power is perception

“Power is being the president.” Bush's response to a reporter's observation that reading polls is important because it tells a leader what people think about following. The reporter said, "Power is perception."

Several of my friends' children are graduating from high school this year and are going into the military. One childhood friend, a beautiful girl with some serious heath issues, who is unable to work told me that her hero was George W. Bush. I didn't raise the issue of her SSI disability check which is her life line to anything resembling a normal life which I don't believe that Bush wants the federal government to continue paying my friend. Her daughter, a smart, beautiful young woman, is going into the military. Her family is too poor to pay for college and they really don't own enough to mortgage to get student loans and her husband is so under employed.

But they love George Bush. I wonder if her church would help her if her SSI payments suddenly are cut. I wonder if her church would understand the nature of her illnesses. Can they since they don't believe that anything happens without God's will. Or that illness might be genetic. God just gives you want you can handle, right?

So this beautiful child is going off to fight while Barbara and Jenna go off to work until they find suitable husbands. Her mother worried about finding a prom dress for her daughter because money is so tight. Did that play in her decision to go into the military? Did the recruiters tell her they would pay for college, give her a laptop computer now, give her a signing bonus to help pay for her mother's medication. Will she need physical therapy if she loses a body part before she goes to college? If she comes home?

One friend's child is a young man, so talented, smart, attractive. He joined the National Guard because he was too young for regular military (!) and is in Iraq because he sees this as a struggle between God, Allah, Muslims and Jews and Christians. His father is well-educated, well-employed. This young man has the world on a string and elects to kill and very possibly be killed. His family is comfortable, he can easily afford college and is so well connected that jobs will be easily found for him. If he comes home.

Why do people so hurt by the Bush Administration love him so much? I see horrible little cars that look like they are held together with Bush/Cheney stickers. If they put that on their car, are they identifying with a team? A team that hates them but needs their children to die for oil. Do they get sprinkled or immersed every Sunday in the propaganda that Bush is God's plan to bring about Heaven? We are horrified that Islamic fascists are told if they kill for Allah they will go to Heaven. Why is that any different than hearing the Republicans say that God hates federal judges who disobey tradition in favor of small groups of homosexuals and women? How is any different than God wants George Bush to be president and that Bush is doing God's will? Is their perception their reality? Are we living with Bush's perception--his denial of reality?

Please tell me that pictures of Bush peddling will finally illustrate what he has been peddling?