Monday, January 03, 2005
Phoning It In
When I hear all of the talk about sending aid to the tsunami victims, I must admit, I'm at a loss when it comes to knowing how much we should send. Sure, our initial offering of $15 million was pathetic at best, but I don't really know how much is appropriate. While I don't think it wise to engage in any kind of bidding war with other nations, I really can't say too much about the amount of funding we should be giving.
That being said, I think it is an embarassment to our country that George W. Bush wasn't even willing to cut his vacation short to address the situation. Now I know that he says that he can be just as effective from his "ranch" in Crawford, but the impression that this sends to other countries is: "We don't give a shit! Who the hell cares if 150,000 innocent people have died as a result of this. It didn't affect us and I've got brush to move."
Our global image is already at an all-time low. We don't need the rest of the world seeing us as insensitive to human suffering on top of it. How would we have reacted if on 9/11 the other world leaders just phoned in their condolences? Naturally, we'd have been pissed. But here we are eight days after the fact and George Bush is just now spending his first full day in the White House after his vacation.
As a nation we have to do better and like it or not George W. Bush is the face of this nation to the rest of the world. It would be nice if he at least acted as though he cares. Hell, he's been lying to us for the last four years, you would think he could lie to the rest of the world for a few days to save face. I guess that's too much to ask.
That being said, I think it is an embarassment to our country that George W. Bush wasn't even willing to cut his vacation short to address the situation. Now I know that he says that he can be just as effective from his "ranch" in Crawford, but the impression that this sends to other countries is: "We don't give a shit! Who the hell cares if 150,000 innocent people have died as a result of this. It didn't affect us and I've got brush to move."
Our global image is already at an all-time low. We don't need the rest of the world seeing us as insensitive to human suffering on top of it. How would we have reacted if on 9/11 the other world leaders just phoned in their condolences? Naturally, we'd have been pissed. But here we are eight days after the fact and George Bush is just now spending his first full day in the White House after his vacation.
As a nation we have to do better and like it or not George W. Bush is the face of this nation to the rest of the world. It would be nice if he at least acted as though he cares. Hell, he's been lying to us for the last four years, you would think he could lie to the rest of the world for a few days to save face. I guess that's too much to ask.
