If Nero played his fiddle while Rome was burning, what tune was he playing?
History has a tendency to repeat itself. Legend has it that in A.D. 64 the emperor Nero (A.D. 37 – A.D. 68), last of the Caesars, set fire to Rome to see ‘how Troy would look when it was in flames’ and to serve as a suitable background for a recitation of his poetry while accompanying himself on the lyre.
I wonder if a 100-years from now, historians will look back at the nefarious administration of 43rd President George W. Bush to determine if he allowed America to self-destruct as a suitable background to feel personally powerful, for his own glory and edification, that he was truly a powerful Commander-in-Chief and not the falling down drunk his classmates remember from Princeton in the Skull-and-Bones Fraternity.
Events of the past few months have brought us the housing/lending crisis, record gas prices at the pump as gas hits $5 a gallon, the 7th anniversary of 9-11 which finds U.S. troops bogged down in Iraq with no exit strategy, the collapse of Wall Street, the stock market plummeting a historic-record 800 points while Congress rejects a 700-billion bailout. (An amount that could buy a small country or certainly an island in the Caribbean). The collapse of many small banks and the first major bank (WAMU), out-of-control illegal problem, two presidential candidates waging scorched-earth presidential campaigns against the other when neither candidate has any real viable solutions for taking America forward.
Recently, a very private man with his thoughts, timid comedian Tommy Smothers came forward at the Emmy Awards with an interesting comment which for me sums up how history will view emperor Bush the 2nd.
Smothers said: “It’s hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there’s nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action.” Smothers dedicated his Emmy award to “all people who feel compelled to speak out, and are not afraid to speak to power, and won’t shut up and refuse to be silenced.”
What does that say about a society that sacrifices the lives of its young men and women, the fabric of societies very existence for oil profits and personal political power?
The “either you’re for me or you’re against me” Bush administration with it’s Emperor Palpatine and Vice-President Darth Vadar, as he’s been called, has brought the American way of life to the edge of the Abyss. If the bailout fails, I predict massive layoffs and corporate bankruptcy announcements by Christmas 2008.
But by then, the empire will have burned to the ground around Bush’s ears and the next administration will have to clean up the mess, whether that be Obama or McCain. It won’t mater who wins the National Election come November 4th because come next January- America won’t look much the same place as the America we grew up where every citizen believed they could achieve the American dream.
KILBURN HALL
