporations, of a government willing to sacrifice the best and the bravest on the folly of a failed foreign policy, and of a party that has become a haven for misanthropes, preachers of hate, and is inept and cannot govern.

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2006

FLUNKED OUT

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (2/5/06)

President Bush fondly touts his economic program. He brags about increasing the number of jobs without mentioning that it’s the lowest increase since the 1960's. In other words, he brags about a C. He didn’t mention that the newly created jobs pay far less than the jobs lost during his watch. He gets a D.

While some may rejoice over the Dow Jones breaking the 11,000 mark, most Americans measure economic health by their incomes, not the stock market. Based on inflation, the average American family is making less money than before Bush got his hands on the government. How about a D minus?

To finance his Iraqi War and tax cuts for the wealthy, he has spent the nation further into a deepening debt. He has cut benefits to veterans, the elderly, students, and the poor. His economic policy is crushing the middle class and grinding the face of the poor in the dust by reducing the annual incomes of the middle class and the poor. He has shortchanged the education of the young. Clearly, the Republicans are engaged in a virulent, systematic assault on the middle class and the poor. So much for the Compassionate Conservative. More like Simon Legree. F minus.

Nearly 50% of our national debt is held by Communist China. Bush has us in hock to our adversary right up to our eyeballs. Wither the great American Superpower? Along with Representative Rick Renzi, Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain, Bush should be flunked out.

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2006

HAMAS AND MENACHEM BEGIN

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (1/29/06)

President Bush was caught with his pants down by Hamas’ election victory in Palestine. The whole intelligence apparatus of the CIA, NSA, Defense Department, State Department, etc. didn’t expect it. They failed just as they failed anticipating Katrina which came with a five-day storm warning.

Not only did an inept Bush Administration drop the intelligence ball, its reaction to Hamas’ victory was also the same old bluster, making Bush look like a paper tiger. No one seems to have learned the Vietnam lesson that bluster doesn’t work.

The Arabs and the Muslims don’t like us. Hamas’ victory may be due to the governing Fatah party’s corruption, but the underlying theme is their rage against the United States and the West.

Many have forgotten that Israel was established partly due to the terrorist organization, Irgun. Irgun killed hundreds of British soldiers who were in Israel to keep the peace. Indeed, Irgun blew up the King David Hotel, killing 91 people, claiming the British were pro-Arab.

Menachem Begin, the great Israeli Prime Minister, was a first an Irgun leader involved in the King David bombing. Later, along with Anwar Sadat of Egypt he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for the peace treaty he negotiated with Sadat. As the hymn reads, "New occasions teach new duties\Time makes ancient good uncouth." History is ironic. Does such greatness lie within Hamas? Not much in the current Islamic behavior, responding to Danish political cartoons, indicates any latent greatness in Hamas. Buy Danish.

Copyright (c) Dana Prom Smith 2006