Sorry, but my lead-in is nearly as long as the essay that follows! From the "I wish I had written this category" (and indeed, I am working on my own essay, but life's intruding!), a Black America Web essay about Bush's recent remarks at the G8 summit, overheard when a local mic was still on. Weathersbee says it all: it's not an issue that he curses--hell, I'd not want my private words to be broadcast to the world either--it's the overall attitude of dismissiveness and incredibly simple-minded certainty he shows. Just tell Kofi to get on the phone and fix things with Syria?? Damn, is that all it takes to solve these little problems in the Middle East? Well boy howdy! I guess the thousands of people trying to fix the issues for thousands of years missed it with all that needless talking, diplomacy, information gathering, and listening. Just "make it happen" folks! Simple--as simple as Brownie just fixing that Katrina hiccup, or simply taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan so the co untry can become free and democratic. Simple as taking out Saddam and letting Iraq simply get on the course to Westernized government. As simple as fixing America by restricting a few freedoms and villifying a few godless groups. Simple. And all these leaders who, as Bush says "talk too damn long" need to understand what Bush has realized for years: you don't overcomplicate world problems with too much analysis. Just "make it happen". And the "I got to get home" comment? Are we surprised? The guy spends more time chopping wood in Texas than the local ranchers! One last thing that really galls me. I was mentioning to my wife how Bush's whole arrogant body language just fills the scene. Note in the video of his remarks how he's leaning over in his chair with arrogance, continually popping food into his mouth and chewing with nonchalanace. He looks like some schoolyard bully smacking on gum as he asserts himself. Or like some self-important boss pushing around his workers--not a leader discussing matters that could affect billions. The utter disregard for anything approaching considered thought displayed in that moment is way more striking than anything he said. And I hate the other visual of that scene too: how Bush is sitting down like a king on his throne, while British prime minister Tony Blair is standing up, leaning down to hear him like a supplicant at court, bending to catch his monarch's attention, or waiting to cater to his next whim. That one scene speaks volumes; indeed, you can turn the volume down completely and learn all you need to know. I often say that life is all about perspective: two people see the same thing and interpret it completely differently. And I try to respect that different perspective in others. But, how anyone can still look at and listen to this arrogant, narrow-minded, ignorant, callous buffoon and see a leader that inspires? Well, that's just beyond me, and the saddest thing is, unlike Bush, I can't just ignore problems, especially when the one problem that needs "fixin'" the most ain't going away for another two years. Date: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com With the exception of the dumbest, most naive religious conservatives, no one should have been shocked to learn that George W. Bush let loose with the S-word while in the company of other world leaders at the Group of Eight Summit this week. Everyone should, however, be scared. Not because the president said a bad word. Sure it’s uncouth, but hey, it’s all part of that beer-buddy persona that most of the white folks who put him into office saw as an endearing quality for someone looking to lead the world’s remaining superpower. Cussing is like every other fringe behavior in this country: When a white person tries it on, the fit is folksy and earthy, and when a black person tries it on, the fit is crass and foreboding. Yet Bush’s profanity shouldn’t scare people. His arrogance and nonchalance, however, should. Because what the open microphone caught on Monday as Bush was yapping and eating lunch with the likes of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladmir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao wasn’t just a president who can’t quite grasp that the etiquette rules for lunch at an international summit are quite different from those required at a Texas Rangers staff barbecue. What it caught was a man who plays perhaps the most crucial role in world stability obviously showing that the job is way over his head. Worse, it caught a man who doesn’t seem to care one way or the other. The first part of the transcript, which was published in the Washington Post, portrays how someone, probably an aide, asks Bush about whether he wants prepared closing remarks at the end of the summit. He says he’s just going to “make something up,” and that the other leaders “talk too damn long.” Let that sink in for a minute. Here’s the leader of an economic superpower -- one that pulls the strings of prosperity in countries throughout the world -- talking about ending this summit without any professional speech help. Granted, Bush may not need help, though anyone who heard him speak at the 2004 Unity Journalists of Color Convention in Washington, D.C. would be dubious about that. But Bush’s reasons for passing up prepared remarks smack as if he’s going for expediency, not impact. You’d think that being on a world stage as controversial as the G-8 Summit would compel him to not want to take a chance on messing anything up. Then there’s the part of the transcript in which he keeps saying he has to get home. “Gotta go home,” he says. “Got something to do tonight." He then begins to discuss the hours that Putin and Hu will have to endure before arriving home. Somehow, I get the feeling that going home has been at the forefront of Bush’s mind since he arrived. Remember, this is the guy who didn’t ask one question when several officials told him days before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans -- and killed and displaced thousands of its mostly-black residents -- that the city’s levee system probably wouldn’t hold. His mind was elsewhere. Then the talk turned to the Mideast crisis. Fighting between Hezbollah guerillas and Israel is poised to not only spread into a wider conflagration involving Syria and Iran and one that could claim scores of lives, but also one that could further destabilize oil prices. Yet Bush’s innovative answer is that the United Nations needs to get Syria, which has backed the guerillas, “to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s---.” “I felt like telling Kofi [Annan] to get on the phone with [Syrian president Hafez] Assad and make something happen,” Bush said. Newsflash: Dubya, this isn’t corporate America. You don’t just get on the phone and demand that someone -- especially someone who doesn’t work for you -- make something happen. On a world stage, things don’t quite work that way. As Bush should have learned from this misadventure in Iraq, the world tends to be more complex than that. Yet such bluster is what got Bush elected two years ago. He was the choice of people who were so cowed by the Sept. 11 attacks that they were willing to accept ultimatums as diplomacy and belligerence as strategy. But what that choice has yielded is a war that has claimed thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. What it has yielded are more terrorists in the Mideast, as well as escalating violence that could drive up oil prices and plunge the country and the rest of the world into a recession. And all Bush can think about is going home. Away from world leaders and world problems, and back to a place where his braggadocio and cussing still impresses some white folks at bars. The ones he won’t be having a beer with.
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