Whistling Past the Graveyard

John Brennan, it seems, is in charge of Washington's war of words on the terror front. It is both a hopeful and disturbing clue as the current administration continues to reveal itself. It is hopeful insofar as the administration appears content not to fundamentally change anything and to just use different words to talk about it. If this assessment holds true for every other initiative Obama has promised, we can be reasonably confident that a future administration will find a way to reverse any resulting damage relatively easily. It is also disturbing in that verbiage alone seldom changes the fundamental nature of a problem. Thinking it does, would rather serve as a lethal diversion at the very time when the world does not stop (rushing into a vacuum) and actual events threaten to overtake us.

A similar problem exists with Republicans. They smugly feel they must do nothing as the Obama administration happily implodes. ‘Nothing’ is static; everything else is dynamic and requires us to be on our toes at all times to be able to react and anticipate appropriately. The world is one of action where elbows are constantly in motion for the purpose of cutting in line. I said 'elbows', not 'words'. Words are not heard when everybody's shouting. Refusing to elbow assures one of being last in the queue (which could easily translate into much worse than lost time). ”Sorry, we just ran out.”

We run a high risk by being unwilling or unable to engage. Any working system requires a constant flow of energy to maintain its momentum. Otherwise, entropy sets in and the system winds down and dies. Words alone, though they do no harm, cannot provide the energy needed to sustain it. Otherwise we could do away with eating and subsist just on talking alone. There is, of course, an additional danger in talking too much. Words can hamstring legitimate processes to the point of kindling cancers - which, again, atrophies elbows.

So far, most of us have assumed that Barack Hussein Obama’s veil of words does nothing but attempt to hide ineptness. It allows us to ignore Obama’s elbows. We have basically never come to terms with the reality that the office of the POTUS is a powerful post; that its power could some day be used against us. Today, every one of us who gripes and complains with varying degrees of aplomb and cheerfulness is merely ‘whistling past the graveyard’. This was especially true during the Bush administration. It brought us Obama. “Buffoon” still remains the all-time favorite in our lexicon of expressions relating to our government. As “Marxist stooge” begins to vie for second place, it is perhaps time for us to begin asking where we might have gone wrong.