Financial Meltdown

My husband Dick and I have lived through many incredible experiences: the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the assassination of Robert Kennedy, riots over racism and desegregation, the Viet Nam War, the Kent State shootings of Viet Nam war protesters, The Ohio State University war protests with police and tear gas, our own personal experiences of serious health problems for both of us, a presidential election that was decided by the Supreme Court, then 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, then the decision of the President of the United States to allow torture of prisoners and government wiretaping of American citizens. During the Abu Graib scandal President Bush said that these were just a few bad apples. What a lie! He was the one who authorized torture of prisoners. He refused to follow the Geneva Conventions. He refused to honor many of the treaties made by former presidents. He antagonized all of our allies, most of whom were sympathetic regarding our problems of 9/11. He chose to misinterpret the intelligence reports and insisted on invading Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction there, but there was plenty of oil, and that was really what President Bush wanted. During the invasion of Iraq Bush sent guards only to the oil ministry. In spite of requests that he protect the hospitals, schools, and the museum he ignored these areas. They were all destroyed. He even refused to guard weapons depots. Many weapons were seized by terrorists.

Alan Greenspan wrote in his recent book that he told Bush and Cheny that they needed to get control of the oil in Iraq. Obviously Bush took this advice to heart. Bush refuses to leave Iraq because the Iraqis have not yet signed over full control of the oil to America. Presidential candidate John McCain says that he will not leave Iraq, because he has to "win the war." He is dedicated to war, having been a military person all his life. His father and his grandfather were admirals. McCain has to prove himself even higher than the admirals. Bush had to prove himself higher than his father. We have to beware of these men who are trying to prove themselves. They have too many hang-ups to be good presidents.

George Bush did not believe in regulations of any sort. He appointed people to the EPA who were willing to avoid regulating polluters for the protection of the environment. He recently proudly stated that he was the world's greatest polluter. He did not believe in regulating wall street. He believed in the free market and he let them do whatever they wanted. Their creative accounting and creative marketing have destroyed the entire economy. That doesn't really bother Bush. He had the goal of spending all the money so that he could "starve the beast" as the conservatives put it. Government is too big and the only way to lessen its control is to spend all the money and starve it so that none of the social programs which are anathema to the Republicans can be continued. Bush has more that achieved his goal. He has bankrupted the government. I'm sure he is very proud of himself. He is going to set up his presidential library and hire scholars to prove that he was a great president. At least we can all agree that he will go down in history. He should have been impeached long ago.

So now we all wonder where we will land financially. We are extremely fortunate in not having a mortgage on our home. We are not sure what bank to use. My 401k plan (diversified) has taken a big hit. Dick watches the tv business channels 24 hours a day. He recently learned that one can follow the stock markets around the world over the 24 hour period in order to keep up with everything. My sister varies between the business reports and the election campaign and is almost in a state of collapse. We talk on the phone to express our horror to each other. I am horrified that after years of work for women's rights, I may live to see the first woman president of the United States and she will be a Republican radical flake.

My parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents on both sides of the family have always been republicans. I was born a republican. The republican party used to support the environment and fiscal responsibility. President Lincoln was a whig; that was the precursor of the republican party. The republicans were the party of Lincoln. They freed the slaves. But in the 1960's that all changed. President Lyndon Johnson managed to get the civil rights legislation passed. The angry southern democrats became republicans and the party began to change. Eventually the liberal and moderate republicans became democrats. Then the neo-conservatives and the radical right wing took over the republican party. That was when Dick and I became democrats. It's a hard job to keep on top of everything in this world. We are getting burned out. I think most Americans are getting burned out. America has lasted over 200 years. That may be as long as it can last. I have heard many people say that they think it is all over. While President Bush was promoting democracy abroad he was destroying democracy at home. It may be impossible to restore it. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put (it) together again.