Dear Friend and Reader,
ITSВ ALMOST OVER. President George W. Bush said goodbye to the nation tonight on national television. InВ five days, Barack Obama will take the oath of office as the nation’s first African AmericanВ President of the US.В ItsВ a dream come true.В Finally a President who is aВ realВ and bright personВ who adores and treasures hisВ beautiful family, who listens and wants to help, who asks questions and actually speaks to us as people.
After eight years ofВ our country married to Bush,В I feel like a new bride hours before the wedding ceremony, ready to start again, dressed beautifully in myВ white gown and gloves. ButВ I’m alsoВ holding the veil and retching in the bathroom. After that last bad marriage, I’m having a panic attack.
A submerged rageВ now resides in me after two Bush terms, a rageВ similar to thatВ of a wife who has survivedВ serious physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her husband. Under Bush, our government dismantled laws guaranteeing civil rights and the Bill of Rights. The Constitution? Just another piece of paper. We tortured peopleВ В from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo. We engaged in a non-provoked, pre-emptive war in Iraq.В Our treasury wasВ looted by Administration cronies. War profiteers and weapons consultants held reign in the nation’s capital. It’s going to take a long time to fix the mess we’re in. В If you believedВ America turned into a Banana Republic under Bush’s watch, you were right.