Article: Preaching Righteousness

We live in a time of corruption and hypocrisy. The rulers claim to be "Christian", yet their behavior is just the opposite. They lie, cheat and steal, and profit personally and enrich their friends with their policies, rather than serving the people, as they are pledged to do. The House changes the rules to protect Tom DeLay. Congress insists that all lobbyists be Republican. Congressional districts are shamelessly gerrymandered. Voting machines are rigged.

The language of the Bush administration is Orwellian. "Clear skies" means air pollution. "Healthy forests" means clearcutting. "No child left behind" means cutting funds for education, and substituting rigorous testing which forces children into a mold. "Exporting democracy" means imposing a military dictatorship.

The press smears Cindy Sheehan, a grieving mother, in the name of being "evenhanded". Judy Miller is lauded as a heroine for going to jail to "protect her sources", when in fact she is shielding traitors.

Halliburton triples its profits from the Iraq war every quarter, much of the profit being blatant corruption, and there is no outcry. Torture chambers run by the US routinely make headlines, and the American public does not protest, or insist that the policies change.

What has happened to our sense of right and wrong? It has been hijacked, along with the Bible and God and the US government, by a cynical, evil gang of thugs. They have systematically, over a period of 35 years, funded thinktanks whose job it has been to twist our language and our brains, until we are so befuddled that we have lost our moral compass. We are greatly indebted to George Lakoff for exposing this massive psychological operation, and suggesting an antidote.

But Lakoff's reframing does not go far enough. He stays within the framework of polite dialogue between equals, "red" vs "blue" or "Christian Coalition" vs "spiritual progressives". Claiming righteousness is seen as "extreme" or "bigoted" or "like those fundamentalists".

Many Americans are striving valiantly to restore a sense of right and wrong to the political discourse. Henry Waxman, Robert Byrd, John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Barbara Boxer are among the few outspoken people in Congress who refuse to be cowed by the general miasma of lies and hypocrisy in Washington, and are willing to denounce corruption and demand truth and accountability. Sibel Edmonds, Joe Wilson, and many other whistleblowers seek to expose the manipulations of the Bush administration around 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan, speaking from the broken heart of a mother of a fallen soldier, is demanding impeachment. Righteousness consists of exposing crime and bringing the criminals to justice. We all must do this, if we are to regain our sense of morality and reclaim our country.

Psalm 40: 9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.

Please download the petition to Conyers asking for impeachment proceedings at http://deependnews.com/memorandum.htm Join Cindy and the millions of Americans who want justice for our nation and the world.

In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman