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- G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
THE POWER OF BABEL
 The
media frenzy has leveled off to a mere murmur on Iraq and is now concentrated
with a wild fury on "the sniper." Predictably, just days before
the election, the sniper was caught and
the Bushies will claim credit. How very convenient to have still
another diversion that keeps us from examining the condition and values
of America.
Election time does that, of course. It forces a debate between the major political parties but also allows minority voices to be heard. That is, it does if the media isn't so preoccupied with trailer-trash stories that it becomes derelict in its duty. We extend our sincere sympathy to the family, friends and supporters of Senator Paul Wellstone. It took a tragedy like his untimely death for the media to focus, even narrowly, on the elections in November. The coincidences that have kept the media from fair and impartial reporting of the two years of the Bush term in office are striking. By all reports, his presidency was nearly dead in the water until revived by the 9/11 debacle. Just as the country was beginning to recover from that, the anthrax attack against prominent Democrats happened. Despite the fact that the stock market tanked and corporate dishonesty ravished the savings of many Americans, the media was always given another "big story" to concentrate on. The Bushies were determined to KEEP FEAR ALIVE and used color-coded alerts to keep media attention away from examining their agenda. After Osama escaped their clutches a new bad guy, er, evil doer of evil was conveniently located in the person of Saddam of Iraq. Giving his usual war-whoop of misplaced vowels and mashed syntax, Bush raised his "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" and pointed toward Baghdad. "We'll go it alone," he raved to a receptive media that was foaming at the mouth for a war to cover. But Americans finally had enough of that crap and the Bushies were forced to accept the limits of Congress and the United Nations on their war plans. All but stifled, the Bushies were provided with another great coincidence to invoke fear just a few weeks before election -- a sniper. How lucky can they get? Once again the news is not about the political debate, or Cheney's blockage of 9/11 investigations, but is concentrated on the sniper 24/7. Then, only a couple of weeks before the election, the stock market appears to be making a remarkable recovery -- kismet or corporate stock manipulation? Other voices have now risen loud enough to be heard above the gaggle of talking heads. They are found in the words and voices from other countries and resonate on the Internet in thousands of web sites. Despite the intent to confuse and frighten the public, some clarity of thought is coming through the Babel via the Internet. For example: It's Still the Economy Stupid, by Paul Begala, is a great informational book and available at: http://www.amazon.com. But just as information is burgeoning, we are told of a massive attack against the Internet. It was thwarted this time fortunately, but... Still, the mouth of Bush spouts a continuous "Power of Babel." As the Bushie military prepares and plans for wars, "The Boy Emperor" tells us he wants to have his way with Iraq peacefully. Uhm? And he often says he is a patient man, but his wife and mother always laugh out loud when they hear him say this. Ah, so. At best Bush's speech is garbled, at worst, incomprehensible. Most of his trained pack of lap dogs of the White House Press Corps clean up and translate his words before we read them. It works for him as he always has DENYABILITY. He can always claim, "that wasn't what I meant." He reads most everything from a teleprompter, but his confusion and ignorance has served him well. It lowers expectations and he gets away with half-truths and outright lies. http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.24A.bush.not.candid.htm Remember the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel? Genesis 11 tells us that the Lord did not appreciate people working together to accomplish great things so he "confused their language" so they could not "understand one another's speech" and work together. Bush Babelizes without benefit of computer translations but we can all Babelize with a simple program called "Lost in Translation." Sure it's a game, but it demonstrates what disconcerting speech can do to the psyche of a nation. http://home.cwru.edu/cgi-bin/multibabel The country and the world need clarity of language and purpose that is sadly lacking from an administration bent only on inciting fear and confusion. REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME -- VOTE! http://www.moveon.org/PAC_regimechange2/
2002-044
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