If Only the Nightmare was Over

So former President Ford passed away yesterday. By all accounts a decent man of a generation that believed in public service and an "American Dream" that was inclusive. He most famously said upon Nixon's departure from office in disgrace that "our long national nightmare is over". It took a few decades for those nightmares to fade: the abuse of power, the quagmire of un-winnable war, the lies and deceit by those elected to serve, warrant-less domestic spying, the smearing of political opponents as unpatriotic, adventurous foreign policy without objectives, secrecy - it all seemed like a distant by vaguely uncomfortable memory by middle of the 90's. The Cold War was over, no clear competitors or threats on the horizon, optimism and at least some sense that a rising tide in fact might raise all boats. But alas, like a bad case of post-traumatic stress the "axis of deceit" and their appointed minions come to power looking for a bogey-man to grasp and hold power for power sake, ensure that their wealthy power-base of fundamentalist thinkers (whether fundamentalist in religion, political philosophy, anointed wealth and power) became more powerful and the rest were left to stock the shelves at Wal-Mart, fight and die and be maimed in wars of opportunity, or be blamed for lack of competitiveness, education, vision or just being plain lazy. So will the next president of the United States be so gracious as to pardon Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company for their crimes? Ford lost the election because he pardoned Nixon, but he will always be remembered for that simple act that began a national self-analysis of who we had become and how we might change. These clowns in office now have ignored the lessons of history in virtually every policy decision that have made, let us hope for better and hope this period is a flashback that we will awake from in a vigorous exercise of democracy.

Mike Gellerman