Opinion Honoring the dead

Governor Ted Kulongoski asked us to place our American flags at half-mast in honor of the American warriors from Oregon who have been killed in President Bush's war on Iraq.

If you drive past my home, you will see that my flag of the United States of America is still at half-mast, and I'm going to leave it there for the duration of this senseless war that is killing thousands of Americans, Iraqis and innocent people of the world.

Every night, after Jeopardy! I switch to PBS for the evening news -- and every night the debacle in Iraq dominates, which is no surprise to any of you. I trust PBS; the depth of reporting is top-notch and as far as I can tell, unbiased and truthful.

However, it is at the end of the news broadcast that my heart is broken. It is the time Jim Lehrer quietly shows the faces of the military personnel who have been killed in Iraq that day. Even now, as I sit here and reflect on all those beautiful people, I have trouble seeing my keyboard because of my tears. It is possible that some day one of my sons will appear.

These people were the best of our nation. They made a decision to join our Armed Forces and carry out the oath of allegiance to their country and to protect America from her enemies.

They are not protecting America from her enemies; they are being forced into making enemies for America. I cannot in any way find any patriotic reason for American civilians to be kept prisoners in cages, pleading for their lives and then beheaded. That war is an abomination to everything America stands for; it is a bottomless pit of death, misery, and embarrassment to America. But it's making jobs...

The pain and anguish parents suffer for those over 1,000 young warriors breaks my heart as well. Moreover, to make it worse, I can not see any remorse in the present Administration for the death of those beautiful young people and civilians.

I watch the President strut about in shirt-sleeves, with his glad-hand, grinning and speaking about his war in Iraq as though it's some kind of a backyard game he's playing with his buddies in Washington, D.C. He seems oblivious to the fact that over 1,000 of his best citizens will not be able to dedicate their lives to living with their families, but have died in an insane war with people who hate us more each day -- with good reason.

It appears that there is only one thing the present Administration is good at and that is deceit. They are allegedly pumping money into the coffers of that poor boob running for President, Ralph Nader, because they know he will be the one who will "split the vote" and get them back into office -- because poor boobs like me would vote for him.

It is such a shame to see a man like Nader fall for the subtle trickery of the present Administration. Many people have great respect for Nader, but I see him as another fatality of the present war in America, so my flag flies at half-mast for him as well.

Then there's the mess Dan Rather got himself into. The fact that Republican businessmen are trying to professionally destroy him adds insult to injury. I'm sorry to say, but in my heart, I believe he too has been conned by the "Worse than Watergate" bunch. If it were possible to chase the infamous paper trail back to it's ignominious beginning, I'd bet that we'd find the false documents Rather fell for were generated by the same mind-set as those who gave us the debacle of Watergate. It smacks of the Nixon/Liddy type of manipulation.

So I place my flag at half-mast for Dan Rather as well.

Our nation is in a heap of trouble, but the present Administration is too busy making sure Big Money is safe, the Good Old Boy system is working smoothly, and blinding us with lies -- like manipulating NPS tapes of the demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial into a political statement -- to care about what is really going on in the world.

For that reason, Americans are dying everywhere, but I can not see anyone in the Oval Office honoring their supreme sacrifice.

I have heard it said that our present Administration is "the best money can buy," and I'm beginning to believe it...

Our flag flies at half-mast for us all.