It’s getting more and more difficult to celebrate the year’s end. What exactly are those loons who run around at midnight on New Year’s Eve so ecstatic about? Do we seem to be making major progress from 2006 to ’07?
Think of it. The horrid war in Iraq drags on, no matter how much we know in our gut this thing is lost. As the year wraps up, the president wants to send more troops into the quagmire. Mr. Bush’s legacy rests on avoiding catastrophe in Iraq during his last two years in office. Let the next president withdraw the troops and, when Iraq collapses, blame him (or her) for not having the stomach to see it through.
The Democrats are boxed into a corner. They know this war is a loser, but don’t want to be blamed for pulling the plug. So here’s the cynical strategy already playing out: We send 20 to 30,000 more troops into the chaos. When that doesn’t work, blame the Iraqis. We gave them their chance, but they didn’t take it. We leave with our heads held high and let the Sunnis, Shias and Kurds fight it out. Will you swallow the myth both parties have invested in? Or will you finally realize that, in the end, Iraq has always been about us and not the Iraqis?
At year’s end, the Religious Right is up in arms again. It’s had six years of Bush in the White House, but that’s not enough of a theocracy. It feels used and abused. Well, I feel dazed and confused. The openly lesbian daughter of the vice president is pregnant, and somehow it’s all about the Religious Right. Her very visibility is an open rebuke to its push to suppress gay rights. How could she do this? Here is where much of Christendom fails the compassion test. Mary Cheney wants what most of her detractors take for granted, yet they want a monopoly on sanctified marriage and parenthood. But virtually no medical expert believes humans choose whether to be gay or straight. Many homosexuals will say privately they’d have to be nuts to choose a lifestyle that ensures discrimination. The Religious Right has invested all of its moral stature denying this obvious fact. Once you admit being gay is not a lifestyle choice, the entire argument for denying gay partners the same rights as others falls apart both intellectually and morally.
In Pennsylvania, we head into ’07 pinning hopes on gambling revenues to forestall cuts in services we crave. I have less interest than the average person in gambling so I make these comments with all due humility. I have nothing against it per se, so long as it doesn’t take food off the table, but it seems when government depends on people gambling to support its budgetary requirements we are making a deal with the devil.
The slot machines at the two new casinos, which will fund healthcare or schools or whatever good the State needs to do, will be patronized mostly by those who can least afford to gamble. In that sense, slots are the most regressive taxation of all. But there is virtually no constituency anymore for raising taxes, no matter how necessary, no matter what the cause. So we make our deal with the devil and hope for the best.
The best fight in town at year’s end was between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell, two of the more annoying public personalities to whom we are subjected on an almost-daily basis. Both are tossing verbal insults; each finding the other an inviting target. O’Donnell takes umbrage at the man described by The New York Times as our era’s P.T. Barnum and Diamond Jim Brady for being the one to give poor Miss USA a second chance. Well, the thing is, he did give her a second chance, so he’s not a hypocrite, as O’Donnell charges.
Much as I hate to admit, Trump is a bright guy with interesting opinions. O’Donnell’s might not always be on the money, but she has single-handedly made "The View" not just another vanilla woman’s show. So, as unappealing as they are, both enliven public debate and I’ll tolerate anything as long as I am not bored.
Last, but not least, with Allen Iverson no longer in town, who will Ed Snider, Billy King and Larry Brown blame? They’ve blown their cover for two journeymen and a couple of draft picks. Seeing the triumvirate exposed might be worth saying farewell to this little warrior, who could teach all three a lesson about heart.
Happy 2007!
