Dirty Little Secret

According to a 2007 study by the Pew Foundation, only 69% of Americans can identify the Vice-President. Of course, that’s more than can identify the Speaker of the House or that we have a trade deficit. No wonder this administration has been able to run rampant over the Constitution, the budget and the world - no one is paying attention.

I wonder what percentage of illegal aliens knows who the veep is. I wonder what percentage of terrorists knows. And I wonder why I’m so surprised.

I have always been proud to be an American, even when I disagreed with my government. But now I’m not so sure. It’s not all the dishonesty in the Bush Administration that hurts me so much as the public’s lack of reaction to it. People show up in droves to ban gay marriage but they don’t care that we went to war under false pretenses. Everyone talks about the 2008 election as if it matters more than what is happening to our country right this minute.

I look at my children and I wonder if I really want them to be Americans of the 21st century - knowledgeable about reality tv but not reality, demanding sexual morality but not truth, consuming without a conscience. People care more about American Idol than they do about the war in Iraq.

There’s a difference between a positive outlook and a delusional one. There’s a difference between not letting the terrorists ruin our daily lives and never wondering why they hate us in the first place (of course, certain Evangelical preachers have that answer - it’s the gays! Never mind that Iraq is still a quagmire even after most states have banned gay marriage).