Few Parting Thoughts on "W"

In less than one week, the Presidency of George W. Bush will come to an end. After eight tumultuous years, the man who came to Washington as a "uniter" will leave being one of the most despised Presidents this country has ever had. Not only did President Bush not live up to his "uniter" claims, he divided this nation more than any other person in American history. People are glad to see him go. Not only the citizens of this country, but the citizens of many countries around the world will be happy that the Presidency of George W. Bush has come to an end.

It will be argued for many years where George Bush's place in history will be. Some will say he saved this nation and kept us safe from those who would do us harm. Many though, will say that he was a complete failure as President and aided the enemies of the United States more than any other event of person could have. Personally, I say that George W. Bush nearly single-handily destroyed our country. In the eight year he has been President, he has over-seen three wars; the worst attack on American soil by an outside force; the worst economic down-turn since The Great Depression; alienated our allies and enraged our enemies.

Off the top of my head: More people are out of work today than there were when he took office. More people are without health insurance than when he took office. More schools are failing then when he took office. Our national debt is double the size it was when he took office. We went from having a $200 billion surplus to having a nearly $1.5 trillion deficit. He has ok'd the use of torture on prisoners of war. He has allowed American citizens to have their phone calls tapped and listened in on. He has taken the Constitution of The United States of America and wiped his ass with it.

When a president takes the oath of office, he swears to defend the constitution. President George W. Bush has done nothing of the sort. He and Vice President Dick Cheney have laughed at our Constitution and ridden over it in their four-wheel drives. We should have seen this coming. Back in November of 2000, after election night, then Governor George W. Bush and his legal team did everything within their power to ensure that the votes of the American People were not counted fairly. In what could be called a "bloodless" coup, George W. Bush ascended to power because of a Supreme Court ruling that should have never reached the Supreme Court in the first place. Yet, because he was friends with several of the justices, it did and this is country we are left with.

However, now is not the time to get complacent. H.L. Mencken once said, "we get the government we deserve." He is correct. We, the people of this great country, got greedy. We became couch potatoes and unsympathetic toward those other than ourselves. Instead of working to solve the worlds problems together, George W. Bush chose to try to solve the problems of this country, alone. Now, we are left to pick up the pieces.

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office next week, we expect great things from him. Yet, to many, he will fail if he does not follow through on all of his promises immediately. The mess of the last eight years will not be fixed over night. It will take a long time undo the damage that George Bush has brought upon our nation. We must be patient with our new president. We must work with him to ensure the changes we want are enacted. But, the most important thing we must do is to remember the mistakes of the past eight years and not walk down the same path again.

At the dawning of this new era in American History, let's remember what Robert Kennedy said about history: "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." We must all work together, we must all come together and if we do, the next generation of this country will be the greatest generation since The Great Depression. And we will have overcome all that has been thrown at us in these past eight years.