being there by David Hochman

Pass Me the Bucket

Seems like everybody and his mother is wearing some type of wristband these days. What started off innocuously enough with Lance Armstrong launching his LiveStrong yellow wristbands with proceeds going to his cancer foundation has mushroomed into an entire industry. You’ve got purple wristbands for cancer awareness; teal for ovarian cancer; rainbow for breast cancer research; lime for muscular dystrophy; pink for breast cancer; red for drug awareness; tie die—I’m not joking—for tsunami victims, etc.

What started off as good-intentioned has spiralled out of control. With so few colors, each now stands for several causes. In addition, churches, schools, companies and organisations have gotten on the bandwagon and are issuing their own versions of the wristband. Needless to say, they have become a fashion accessory, and many fashion-conscious people are sporting a whole array of colored wristbands on their arms. On one arm you may find wristbands supporting cancer research as well as, say, little Billy’s Sunday School.

But one that stands out is the black Silent Protest wristband worn by a friend.

“Wearing a SILENT PROTEST wristband demonstrates opposition to the Bush administration and, simultaneously your purchase helps those who are victims of their practices and policies,” reads the Silent Protest website. My friend informed me he’d wear it until the day Bush was out of office.

“Another four years,” he had sadly remarked.

I remember when Bush ran against Gore in the first election, I had asked my father’s opinion about Bush’s chances. None, he had replied. That’s where I disagree, I had said, there are enough idiots in America to elect just about anyone. Even Bush. How horribly and sadly right I had been.

Which brings me to a very distressing conclusion. Already there is a book which has soared to the top of the non-fiction bestseller charts, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She’ll Go To Become President, by a certain Edward Klein, a supposed journalist (what a journalist is doing writing such drivel is beyond me). It is character assassination, pure and simple. It is the sort of slander that should be stopped outright, and the stopping of it should be an example for the next “journalists” or other such highly moral individuals of what happens when you spread rumors, lies and slander. Of course, the intellectual response is to scoff, to laugh it off, to say, I am not going to lower myself to such levels. Which of course such individuals are banking on. In a street fight, in a bar brawl, anything goes. You can say all you want about wanting to step above it, but when that bottle hits you on the back of the head, you bleed like anyone else. And there’s no way to stay out of the bar, because the bar owner, or in this case the politicians, decide every little detail of your life, from the interest you pay on your mortgage and car loans, to the level of your education, to your healthcare, etc. Let me repeat: every aspect of your life. Whether you like it or not, the bar brawl includes everyone, and you had better be playing by whatever rules the other side has decided upon if you want to come out ahead. Awful, I know. But tragically true.

So the vindictive right is already trying to assassinate, so to speak, any viable Democratic candidates in the next Presidential elections. If you think they are waiting four years, think again. Hillary is absolutely right when she says the Karl Roves of this world are everyday putting in motion plans, strategies, rules, regulations and laws, state by state and nationally, to ensure that the right will control every aspect of our lives. To think otherwise is foolhardy and counterproductive.

Instead of buying up the drivel of Klein’s and those like him, and making it go to the bestseller lists and thus enhancing these sensationalistic “writers” and their accusations, readers should boycott such garbage, and citizens should hold them accountable. Where are the slander suits? A person should go to prison for trying to vengefully destroy another’s reputation and character.

For his part, Klein says: “I didn’t go into this book…with an agenda. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve already had the Clinton presidency for its full constitutional years. I do not want to see her become the President of the United States.” Ok, so he has no agenda, but he writes sadistic accusations about a person whom he doesn’t want to become the next President. Isn’t that interesting? Am I alone here when I don’t see a person like Klein, as mad as he may be, working alone?

As they had tried to do with Kerry’s war effort, and had successfully put him on the defensive, the Republicans are at it again. And believe me, this is only the beginning. There’ll be all sorts of accusations made about Edwards, too, and anyone else the right sees as a threat to their plans. And their plans? Simple: to control every aspect of your life. What you think, what you do, how much you pay for what, the health care you receive, the education your children have the right to receive, etc. To dictate how you should live your life. Or worse: to force you to live as they think you should live, according to their interpretation of morality, without debates.

Since the Republicans won’t change their tactics and if the courts don’t uphold a person’s right to be free from ugly rumors and outright slander, is it not perhaps time to get someone to write a nice expose of the other Bush, Jeb? Don’t tell me he doesn’t have skeletons in the closet. Who doesn’t? Character assassination doesn’t seem like such a difficult business to be in. I am guessing that in the case of someone like Jeb Bush, one wouldn’t even have to fabricate much. A few simple truths would probably be enough to frighten anyone, as is apparent in the way he’s handled and continues to handle the Schiavo case.

Because, if things don’t change dramatically now, my fear is this: my friend and all like-minded individuals (who still, thankfully, constitute nearly half the population of the US judging from the voting records) will be wearing their black Silent Protest wristbands not for another four years, but for another twelve years, as the younger Bush will be elected and then re-elected, and the Bush Dynasty—forgive me as I choke—will replace the Kennedy Dynasty as America’s “royal family.” Is anyone else as horrified at the thought? A Bush Dynasty. Who would ever have guessed. Would someone please pass me the bucket?