Mulling over John Edwards` "Silence is betrayal." [View All]

[democrank]

"Silence is betrayal."

Those words today hit me like a ton of bricks today. All of a sudden I came to understand exactly what it was that I`ve been feeling as soldiers died and politicians regurgitated their talking points. While hooded men were flown off to torture chambers and search warrants were deemed unnecessary. While lies about WMDs were followed by lies about "We`re winning."

I thought about how media starlets gushed over Tom Cruise while death visited Darfur. How families stuffed in hurricane campers lost out to the winner of American Idol and how the hole still at Ground Zero became less important than a spat between Donald and Rosie. And, I thought about all those soldiers going to Iraq for the second, third or fourth tour while some politicians complained about the increase to their former two-day work week.

Through all this there was a whole lot of silence. It hurt my ears. Bothered me. There was brief chatter about the theory of unitary executive and Bush`s abuse of signing statements. A word here or there about our obscene national debt or the use of White Phosphorus in Fallujah, but mostly there was silence. Apparently many politicians were busy consulting with their handlers, putting their wet fingers to the wind and searching for a path toward the middle ground, that safe haven so loved by consultants.

Edwards` stark words were as welcome as a cool drink after laboring in the fields all day or having my windshield washed after the salt truck passed. I treasured those words as much as finding that lost something I can`t live without. He reminded me that it is perfectly normal to expect chosen leaders to scream "FIRE" when there is one rather than make a secret call to ask if they should say anything. Those words today made something perfectly clear to me....I will never again support a candidate who is so busy calculating that he/she has no time for speaking the truth.