A few independent new year thoughts

With the new year and Gerald Ford's death coinciding as they have, I have had a few flashbacks and time for contemplation.

Ford will always be remembered as the man who pardoned Nixon.

I think I understand why he did it. I think that he did it, mostly for the sake of the nation and, in an odd way, his own presidency. I also believe he decided to grant the pardon because Nixon was even a bigger mess than the country. As, a nation, we did needed to move on.

However, I wonder of it ever crossed Ford's mind that his pardon of one nut job, would lead to a bevy of nut jobs taking almost complete power, in the future, and doing what the Bushites have done to this country, not to mention Iraq.

I doubt it.

It certainly never entered my mind, that the forced resignation of Richard Nixon and his pardon, an admission of guilt by law, would teach the GOP that they could get by with much worse, if they just did not make the mistake of having a shred of conscious, as Nixon did. (Yes, that' right, Nixon did have a conscious. There were signs of a conscious, unlike now days.)

I guess that is what happens when accountability is withheld, in cases of high crimes and misdemeanors, of which Nixon was sure to be convicted. Yes, Nixon suffered a great deal. I have no doubt of that. He was humiliated, shamed, scared witless, as in paranoia, and physically, a very sick man.

I admit that there was a part of me that wanted Nixon to go to prison. There was another part of me that was sick and tired of the whole thing; worn out, drained and dispirited by the Vietnam war, the civil rights struggle and Watergate. Like Ford, I had no idea that pardoning Nixon, legally, if not in my heart, would have really horrid results down the road.

In my mind, today, there is a huge difference between accountability and vengeance. One should be insisted upon by the people; the other, we should always resist.

I did not watch it, but I understand that the video of the execution of Saddam revealed what was, for all practical purposes, a lynching. The mere description of it caused chills to run up my spine.

I was born and raised in the deep south, and I have too many memories of lynchings; of black men by taunting, barbaric, hateful white men. They usually covered their faces too, as did the executioners of Saddam.

Why do people cover their faces, if their actions are so damned righteous?

End of that little rant

First there was the Nixon pardon, which, I believe led straight to Iran/Contra, the scandal which involved the selling of TOW missiles to Iran and diverting the money to the Contra Rebels in Nicaragua, in violation of the Boland amendment and the will of Congress.

Many more sins of the Reagan/Bush administration were revealed during the hearings into the whole mess.. There was the whole CIA drug smuggling thing, which led to the epidemic of crack cocaine addiction in this country.

Even hints of the now famous October surprise came out, somewhat.

The problem was that the hearings were so mind-numbingly boring and by the time that Lawrence Walsh, the independent counsel, got around to even talking to Ronald Reagan, Reagan was hardly aware of what planet he was on.

So, not much happened with Iran/Contra. People were let off on technicalities and others were simply pardoned, by Poppy Bush. No accountability. Again!

Bill Clinton was held accountable for something that had nothing to do with the welfare of this nation, but for personal conduct that was really no one's business except his and that of his wife and daughter.

Nevertheless, the flag seemed to be falling, according to the GOP led Congress, the same GOP congress that wanted no part of oversight, let alone snooping in bedrooms, for the last six years, while their president committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, shredded the constitution and emptied the national treasury on idiotic adventurism, not the for the welfare of the American people or our security, which, by the way, is an illusion, at best.

This time, there must be accountability.

It must be as swift as possible, allowing for due process, and it must be to the fullest extent of the law, both constitutional and international.

For my country, in this new year, I pray for truth and accountability. It is the only way forward.

We, Americans, must strive, as a nation, for authenticity. It is our only hope as a country.

It must not matter how bad it looks, how humiliating and shameful it is, to endure the trials of our leaders and their enablers and to take a very hard look at ourselves and the media which is supposed to serve us by telling us the truth, not cheer leading for a bunch of liars and murderers.

The news media may, still, redeem itself, somewhat, by getting on the truth bandwagon, now. I will be pleasantly surprised if they do.

I have a prescience that 2007 is going to be a very rough year; not just here, but all over the world.

No matter what we do, 2007 is not looking good.

Would it not be better to do what is right and needful, than simply to continue to allow events to spin out of control, as if we had no responsibility for any it?


I say, No. We, Americans, have a huge mess to clean up. The clean-up job begins in Washington D.C. It actually began in November. Still, we must be sure that our actions in November of last year are not misinterpreted in this new year.

Truth and Accountability! That is what we want!

It will be much more dignified if Congress does their job, but truth and accountability we shall have, one way or the other. Our country depends on it, as does, possibly, the rest of the world.

In other words, don't make us have to come up there!