Translation
Mysterious Stranger Brings Parable of Springtime
by Don Williams
Early morning and bells were ringing, then I realized they were ice cubes jingling in a glass.
Ben Heine / MWC NEWS
"What are you writing?" came a voice.
I wheeled around. I hadn't heard any door open, yet here stood my friend, excess flab bundled into black running shorts and a purple t-shirt that declared: "If you can read this, you're not the president."
"Hope it's something upbeat," he said, peering over my shoulder, "because I'm here to celebrate, dude." His jaw nudged aside a celery stalk and he sipped generously of red liquid. He could've used a shave.
"Where did you come from?"
"I was jogging by, and your door was unlocked. I helped myself to a Bloody Mary. Meant to grab some Gatorade but saw juice in the fridge, and you know me…."
"All too well." I swung away from my desk. "Haven't seen you in a while."
"I laid low after they fired your butt at the big paper for being so tough on Bush. Figured it was my fault. I always agitated you for tougher columns until they canned your butt—"
"They didn't can me, I quit writing for them on principle."
"Whatever. Anyhow in your last column there, you quoted me, of all people, predicting WWIII if Congress didn't cut off funds, remember?"
"Yes, you thought I'd been too optimistic in one of my earlier columns about how 2007 would play out."
"Yeah, well, I'm here to take it back, dude. Mea friggin' culpa. I've had a revelation, a vision you could say, but I swear it's true, happened less than an hour ago."
"Do tell."
"All right, listen up. I'm out jogging in the bloomin' countryside when I round this bend and what do I see? There's a newborn calf in a ditch. You've never seen such a little calf. Black as leftover night. I look around, wondering where's Mama, and I hear this big moo. I look up, and standing not 70 feet away on this steep hillside, is the cow what dropped the calf. That baby's entered the world, plop, rolled down the hill, underneath the fence, and there she lays. In the ditch, not a mark on her. Eyes wide open. And I'm thinking, wow, she's gonna be all right. She'll figure out how to stand up, then climb out of that ditch. What an amazing thing. A new, um, sentient being opening her eyes just in time to get tumbled downhill, all dizzy, not knowing her head from her butt, only to hit bottom and look around. Then, get this, she starts trying to climb out of the ditch. Well, she gets a little help from the owner, an old white-bearded man who rolls by in a rusty old Chevy pickup, gets out and lifts her up under the forelegs and heaves her into the truck bed. He smiles real friendly at his prize, thanks me for nothing, says, 'Its such as this that gives me hope,' and we share a laugh or two, then I'm off jogging down the road again."
"Great story," I say. "That really happened?"
"Scout's honor. So I come in sight of your house, and that sets me thinking on how they fired your butt for saying—"
"For the last time, I quit."
"--too much bad stuff about Bush, and that gets me thinking how blind we've been, because the media was afraid to talk about certain stuff because our Republican Congress wouldn't look into anything and the Demos wouldn't stand up to them for fear the Bushites would call them names. And I'm thinking how this country's been rolling downhill fast for years and how we won't have a clue which way is up until we hit bottom." He takes another sip. "But then I'm thinking maybe we've done hit bottom, and we're all waking up to find ourselves in a ditch, but at least we ain't blind, right? We're being reborn."
I looked at my old friend, his eyes wide with wonder, and didn't say a word.
"At first I was skeptical. I figured it was the endorphins kicking in as I jogged down the road. Then I started adding it all up and realized, hey, there's reason to celebrate." He slurped loudly, licked his lower lip.
"What do you mean?"
"Look-it. You've got a mainstream can-do, American businessman, Lee Iacocca, saying we should all be screaming bloody murder for what Bush has done to our country, about the same time Dennis Kucinich introduces a bill to impeach Cheney."
"That'll never fly."
"Congress sets a timetable for leaving Iraq."
"Nor that."
"Don't interrupt. That Waxman dude holds hearings into the big lies about Pat Tillman, you know, the football hero shot dead in Afghanistan? Turns out you were right. One of his own men shot him. And Jessica Lynch testified in Congress how the military turned her into a pawn, makin' her out to be some kinda hero for getting banged around and busted up in that convoy in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Supremes rule that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gasses, speaking of which, big business and lots of states ain't waiting on the Shrub any longer. They're coming up with their own plans against global warming. Maybe it helped that Al Gore's movie won them Oscars. And now it looks like Bomplex 2030, that stinker of a plan to build new nukes like it was still the Cold War—is losing support in Congress--"
"Too little too late," I interjected.
"Wrong, dude. We're at a tipping point, like ole Gore says. The tide's turning on all fronts. Donald Rumsfeld's long gone at Defense, George Tenet at CIA, Scooter Libby from Cheney's office. Alberto Gonzales is about to get fired at Justice, ditto Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. They're gonna make Condoleezza Rice explain how those 16 little words about Saddam's so-called nuke program got into Bush's State of the Union Address in 03. Last month Bill Moyers comes on PBS and points out how Billy Kristol and George Will and Judith Miller and Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer and Thomas Friedman and people like that parroted phony stories that got us into war. Moyers was asking the same thing I've heard you ask: What the heck are these talking heads still doing on TV, as if they had a clue? Among Bush's foreign supporters, Tony Blair's stepping down in England, and it looks like Olmert's on the outs in Israel. And get this: more people are looking into whether Bush stole Ohio in the last election. So what's not to celebrate?"
"Well…"
"Say what you will about the Democrats, but we'd still be rolling downhill, all dizzy and clueless if they hadn't won back Congress. Now people are telling the truth. Not all the truth, sure, but some of it, and that's opening doors to more of it. Like it says in the Bible, them with ears to hear, uh, let 'em see."
I laughed. "Close enough for a bloody Mary morning. Give me a sip of that." Hints of celery and Texas Pete went down good. "Still," I said, blinking back tears, "it's a long ways from having your eyes opened, to standing up and taking back your birthright."
"Hush dude. Save the downers for another day. Let's celebrate."
And so we did.
Translation
A Parable of Springtime (short version)
Listen up. I'm out jogging in the blooming countryside when I round this bend and what do I see? There's a newborn calf in a ditch. You've never seen such a little calf. Black as leftover night. I look around, wondering where's Mama, and I hear this big moo. I look up, and standing not 70 feet away on this steep hillside, is the cow that dropped the calf. That baby's entered the world, plop, rolled down the hill, underneath the fence, and there she lies. In the ditch, not a mark on her. Eyes wide open. And I'm thinking, hey, she's going to be all right. She'll figure out how to stand up, then climb out of that ditch. What an amazing thing. A new, um, sentient being, opening her eyes just in time to get tumbled downhill, all dizzy, not knowing her head from her butt, only to hit bottom and look around.
Ben Heine / MWC NEWS
Then, get this. She starts trying to climb out of the ditch. Well, she gets a little help from the owner, an old white-bearded man who rolls by in a rusty old Chevy pickup, gets out and lifts her up under the forelegs and heaves her into the truck bed easy as pie. He smiles real friendly at his prize, thanks me for nothing, says, "Its such as this that gives me hope." We share a laugh or two, he drives off, I wave to big Mama, standing there in the woods, then I'm off jogging down the road again.
When my house swims into view, I turn my mind to the column I've got to write this morning, and that gets me to thinking on how blind we've all been. And I'm thinking about how many folks in media have been afraid to talk about certain issues because Congress wouldn't look into anything when the Republicans controlled it. And how the Democrats used to not stand up to them from fear of being called unpatriotic.
And I'm thinking how this country's been rolling downhill fast for years, and how we won't have a clue which way is up until we hit bottom. But then I'm thinking maybe we've already hit bottom, and we're all waking up to find ourselves in a ditch, but at least we aren't blind, right? In a sense we're being reborn.
As I jog past the azaleas and a big yellow iris that survived the late frost, I begin to count all the reasons we have to celebrate. We're waking up! Signs are everywhere.
Rep. Henry Waxman holds hearings into the big lies about Pat Tillman, the football hero shot dead in Afghanistan by one or more fellow soldiers. And Jessica Lynch testifies how the military and media tried making her out to be some kind of Davy Crockett hero for getting banged around and busted up in that convoy in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court rules that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gasses, speaking of which, big business and lots of states are not waiting on the Bush administration any longer. They're coming up with their own plans against global warming. Maybe it helped that Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" won Oscars. Now it looks like Complex 2030, that stinker of a plan to build new nukes—is losing support in Congress. Meanwhile, Dennis Kucinich introduces a bill to impeach Cheney. It'll never fly, most likely, but at least it gins up the historical record and puts Congress on the spot.
Congress sets a timetable for leaving Iraq, adding pressure to leave the genocidal conflict there in a war the country no longer supports.
We're at a tipping point, like Gore says. The tide's turning on all fronts. Donald Rumsfeld is long since gone at Defense. George Tenet at CIA. Scooter Libby at Cheney's office. Alberto Gonzales is about to get fired at Justice, ditto Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. Condoleezza Rice is likely going to be calling on Congress soon to explain how those 16 little words about Saddam's so-called nuke program got into Bush's State of the Union Address in 2003. Among Bush's foreign supporters, Tony Blair's stepping down in England, and it looks like Olmert could follow soon in Israel.
Last month Bill Moyers comes on PBS and points out how Billy Kristol, George Will, Judith Miller, Richard Perle, Charles Krauthammer, Thomas Friedman and people like that parroted phony stories that got us into war. Moyers is asking the same thing I've asked: What the heck are these talking heads still doing on TV, as if they had a clue?
And get this: responsible people are looking into whether Bush stole Ohio in the last election? So what's not to celebrate?
Say what you will about the Democrats, but we'd still be rolling downhill, dizzy and clueless if they hadn't won back Congress. Now people are telling the truth. Not all the truth, sure, but some of it, and that's opening doors to more of it. Admittedly, it's a long ways from having your eyes opened, to standing up and taking charge of your own survival, but I'll save such news is for another day.
Let's celebrate the rebirth going on around us.
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Don Williams a contributing editor at MWC is a widely published columnist, short story writer, and the founding editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings, an annual literary anthology... 
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Even though there is a long, long way to go, perhaps we\'ve reached the TIPPING POINT - and now not just America, but the whole world can start seriously concentrating on the acutely threatening problems facing the world without the OBFUSCATION of Bush-ite lies, hysteria, propaganda, bigotry, racism, warmongering, human rights abuse, civil rights abuse, terrorism, violence and mass murder.
Dr John Holdren, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)has recently identified Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change and Global Poverty as the acute threats to humanity (see:
http://www.energybulletin.net/26210.html ).
Indeed next Semester, further to the Biochemistry I\'ve been teaching to university students for 3 dozen years, I\'ll be doing my bit by offering a Science-based course in Melbourne, Australia entitled \"Nuclear, Greenhouse and Poverty Threats\".
Competent people make the world a safer place by Rational Risk Management (e.g. it\'s what makes aviation so safe) that successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) systemic change to minimize risk.
Unfortunately, under Bush the US (and the world) has been treated to (a) lies, censorship, intimidation, and slies (spin-based untruth) (b) anti-science spin involving selective use of asserted facts to back up partisan positions , and (c) utterly counter-productive \"blame and shame\" - racism, bigotry, democratic tyrannny, warmongering and violence e.g. the Bush War on Terror (in horrible reality a War on Asian, Arab, Muslim and non-European Women and Children) that has been associated with excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories that total (so far) 1 million and 2.4 million, respectively (mostly Women and Children and due to egregious Anglo-American war crimes) and an accrual cost to the US taxpayer of $2.5 trillion (according to 2002 Economics Nobel Laureate US Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia,and Professor Linda Bilmes, Harvard).
Treason and other partisan rubbish undermines not only the safety of American military personnel abroad, but also that of our civilians here at home.
A huge body of expert Americans (and now it appears most Americans as well) regard the Iraq War as a huge mistake - it has cost about 3,350 US lives, wounded 25,000, damaged hundreds of thousand s more veterans and left an accrual "bill" of $25 trillion that could have been used to keep Americans and American kids ALIVE.
From UNICEF data one readily see that the US (the richest country in the world) does NOT have the lowest infant mortality (US annual under-5 infant death rate is the same as that in Cuba with an annual per capita income one fortieth of that of America). It is estimated that warped, war and killing priorities of the Bush Administration has cost the lives of 120,000 under-5 American infants over the last 6 years.
Further, WHO and UNODC data clearly show that the Bush Administration restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry (from near nothing in 2001 under the Taliban to now 90% of world production under US occupation) kills about 100,000 people annually and has killed about 0.5 million globally post-invasion - 50,000 of the victims being AMERICANS.
American support for Racist Zionism and Apartheid Israel (a foreign, dangrously-armed foreign county that perverts American politics and spies on America) has cost the US taxpayer about $2.6 trillion since 1956.
I repeat, Treason means supporting actions in the interests of a foreign power against the interests of your own country.
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