Bracing for the State of the Union

Woke up today and the bleak awareness set in that tonight there will be two or more hours of Bush idolatry on the part of our representatives
and the media (most of them, anyway) with fawning, handshakes, and
round after round of applause. The "balanced" afterview programs on tv
will range from center-right wimpy to far-right gloating. Given the very real concerns that we can have about human security, both in the US and
in all the world, the use of this address as a political spin/ad is
indeed an "expense of spirit in a waste of shame" for the country. Human
security, in a real sense, would have us DOING something about
global warming, global poisoning, global drought, global disarmament,
and at our national level, something real about education, health,
transportation, housing....The administration declared today that the
next budget will completely eliminate funding for AMTRAK, making
us completely dependent on oil-fueled car transportation and
massively subsidized air travel. Philadelphia, the city which is now running all public libraries on half-days and no weekend hours,
recently held a celebration of the public schools that had met the
standard of "adequate" progress for 2 years, as measured by
a small flotilla of standardized tests--this distinguished, historic
(and Democratic) city has 42! schools out of 220 that achieved the level
of "adequate" for two years running. Why is our commitment to the future not a security issue?

peacewoman1213