I'm just going to say it. People disgust me sometimes. People in our culture, our "pop" or common culture; however one might phrase it. Usually, I endeavor to ignore idiots and search instead for the beauty and good in people, in the world, in everyday. Sometimes it is extremely difficult to find the good; sometimes it isn't hard at all. When I worked in the so-called service industries, I learned very quickly that although it can be crushingly painstaking to find good people, to focus on the beauty and light of each day ... it is also quite frequently the only thing that keeps me going. My own perspective, my own thoughts and my most personal relationships and exchanges can sometimes get in the way; that is when we are our own worst enemies. Because if my dark mood prevents me from seeing a child or a kind word or a miracle as anything less than what it is, I have lose everything. Just my thoughts.
I'm sure everyone in the U.S. remembers the footage of shoes being hurled by an angry member of the press at then-President Bush a little over a year ago, while Bush was visiting the Middle East. Many of us laughed or expressed shock or even rage about the video. I had to admit the guy's athletic reflexes were in top form. But I recall conversations I had with my dad and others around that time ... None of us could believe that the Secret Service -- once imagined by many to be this clandestine, superiorly-trained, BEST, BIGGEST security agency in the world -- did not step in. From the fair amount of information that I have read and learned about the President's most-relied-upon agents, a flying shoe should never even enter our President's field of vision!! The moment that guy even thought, even considered thinking about, throwing his shoes at the President of the United States of America, eight or ten agents should have been on his ass. But they weren't. One shoe: President swats it and takes it down like a fly. Two shoe: President has ducked already. A seemingly-full, 60-seconds-long, moment occurs ... now the Secret Service approaches the offender, who is already being subdued by members of his own community. WHAT is wrong with this picture?
If the President didn't have something to say about his security agency right then, if heads didn't roll and re-training wasn't embarked upon, then I am shocked. Even if Bush 2.0 is the most self-centered, common-joe type of guy that ever held the office, I would think that his sense of self-preservation (not to mention pride, fear, etc.) would dictate that measures be taken to ensure his future safety. What if those shoes had been guns? Knives? Grenades? Home-made bombs? If I were him, I'd be saying What the Fuck.
I don't know what, if anything, was done to remedy that situation, which really looked like a failure to me. My friends and I went on to discuss other topics, Bush went on doing whatever he did for the remainder of his days in the Oval Office, and apparently, the Secret Service continued its swift decline in functioning. Has anyone ever watched that video from the John Kerry campaign, when a college student was forcibly removed from the room where Kerry was speaking? You might recall it as the "Don't Taze Me, Bro!" video. It's always on the internet and on those OMG! tv shows about viral video. Some big hulk of a "student activist" was basically just being obnoxious and asking too many questions and taking up everyone's time with his verbosity. Before he could even get going really, about 5 Secret Service agents were upon him, physically dragging his ass out of the room and away from Senator Kerry. And yes, when they got him a safe distance away from the candidate, they tasered him when he refused to pick up his own feet.
Well, I'm not here to debate the politics of Kerry vs. Bush vs. whoever. And I'm not here to determine whether that particular tazing (sp?) was in line with standard operating procedures for those who protect our government. What I am saying is ... A college student asks a few too many questions, gets a little out-of-hand verbally, and they physically remove him and taze him for good measure too. But NOW, yes, now-a-days, a couple can sweet-talk God-knows-how-many of our formidable agents and get right in next to our top FIVE in line for the Presidency? Have dinner with them? Cozy photos?
I began writing this post, because it was that couple ... you all know by now who THAT couple is, I am assuming ... who had disgusted me first. I won't name them here, because they are idiots. Asinine, self-obsessed jerk-offs. And they disgust me. But, as so often happens, when a blog post forces its way out of me, this one has taken a different turn. While the Idiots disgust me, the Secret Service really and truly disappoints me. I couldn't be more disappointed if the guy in charge was my own son.
I will take the fame whores of our culture to task later. For now, let's uproot this security agency and investigate what is going on there. If I were a government official, I'd be watching my back.
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