How I Became a “Good” Republican
by John Womack
Is America still the land of opportunity? Yes it is! Here I am, a local boy without a party to call my own - but I still made good, and you can do it too! Maybe. Here is how I did it.
When Elizabeth Dole became Senator for our state, I called to talk with her. Like many important women she was hard to get. She didn’t answer the phone and neither did anyone else there. Finally, after about the third or fourth try I got some young staffers to answer. They didn’t seem to know what I was talking about though, and they said they didn’t know how Senator Dole felt about those issues either. I asked them to relay my messages to her and have her write and tell me what she was doing about those things. But I never heard from her.
I persisted in the calls; I e-mailed her too, even wrote some long-handed letters and mailed them to her. I told her I was her constituent and it was her duty to talk with me. Finally I did begin to get replies.
They were all identical. They said: “Thank you for contacting me. I appreciate your input and will consider carefully what you have said. If that issue ever comes to the Senate floor I will take your thoughts into consideration.”
Well! What I had been calling her about, and which she said she would keep in mind IF it ever came to the Senate floor, was the Iraq war, the prisons there and in Guantanamo, the U.S. economy, taxes, conservation, social security, and the “patriot” act, to name only a few. I knew all of those had been to the Senate floor, but I guess she had missed them. I knew she was new on the job, but anybody could do better that that!
So I called her staff now - not her - but her people. I told them they weren’t telling her what I had told them to pass along. I accused them of shielding her from her constituents. I emphasized that I didn’t want her to just blindly support Bush, I wanted congress to assert itself, not to just stumble along following his misguided and incompetent lead. And I wanted her to write and tell me what she thought about all of this.
Finally I began to get a new series of letters. These were each different in wording but they all had the same message: “Thanks for your support, we are helping the President” or “we’re all working together” or “we support President Bush in every way.” They went on: “President Bush is our leader, we support him all the way.” Finally they changed to the viewpoint that “President Bush is our Commander-In-Chief, and we are all behind him!” And they all thanked me for supporting our Commander-in-Chief too.
I couldn’t believe that - I was incensed. I wrote her back and told her that Bush might be the commander-in-chief of the military, but not of the U.S. Senate! I told her he was not the commander-in-chief of of the government, and certainly not the entire country!
I should have stopped there, but couldn’t. I told her the war in Iraq was wrong! I told her to bring our troops home now! I said that Social Security must be saved, to hell with privatization! I called for Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo to close now, pointing out that we are creating dungeons for captured U.S. troops far into the future. I told her that Bush is a loser, that he will be become known as the leader of the gang that couldn’t talk straight, the myopic idiot of American politics, the archetype of those who cannot see and never could see and never even wanted to see; the Mr. Magoo of the Oval Office. The man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and when he lost it again and again and again, it was shoved up into a different part of his anatomy! Where he couldn’t find it! With both hands!
I figured that would get her attention. I hiked down our quarter-mile long gravel driveway to the hard road where our mail box stands on a post. I put the letter in and raised the red flag. I hiked back home.
Then I wondered if I had gone too far. Could I get into trouble?
I decided to rethink the issue for a day or two and tone down the language so I went back down to the mail box to get it back out. But the mailman had come and gone. The hard road runs in an isolated part of the country. It comes around a sharp turn to our mail box then goes over a steep hill and that’s it. It was quiet and I had spoken my piece.
I wondered what the future would bring.
About five days later I got a very large brown envelope out of my mailbox. It was from Senator Dole. I was stunned. It’s a subpoena! I thought – I’ll have to go to Washington! Or is it a warrant for my arrest? Don’t they send those things to the sheriff? With a pounding heart and trembling hands, I tore the wrapping open and pulled out a very serious-looking document with a presidential seal on the top of it. It was a declaration.
“Be it known to all who bear witness, that the
Chair, by virtue of the authority
invested in the Executive Director of the
Republican Task Force, confers this warrant
of Platinum Membership to
JOHN H. WOMACK
A Republican Leader in the Franklin community and
steadfast supporter of President George W. Bush.”
It went on:
“Whereas, John H. Womack, is known to represent the
highest Republican ideals and principles; we have,
therefore, affixed the grand seal of the Republican
Presidential Task Force and affixed our names in
confirmation.”
It was signed by Senator Elizabeth Dole, chair, and Mark Stephens, Executive Director.
I screamed “Not ME!” My first thought was to burn it. “What if anybody sees this thing?” I clutched it under my shirt and looked around. The road was deserted. I’ll be ruined! OOOUGH!, I had made her mad, and she got me good!
I wondered if I could sue. I even thought about calling my attorney but he’s a republican. He would be envious. He would want me to get one for him. Accompanying literature pointed out that less than 1% of “good Republicans” would ever earn this award, and if I sent them $120 I would receive another "special honor".
Then, I thought I’ll pay the lousy $120 they want. I will become a full-fledged “Republican of Honor”. Then I can attend their meetings and scream them down, or maybe just sow some seeds of doubt. I can even accompany the President when he comes to visit Franklin or Otto or Nantahala.
I’ll send it back! I can tell them that I had been a republican but “I saw the light.” Or I can be real cool about it and tell them the recipient has “been moved”, and is no longer a Republican. I can get a stamp made, and stamp the envelope: “RECIPIENT EVOLVED”.
Maybe I can send THEM a bill for $120 – hey – why not add a couple of zeros to that figure – they might pay it! Money is different to these guys!
Then again, I can save the document secretly. Put it in a double envelope and hide it in my safe deposit box. If I ever do get subpoenaed, I can pull this thing out and slam it on the exhibit table in a dramatic swoop and stun all of Washington with “proof” that I was an undercover agent for the Republican High Command!
Finally I figured it’s just too much for me. I will have to sleep on it and see what comes out of all this tomorrow.
So, I have a political party again now – wasn’t the one I wanted, but life is often like that. I recall a wise man once told me “be careful of what you hate, you may draw it to you”.
©John Womack, 2005, All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
The Nature of War
The Nature of War
More and more people are beginning to question whether the war in Iraq should continue. It seems to have developed problems peculiar to Iraq. Some people say the administration conducted it poorly. But maybe the real problem lies in the very nature of war itself. Maybe war always turns bad, and perhaps the reason this happens is because war just doesn’t work.
Military force may well be necessary for defense. And it does seem true that the best defense is a strong offense. Yet there also seems to be some invisible threshold beyond which wars begin to assume a life of their own and are no longer under the control of those who started them.
Wars develop a “patriotic sacredness” and become a nation’s holy mission. The nation must “stay the course,” even if that course has not yet been found. War grows to dominate whole economies, it makes religion avert its pious eyes, it drives politics, reshapes nations and totally destroys its own environment (which is really the economic base of the world).
War glorifies killing, it honors the wasting of innocent children. War encourages surreptitious torture, as long as it can be kept secret, and it too often turns its own citizens against each other. Maybe the real problem with war is not just the war we happen to be in at the moment, but the very nature of war itself.
War is uneven in its seizure and redistribution of a nation’s resources. It authorizes, even “requires” suspension of certain rights, regulations and laws. War always rewards a few already powerful people in certain industries and it punishes the nation’s poorest citizens who must fight in the war because they need a little money or education or any way at all to get out of the mess into which they were born. Too often they return after their duty to the same place they left, but now they are injured, sometimes damaged deeply in their souls. Too often they are abandoned after a patriotic pat on the back and a small pitch of money. Too many veterans soon find their way into the prisons they had gone to war to avoid, or they wander the streets, hiding from authorities.
War generates blame. It blames its leaders who always are proven to be wrong about important points that led into the war. War always blames the “intelligence” which was always wrong. Often it seems that intelligence was “wrong on purpose” such as the Gulf of Tonkin “attack”, or the Iraqi WMD. War makes a nation blame its allies who always fail to provide adequate support or who want too much in recompense for that support. One's native country becomes “friends” with strange nations, and it offends many of its old friends. It even blames the enemies who never fight “fairly”, especially after you invade their country and destroy their women and children and their homeland. Sometimes they provide “unwarranted” insurrection and even call for terrorists to come help them fight the invad So maybe the real problem with the war in Iraq is not really Iraq, perhaps not even the administration, maybe it is the very nature of war itself.
Can we do anything? Of course we can. I have some ideas, and so do you, but the purpose of this letter is simply to frame the following proposition: That war in its very nature is evil, it cannot bring forth good results and it will always corrupt all that it encounters - therefore we must solve our problems in another way.
John Womack
More and more people are beginning to question whether the war in Iraq should continue. It seems to have developed problems peculiar to Iraq. Some people say the administration conducted it poorly. But maybe the real problem lies in the very nature of war itself. Maybe war always turns bad, and perhaps the reason this happens is because war just doesn’t work.
Military force may well be necessary for defense. And it does seem true that the best defense is a strong offense. Yet there also seems to be some invisible threshold beyond which wars begin to assume a life of their own and are no longer under the control of those who started them.
Wars develop a “patriotic sacredness” and become a nation’s holy mission. The nation must “stay the course,” even if that course has not yet been found. War grows to dominate whole economies, it makes religion avert its pious eyes, it drives politics, reshapes nations and totally destroys its own environment (which is really the economic base of the world).
War glorifies killing, it honors the wasting of innocent children. War encourages surreptitious torture, as long as it can be kept secret, and it too often turns its own citizens against each other. Maybe the real problem with war is not just the war we happen to be in at the moment, but the very nature of war itself.
War is uneven in its seizure and redistribution of a nation’s resources. It authorizes, even “requires” suspension of certain rights, regulations and laws. War always rewards a few already powerful people in certain industries and it punishes the nation’s poorest citizens who must fight in the war because they need a little money or education or any way at all to get out of the mess into which they were born. Too often they return after their duty to the same place they left, but now they are injured, sometimes damaged deeply in their souls. Too often they are abandoned after a patriotic pat on the back and a small pitch of money. Too many veterans soon find their way into the prisons they had gone to war to avoid, or they wander the streets, hiding from authorities.
War generates blame. It blames its leaders who always are proven to be wrong about important points that led into the war. War always blames the “intelligence” which was always wrong. Often it seems that intelligence was “wrong on purpose” such as the Gulf of Tonkin “attack”, or the Iraqi WMD. War makes a nation blame its allies who always fail to provide adequate support or who want too much in recompense for that support. One's native country becomes “friends” with strange nations, and it offends many of its old friends. It even blames the enemies who never fight “fairly”, especially after you invade their country and destroy their women and children and their homeland. Sometimes they provide “unwarranted” insurrection and even call for terrorists to come help them fight the invad So maybe the real problem with the war in Iraq is not really Iraq, perhaps not even the administration, maybe it is the very nature of war itself.
Can we do anything? Of course we can. I have some ideas, and so do you, but the purpose of this letter is simply to frame the following proposition: That war in its very nature is evil, it cannot bring forth good results and it will always corrupt all that it encounters - therefore we must solve our problems in another way.
John Womack
Friday, November 11, 2005
Letter to Congressman Taylor
Congressman Taylor (rep from the district I live in) wrote an article in the Franklin Press about how we should all not question President Bush, but back and support him and praising him for doing such a good job during the hurricane. Then he went on to write about how much of a problem immigration was, and how we all certainly could agree that we certainly needed a fence across the southern US - and certainly this and certainly that. Also he praised the "minuteman" thing that is patrolling the border between US and Mexico, and now Canada. At the bottom, the letter had a place where people could cut out the article and sign it and mail it to him so he could forward it to the White House. I tried to ignore the letter - and did - for a day. Then I wrote a response. I sent it to the paper and also printed it out and actually mailed it in an old-fashioned envelope and stamp to the congressman.
A Letter to Congressman Taylor
This is a reply to your letter to President Bush, published in the Franklin Press, November 8, 2005.
You began by thanking President Bush for his “leadership in handling the recent hurricane relief”. Could you please explain for me what he did that you admired, so I will know what I missed? Which actions of his would you be likely to do yourself if a great natural disaster struck western North Carolina?
Would you remain on vacation for two more days? Would you then fly to another state to raise money for them? Would you fly “low” over the area before returning to Washington to get back to work?
If the local authorities request federal help, would you return their request and just tell them the form was filled out improperly, try it again?
Would you herd the low-income residents who could not get out of the damaged area to the Western Carolina University auditorium say, and keep them there, surrounded with state troopers, so they could not leave? Would you appoint someone who had been associated with horse racing, but never worked in disaster relief - but who was a friend of a friend of yours - to direct the entire operation?
Please let me know which leadership or management traits of President Bush you admire so much? What part of his planning did you admire? The keeping of 30% of the Louisiana National Guard troops in Iraq for such a long time? It was 18 months counting their 5 month training program. Was it the diversion of probably 80% of money approved for levee repair at New Orleans to Iraq? The firing, in 2002, of the Army Corps chief Parker for trying to build a flood control pump in the river?
What was it about the president’s organizing skills that impressed you? Seems to me that there was an amazing inability for almost everyone to communicate with anyone else. Same as in New York on September 11, 2001. Way back in Vietnam we had airborne communication aircraft that would orbit above the battlefield. Those planes carried electronic equipment which enabled all agencies below to talk with each other. The aircraft were there 24/7, year after year, and one aircraft would cover a diameter of almost 400 miles. That’s ancient technology now, what would you want to do if western North Carolina agencies couldn’t communicate during a disaster? Would you do nothing, like the president did? Maybe Swain or Macon county, or Robbinsville could hire one of these airplanes to do this work. Would that make more sense?
Was it his staffing brilliance that you would copy? Have you studied the art of “Croneyship” thoroughly? Have you practiced by appointing enough incompetent friends to work for you in your own office? You probably liked the part when he said “Good job, Brownie - you’re doing a heck of a job”. Did you feel that you could have earned such praise?
You mention the president showed “sensitivity” to the needs of the people in the region. Yes, we saw some of that, particularly when he was talking about Trent Lott’s old porch that used to be on the beach.
Then your letter shifted to suggest a “plan” for protecting the nation’s borders. Your repeated use of the word “certain” was certainly remarkable. That certainly seemed to imply that the nation was certainly united about the issue, and the only hope was to erect a certain “cactus curtain” across the Mexico-US border. Did I miss the national discussion that certainly must have preceded your decision? Where did you study border control? I don’t recall any suggestions for problems this wall might create, or its cost of upkeep, or which companies would make a lot of money from building and maintaining all that, or even any analysis of other alternatives.
As far as the “Minuteman” operation is concerned, don’t you think that it really seems to cry out for a certain type of leadership? Like that already available through Halliburton, Titan, Blackwater and other private police/military organizations, all run by administration leaders like Cheney and Woolsey, and who have already earned their battle stripes in places like Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and perhaps other places in eastern Europe or the middle East? That would also be another step toward “privatization”, and you always say that government is THE problem. It would be also another step toward blurring the distinctions between lynch mob and authority, “company private” and classified material, and between profit and responsibility.
And speaking of responsibility, you say that the president’s leadership should not be questioned. That seems a proper stance for a servant toward his master, or of a baron toward his king. But Benjamin Franklin suggested that the proper role for a free citizen toward his or her elected officials should be one of constant monitoring and continual questioning.
Although it is not included in the constitution, the right to make mistakes is certainly a God-given right, but IF “mistakes” become “made on purpose”, or with “intent to deceive”, or for the purpose of private gain, then we are not talking about error, we are talking about treason. And the only sure guard against treason by elected officials in high places is the citizen who questions those officials. This is the heart and soul of good citizenship, and that citizen who holds his and her officials responsible, and who questions their actions every minute is the true Minuteman.
Respectfully - and watchfully,
John Womack
A Letter to Congressman Taylor
This is a reply to your letter to President Bush, published in the Franklin Press, November 8, 2005.
You began by thanking President Bush for his “leadership in handling the recent hurricane relief”. Could you please explain for me what he did that you admired, so I will know what I missed? Which actions of his would you be likely to do yourself if a great natural disaster struck western North Carolina?
Would you remain on vacation for two more days? Would you then fly to another state to raise money for them? Would you fly “low” over the area before returning to Washington to get back to work?
If the local authorities request federal help, would you return their request and just tell them the form was filled out improperly, try it again?
Would you herd the low-income residents who could not get out of the damaged area to the Western Carolina University auditorium say, and keep them there, surrounded with state troopers, so they could not leave? Would you appoint someone who had been associated with horse racing, but never worked in disaster relief - but who was a friend of a friend of yours - to direct the entire operation?
Please let me know which leadership or management traits of President Bush you admire so much? What part of his planning did you admire? The keeping of 30% of the Louisiana National Guard troops in Iraq for such a long time? It was 18 months counting their 5 month training program. Was it the diversion of probably 80% of money approved for levee repair at New Orleans to Iraq? The firing, in 2002, of the Army Corps chief Parker for trying to build a flood control pump in the river?
What was it about the president’s organizing skills that impressed you? Seems to me that there was an amazing inability for almost everyone to communicate with anyone else. Same as in New York on September 11, 2001. Way back in Vietnam we had airborne communication aircraft that would orbit above the battlefield. Those planes carried electronic equipment which enabled all agencies below to talk with each other. The aircraft were there 24/7, year after year, and one aircraft would cover a diameter of almost 400 miles. That’s ancient technology now, what would you want to do if western North Carolina agencies couldn’t communicate during a disaster? Would you do nothing, like the president did? Maybe Swain or Macon county, or Robbinsville could hire one of these airplanes to do this work. Would that make more sense?
Was it his staffing brilliance that you would copy? Have you studied the art of “Croneyship” thoroughly? Have you practiced by appointing enough incompetent friends to work for you in your own office? You probably liked the part when he said “Good job, Brownie - you’re doing a heck of a job”. Did you feel that you could have earned such praise?
You mention the president showed “sensitivity” to the needs of the people in the region. Yes, we saw some of that, particularly when he was talking about Trent Lott’s old porch that used to be on the beach.
Then your letter shifted to suggest a “plan” for protecting the nation’s borders. Your repeated use of the word “certain” was certainly remarkable. That certainly seemed to imply that the nation was certainly united about the issue, and the only hope was to erect a certain “cactus curtain” across the Mexico-US border. Did I miss the national discussion that certainly must have preceded your decision? Where did you study border control? I don’t recall any suggestions for problems this wall might create, or its cost of upkeep, or which companies would make a lot of money from building and maintaining all that, or even any analysis of other alternatives.
As far as the “Minuteman” operation is concerned, don’t you think that it really seems to cry out for a certain type of leadership? Like that already available through Halliburton, Titan, Blackwater and other private police/military organizations, all run by administration leaders like Cheney and Woolsey, and who have already earned their battle stripes in places like Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and perhaps other places in eastern Europe or the middle East? That would also be another step toward “privatization”, and you always say that government is THE problem. It would be also another step toward blurring the distinctions between lynch mob and authority, “company private” and classified material, and between profit and responsibility.
And speaking of responsibility, you say that the president’s leadership should not be questioned. That seems a proper stance for a servant toward his master, or of a baron toward his king. But Benjamin Franklin suggested that the proper role for a free citizen toward his or her elected officials should be one of constant monitoring and continual questioning.
Although it is not included in the constitution, the right to make mistakes is certainly a God-given right, but IF “mistakes” become “made on purpose”, or with “intent to deceive”, or for the purpose of private gain, then we are not talking about error, we are talking about treason. And the only sure guard against treason by elected officials in high places is the citizen who questions those officials. This is the heart and soul of good citizenship, and that citizen who holds his and her officials responsible, and who questions their actions every minute is the true Minuteman.
Respectfully - and watchfully,
John Womack
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