COLUMN: Political craziness you missed this summer
Before I begin, here’s a bit about me: My name is Jon Adams (not a bad name for a political science major, eh?). Like many of you, I had a fairly conservative and religious upbringing here in Utah. Politically, I think of myself as unabashedly liberal, but I may soon have to identify as moderate considering today’s leftward swing. Too bad, actually, because I’m most comfortable as the “fish out of water.” How else could a liberal, bisexual, single and secular student survive at USU?
Enough about me. What did you do over the summer? If you’re the typical college student, you put your brain on standby for the break. No New York Times, no PBS, not even The Daily Show – for months. You are woefully uninformed. Luckily for you, I have a chronic fixation with current events. And as a testament to how dull my life is, I often find three to four hours each and every day to scour the news. So allow me to bring you up to date:
Since May, we have already been subjected to 12 vacuous political debates. At this rate, by Election Day, the candidates will have had more debates than Mitt Romney’s had political reinventions. No simple feat. Seriously, though, I’m thrilled by what seems like an early interest in presidential horse race. It’s evidence that America is starving for change. But this early on, and given the characters running, you should be watching this race if for no other reason than your amusement.
For example, did you catch Gov. Richardson’s gigantic gaffe at the Human Rights Campaign? Before an audience of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender couples, Richardson said homosexuality was a choice. A choice?! The hilariously awkward incident could’ve qualified as a scene from “Borat.” I knew the state of American politics was a joke, but, until this
race, had no idea just how funny that joke can be.
“Sicko,” Michael Moore’s acclaimed documentary on our health care crisis, made a hard-hitting debut in theaters across the country on June 22. The film compares our corporate system to the universal systems of Canada, the UK, France and (gasp!) Cuba. After reviewing each system, Moore makes a sobering diagnosis: America’s health care system is hazardous to our health. And who better to remind us how unhealthy we Americans are than Michael Moore? Love him or loathe him, Moore’s thesis in “Sicko” is validated by the facts. Despite our system being the most expensive in the world, the World Health Organization ranks the US system No. 37.
This is no surprise to the 60 million Americans who are either uninsured or under insured. While you may ultimately disagree with Moore’s prescription for America, a not-for-profit universal system, only the most callous person could leave the movie without being embarrassed by and angry with the status quo.
Global warming was, quite literally, a hot topic this summer. Yes, in brazen defiance of Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts, global warming continued unabated – in fact, 2007 is slated to be the Earth’s second warmest year on record. Generally speaking, this translates into extreme weather events, glacial melting, floods, droughts and, perhaps most underreported, species extinction. Grizzlies, penguins and polar bears will all be sorely missed, but global warming has also chalked up a uniquely American casualty to the endangered species list: the baseball bat.
The sturdy wood of the white ash tree, used to create a majority of the nation’s baseball bats (including those for Major League Baseball), has been threatened by invasive beetle populations in recent years. Some scientists worry that a warmer climate will exacerbate the beetle’s invasion by creating stressed trees and a faster reproductive cycle of the beetle. This study didn’t make so much as a blip on the media’s radar, but it’s an insight into how far-reaching the climate crisis is.
And lastly, the Iraq War troop “surge” came into full-swing, but its judgment day is nigh. The Bush administration asked us to withhold criticism of the plan until Gen. Petraeus returned with his assessment, when there could appropriately be a national referendum on the surge. So over the summer, many of us stomached the spike in car bombings, the mounting U.S. casualties and the spread of sectarian violence
beyond Baghdad.
I personally bit my lip and hoped the strategy would succeed. My patience was in vain. Not only has the surge
failed to meet its most critical objectives, but, as it turns out, Petraeus’ long-awaited report will be authored by the White
House, not the general himself. Shameless.
But knowing this administration’s troubled relationship with the truth, what excuse did we have to grant them the benefit of the doubt? None. If we buy the administration’s empty rhetoric on Iraq once more, we will be complicit in the disastrous consequences this war has wrought. To borrow the president’s favorite adage: “Fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.” Well, you get the point.
Jon Adams is a junior majoring in political science. Comments and questions can be sent to him at jonadams@cc.usu.edu.