In A State Of Disarray

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Special Issue – Jan. 2010

IN A STATE OF DISARRAY
(we’re still looking for a Mr. Goodbar fix)

A President’s – State of the Union – address to Congress is usually anticipated with great expectations. Whatever our nation’s condition of the moment, everyone expects his speech to show us how to improve upon, or fix, what may be either good or ailing about it.

In recent times, however, it has become an annual exercise in futility whereby the political warfare between our two major political parties is fully displayed for all to see. That is, as the mouthpiece for whichever party is in power, a President simply presents a long litany of agendas and supposed accomplishments while pointedly castigating their political opponents for lack of…bi-partisanship…in support of these.

President Obama’s performance this past Wednesday was just more of the same; although, from a purely stylistic perspective, he did it with his characteristic flair for rhetorical flourishes well-larded with evangelical ministry flavorings, as if he were exhorting a stubbornly obtuse congregation unable to understand the righteousness of those agendas, all accompanied by the Democrats’ side of the chamber providing manic choruses of – hallelujas – to his every other phrase, which their Speaker punctuated, with leaping up and down movements of a multi-orgasmic lap dancer. A grand production having not so much a political tone, as one of attending a revival meeting in church!

Meanwhile, on the Republican side of this assembly, only stony silence prevailed, contributing nothing to the occasion, until later, when they were called upon to give their usual post-mortem “response”. One of the strangest yet seen because, intentionally or not, it was a carbon copy parody of the Democrat performance, complete with the same kind of a clownish cheering chorus for every one of their presenter’s rebuttals on the issues mentioned. A performance resembling Saturday Night Live….on steroids. Such is our American bi-polar political world today. Is it any wonder that in such a state of disarray, we taxpaying voters are still looking for a Mr. Goodbar fix?

Well, perhaps this bit of Native American wry humor sums up the situation best:

A tribal Chief gathers his people together saying – fellow tribesmen, I have bad news and good news for you about the results of our recent hunting season. First the bad news….it’s been a lousy hunting season and we have very little buffalo meat to see us through the coming winter, and we’ll have to therefore rely on – buffalo chips – to help us through it -. Stunned, his people are silent, until one of them asks – So, Chief, what’s the good news? – Spreading his arms wide, with his face lit up with a great big smile, the Chief replies – We’ve got a whole lot….of those! -.

CENTURION