33%-who are they?

Ring around the rosie. Pocket full of posy. Ashes, ashes, all fall down. The meaning of this may be oblique. It just seems to me that for those Americans paying attention lately, the Bush Presidency is in such a downward spiral. I have had people say to me, when do we take to the streets to get rid of this guy? I remind them that people have taken to the streets and nothing happened. What should we do?

I think it is very important for all of us to hold Congress' feet to the fire. In order for things to improve I feel our representatives in Washington need to methodically go about legislating for the future, while at the same time investigating what went wrong. I feel the same thing needs to be done in the press. I hold the Press as culpable as our Government. If they had done their job of reporting and asking questions we would not be as far into this mess.

When a country is attacked the world gets to see what it is really made of. All countries look good when things are going well. The world has now seen America under pressure and we have been awful. They will never again give us carte blanche as the beacon of justice and democracy. Unfortunately the damage to our reputation will continue, as the full magnitude of our insanity plays out over the coming years.

We must get back to our transparent democracy. We need to get back to working hard at making the world a better place. We need to get back to a free flow of ideas based on science and good information. The good news is that we have survived so far. Without big changes we will go the way of all former world powers. We will relegate ourselves to insignificance through our own belligerent arrogance and insecurity.

George Bush and the last Congress have taken something very precious to me. I can no longer say I am proud to be an American. They must pay a price for that. We need to work hard to earn our identify back. It will be a long, humbling, embarrassing slog. Let's begin to take our medicine, make our heart felt apologies, and pay our enormous moral and financial debts. We must begin now. I hope it is not too late.