What Colin Powell Should Have Said
Former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell visited my university the other day as part of a symposium or lecture series, or something, on leadership, of all things.
Many of my colleagues stood in long lines and were finally herded into a crowded auditorium where they sat, rapt, while he no doubt rambled on making much ado about very little.
Given who he is, the positions of leadership he has held in our government, our military and our society, he SHOULD have said something memorable. He should have said something worth hearing and being reported. He should have said something of significance because of where we, as a nation, find ourselves today... so utterly divided and very nearly conquered by those who seem to have absolutely no CLUE how we got to where we are today in this country. Through our relatively short history, colored -- in some cases irrevocably scarred, by enlightenment, slavery, genocide of more cultures that I can count, and by a seeming obsession with violating the very tenets of our own nation, we have arrived here precisely because those who have labored, truly, as americans, gave their collective blood, sweat and tears, scratched, bit and clawed to bring our nation into a grudging greater realization of her own ideals.
And now, those very ideals are decimated daily by the morons who purport to lead us. They do
not lead us. They are our collective
anchor, dragging us into the open sewer of nations that do business in secret, that violate their own laws on their way to giving the finger to international law. This nation wasn't conceived so that, one day, the modern conservative cabal in now in power could rethink 200 years of legal and social precedent and vomit upon the rest of us their new concept of America. We are a nation of laws. Re-writing the law to serve the idiots now in power does nothing but violate our own identity as a nation.
Imprisonment without being charged? Prosecution without legal representation? Trial without the ability to see and challenge the witnesses and evidence arrayed against us? Torture? Wiretaps without legal sanction??? Who
are these fascists????? And moreover, who are those who populate the mental bovine herds that eat the shit they are serving and keep
voting for them? God, the sad thing is that we
deserve the abyss into which they are driving us. Hell, we asked for it, voted for it. TWICE.
Colin Powell could have thrown a nice wrench into the works of the cabal by asserting that, in order to initiate a true debate about the policies our nation is pursuing and how the cost of these policies will be paid, we should
re-institute the draft. We should, as a nation, commit to ensuring that we will truly share the sacrifice and effort of our nation. It is unfair and immoral for our volunteer service, populated mostly by those of more modest means, to be pimped out, tempted by enlistment bonuses and mandated service extensions and perpetual re-deployments, in order to serve the morons calling the shots.
Let the children and grandchildren of the members of Congress toe the line and dodge the bombs and bullets for a few years. Then, and only then, will we see a real debate about our policies. If the conservative cabal is so better equipped to "fight the war against terror," then let them demonstrate exactly that by putting their own blood on the line.
Colin Powell allowed himself to be prostituted before the entire nation -- and the entire world, marginalizing his own career and violating the respect and trust of so many who would have been only too happy to support him. But he sold the soul of his better judgement to the cabal and now he's got nothing better to do that attend lecture series and discuss intellectual theories of leadership.
Here's a leadership lesson for you, General. Call a fucking spade a spade. The next time you squeak into a microphone, let us hear something memorable. Let us see the supposed wisdom, experience and gravitas you are supposed to have possessed. Say something that will defy the habit we have now when hearing your voice which is to let it slither in one ear and out the other. Say something worthy of our attention, throw something against the wall of what sadly passes for public discourse today that might actually
stick and force a discussion of substance.
I, for one, am three-days sick already about some random, idiot senators e-mail predelictions.
I know a leader when I see one and Colin Powell has disappointed me one time too many.
