Bush Needs a "Good Whoopin' "

You know, it's amazing to read the news every day and to read about detainees being tortured (sometimes American citizens), Iraqis being raped and murdered in cold blood (both by their own countrymen and ours), and our soldiers suffering humiliation and some of the poorest medical care in the world. All that, and you're not even counting the daily reports of the carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the inscrutable divides within our own country's borders, be they ethnic, religious, political, social, or economic.

Some things may always exist. In some country somewhere in the world, a violent dictator may be oppressing his people who only want the basic freedoms every man, woman, and child is entitled to. Here in our own country, racial tensions have existed for the entire span of our nation's life, and they will be here for many years to come, if they truly ever cease. Our very founding occurred in part because of the persecution of religious groups in Europe, which also gave rise to our system of laws and our basic values of equality, which naturally have not always been equal.

For a time, however, our nation was united. It was united by many things, really; a strong and stable economy which more than just the top 1% of the nation shared; a strong sense of national identity that grew with fading hatreds and new alliances. Perhaps most of all, we were united in the horror of a single sunny morning in the symbolic cities of America.

In less than six years though, this has all changed. Perhaps more than at any time in our nation's history, we are divided in so many ways. So many sides have laid claim to sections of America, each one claiming "with me or against me" and leaving no middle ground, no room for compromise, and we have all been pulled down into the mire because of it. One of the most polarizing figures in this entire mess is no less than our 'President,' George W. Bush, the one man who should take it in his charge to ensure that we are all together as one voice and people. Instead, he too has famously said that "you're either with us or against us." He is a divider, despite his claims.

In our darkest hours as a nation, the good will of the American people and the will of the world towards our country was abused and squandered. In the eyes of the world, America stands tarnished and alone. I am forced to wonder, can our nation ever recover from some of the darkest eight years it has ever faced, indeed, that any nation has ever faced?