Why am I Still Surprised When I touch a Burning Bush

I’ve become the child who is continually told not to put his hand on the hot stove, knows it will be painful, but is still surprised when he’s scorched after touching it.

My own personal stove is the Bush administration and today I got burned again when the President vetoed the stem-cell research bill.

I knew he was going to veto it. He told me: “Don’t stand too close, gonna veto that bill today heh-heh-heh,” and still, when he did it, I was angry.

Why do I get up in the morning after the evening forecast called for snow and am mad that I have to shovel? Why am I continually upset I can’t win at three card-monte? Is there something wrong with me?

I picture our President, his eyes glassy with tears, discussing Terri Schiavo, explaining to us like we were third graders, that when it is a choice between life and death, he always sides with life. I think of the 35 people who were executed in Texas during his last year as Governor. He sides with life, except when he decides that life isn’t worth living.

But isn’t stem cell research a no-brainer (sorry, poor word choice) for someone who sides with life? The amazing discoveries in this area could help cure Parkinsons, Alzheimers, certain types of cancer, and even bring, to those told they could never walk again, the ability to do so. Is there anything more pro-life than that?

Oh, but we would have to take the stem cells from excess embryos created for invitro fertilization, and, to the Bushies, being for human life means being anti-abortion. Even though these excess embryos would be discarded, it would resemble abortion like a duck resembles an elephant. We are pro-life unless you’re alive, then you’re on your own.

So why do I keep getting angry? Because we can never stop getting angry. Each time this excuse for a President does something that harms us, even when we see it coming like a pink L-Train, we need to get angry; if we become compliant the idiots win.

If I had one wish for President W it would be that his life be extended through the stem cell research for a hundred years, so he can see those history books he is counting on don’t remember him as Give Em Hell George but remember him as the President who nearly ended America’s reign as a great and prosperous nation.

That is what I hope for, what I fear is that the history books will say that he was the President who did end America’s reign as a great and prosperous nation.