Every Day, More Good News

While President Bush was in office, I clicked on the news media with the expectation of a new war or even an exchange of nuclear missiles. I knew Bush was incompetent, but the utmost depth of his incompetence was uncertain. Now that Bush is out of office, we can entertain the thought of progress and improvement, virtues that were lacking the past eight years.

These days, I find inspiration in the headline news, of all places. President Obama is doing good things for the country, and I find ample reasons for hope:

Obama signs the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009

Crackdown on ship’s exhaust could help Seattle’s air

EPA to monitor 62 school’s air

Obama to Automakers: It’s My Way or the Highway

Obama cares. That’s the biggest difference between him and the Republicans. The Republicans would let us suffocate in the poisons spewed out by big business, while their clients vacation in locales such as the Bahamas and Switzerland.

I’m reminded of a high-ranking vice president of a multi-billion dollar company who told his assembled employees, including me, that liberals were to blame for all of the ills in the world. The reason, he said, was because liberals care too much. How can liberals be so stupid? They must be traitors who hate America. In China, there is less environmental protection and less protection for workers and consumers. We need to be more like China and less like America. This was his morale-boosting speech to his assembled employees.

A few months later, this vice president retired. In a candid confession, he admitted to making errors in judgment. One of those errors in judgment was that arrogant and ill-timed statement at a company picnic that was supposed to promote morale and cohesion. I returned from that picnic with the distinct impression that upper management was composed of idiots and that I had no place whatsoever in such a company. There may be many jobs I am willing to do, but I am not willing to spend my life in the service of evil.

China represents the Republican ideal, because it has less freedom and greater growth of the economy. Why don't Republicans just unfurl the red banner and be done with subtlety? Kill the poor and poison the planet. Crime pays, compassion doesn’t. That's the Republican philosophy, and that's why they lost the last election.