Let's not give up on our fellow 'mericans

Shall we give up on our fellow 'mericans?

After all, they elected Reagan (and also Nixon) twice, and although we cannot accuse them of electing Chimpy, approximately half support the Cheney Administration. What if Kurt Vonnegut is right when he asserts “I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable”.

But surely the twentieth century, which all of us are time travelers from, gives us examples of surprising changes. When I was a child Negroes (as we called them) were prevented from living within the city limits of the town where I went to high school - while racism persists, things are substantially different now. Germany's role in world politics and relationship to the Jewish people has been transformed since World War II. I supposed that the apartheid regime in South Africa would end in a bloodbath - surprisingly, no.

There's a Hasidic saying, "no person is so bright that they don't have one speck of darkness, nor so dark that they don't have one spark of light". Krishna tells us in the Gita that divine and demonic tendencies are mixed in human nature. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream - that dream being that America would live up to its dream. As Paul McCartney put it, "there is still a chance that they may see" - not all of them, of course, but maybe enough to make a significant difference.

Secretary of State Powell is similar to his predecessor Kissinger

According to the proprietor of The Whiskey Bar, at www.billmon.org:

As far as I can tell, Colin Powell is one of the most cynical liars to ever serve in the U.S. government - who's still alive, I mean. And when Henry Kissinger finally kicks the bucket, he'll have the title.

I think Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz et al actually believed a lot of the stories they were telling. But Powell has never bought into ANY of the administration's fantasies. And yet he's been perfectly willing to go out and sell them in public, over and over and over again. And in the process, he's told some of the most outrageous lies of any of them.

Maybe he thinks it's his duty. Or maybe he's just a sociopath like Bush. I don't know. But it's been quite a performance.