Article: Metaphors of hope . . .

Metaphors of hope . . .

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A medical analogy is almost perfect. Our country is now infected by the bff (Bush/fascist/fundamentalist) virus -- a kind of societal version of the "bird flu". We are now in intensive care, the jury is still out, and we may or may not die from this terrible sickness.

But bodies (including national bodies) have a way of working out how to survive and once the immune system learns how to defend the body (including the body politic) against a virus, that virus is effectively blocked from further infestations.

Now let's imagine we find ourselves in an athletic competition (say, football), and as the game progresses, we discover the opposing team plays dirty, cheats like crazy, and contemptuously ignores all the rules.

End result? Well, certainly for most of the game, we are going to get clobbered. How could it be otherwise? But if EVENTUALLY we get the message that we're playing against total scum bags, we regroup and start playing for blood.

Isn't this basically what happened during WW2? For years, much of Europe and America refused to acknowledge the 3rd Reich was after world conquest and was willing to do ANYTHING to achieve their monstrous goals. However, once "we got the message", the allies dug in and gradually, gradually saved civilization from the horrors of Nazidom.

Exactly the same thing is now happening in America. God knows, we were blind sided by our Republican neighbors and relatives, but after several stolen elections, a hijacked foreign policy by the neocon lobby (clearly not lobbying for the United States of America!), the murder of New Orleans, the rape of Mother Nature, and designer oil wars run by America's Dictatorship of the Rich, etc., etc. "we got the message".

We now know Republican neo Nazis are alive and well in Washington, we also know our country may have a terminal bff virus that is killing our Constitutional Republic, and most of all we know the Republican Party has sold its soul to Evil.

So bad, bad, bad to the skies.

And yet when an immune system works out how to cure a seemingly terminal virus, intensive care can be a half way house to health and happiness.

So the battle is two fold:

(1.) First, the virus or neo Nazis or sports competition "dirty players" must be acknowledged. They must be seen in all their loathsome destructiveness. Denial here is suicide. We dare not minimize. The essence of this stage is to SEE THINGS LIKE THEY ARE.

(2.) Second, once the ultimate danger is seen for what it is, we have to respond in kind. We are fighting for our lives, our children's lives, our planet, and our Constitutional Republic.

This has long since transcended traditional politics. We are in the midst of what still is a successful Bush/Republican coup d’etat and unless we downshift to straight-no-chaser hardball, our world is going to be buried alive.

It’s time to live up to the honorable and courageous legacy of our Constitutional forefathers. They smacked down their mad King George. So should we.

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W. Christopher Epler (Bill)