I was all set to write an article referencing "The Wizard of Oz" saying "Ding, Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead" when Osama bin Laden was killed by our Navy Seals on May 1st, but HuffPost blogger Tom Engelhardt beat me to it ("Osama bin Laden's Legacy: It's Time to Stop Celebrating and Go Back to Kansas"). Unfortunately, as much as we would like to click our heels and return to Kansas and the land of "E Pluribus Unum" and the peace and prosperity of the 1990s, it is impossible to undo the last lost decade that began with the 9/11/01 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the United States masterminded by bin Laden.
It's as if we were sucked into a black hole of fear, hatred, debt, and greed. Instead of Communists being under every bed, it was Muslims. We waged two endless costly wars, sanctioned torture, and spied on average American citizens. We gave tax breaks to the rich; expanded corporate welfare; allowed Wall Street greed to run rampant; relaxed regulations on banks, mortgage lenders, and oil companies (leading to the BP oil disaster); eased environmental demands on corporations; and started a whole new, huge, expensive, bureaucratic department called Homeland Security. We turned a 2000 balanced budget with a $230 billion surplus into a $1.4 trillion deficit in 2010.
In the 1995 film "The American President", President Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas) makes a speech where he lays out his re-election platform. His two biggest themes are environmental protection and gun control. I know it is only a movie, but often art imitates life. These issues are not even on the radar for politicians today. Most Republicans are against both initiatives and most Democrats are too spineless to promote them because 9/11 changed all of that.
I believe these topics should be vital today. The issue of gun control came back with a vengeance after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the recent 2011 Tucson (AZ) shootings where Representative Gabrielle Giffords was severely wounded. But even common sense solutions such as better background checks to prevent insane persons from obtaining hand guns of mass destruction and the banning of multiple magazine clips were thwarted by the NRA, hunters, and gun lovers. We worry about al Qadea but forget that we have domestic terrorists (like Timothy McVeigh of Oklahoma City infamy) that can very easily purchase weapons that can do massive damage. Until we bring some sanity back into this conversation, how really safe are we?
As for the environment, it is an issue that will never go away until we treat Mother Nature with the respect she deserves. When lawmakers debate the current budget they say everything is on the table. But they lie. Everything is but defense and entitlements. However, there is one agency that all agree should never be touched and that is FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Americans should be bailed out when nature strikes.
But did you know that in the last decade we have tripled FEMA spending from $3.4 billion in 2000 to $10.1 billion in 2011? We have experienced record hurricanes, tornadoes, mud slides, wildfires, flooding, blizzards and globally witnessed devastating earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis in just this past year alone. Many scientists and climatologists have blamed climate change for these weather disasters, a phenomenon we have been conveniently ignoring for the past 10 years. I will never forget the statement Ted Turner made in 2002 regarding the 2000 election: "We could have had the best environmental president (Al Gore) we ever had. Now we've got an oil man. He (President Bush) is another Julius Ceasar ." We will never know how Gore may have handled 9/11, but I believe he would have done much more to move the country toward green energy and keep environmental protections in place. But I guess that is all water over the dam (literally.)
Whether the melting polar caps and rising seas are due to man- made CO2 emissions or not, wouldn't it be better for Mother Earth and for all of us if we cleaned up our act and worked globally to save ourselves from air and water pollution? Some in the GOP keep pointing out that we can't afford to go green because it is too expensive. I say we can't afford not to. How can these fiscal conservatives complain about leaving our grandchildren a mountain of debt without acknowledging the unhealthy environmental mess we are leaving behind?
OK, so we got bin Laden. Let's all celebrate and then move on or back to the pertinent problems that face us nationally and globally. Let's be good stewards of the Earth as well as fiscally responsible citizens. Let's allow what worked in the past to guide us in the future. Jobs, unemployment, a fair tax system, the deficit, guns, and the environment: these issues are all connected as are we Americans (after all, our national motto "E pluribus unum" means "out of many, one"). Maybe we can finally leave Oz and return to the land of liberty, equality, and justice for all. Otherwise, future generations will be paying for our sins for years to come.
