Cher, Abe & Bush

If we love America, we have to pray for America. Before the president and the neocons trade our community chest for a handful of hate and we finally truly go the way of Rome.

We used to have leaders who would meet the coffins at Andrews AFB, and meet with the families of the dead. Remember Bill Clinton crying in the hanger at Andrews? And lest you think it's a partisan issue, remember Lincoln ministering to the nation's grief at Gettysburg?

"The father grieves for his son, and will not leave the room
where the coffin stands."
--Bly

Throughout the course of human life, it has been a common duty of substantive leadership to lead the people in mourning, and we as a nation have always wept together. Anyone who has seen the Vietnam Memorial wall knows this is true. We are supposed to be led to take "increased devotion" and "highly resolve that (the) dead shall not have died in vain."

Cher is right, and it illuminates the reality that his nation is not being led as the community of people that we thought we were. George W. Bush will not meet the coffins at the airport. He is cynical and drunk with power, obsessed with a vain and illusory victory. He cares little for the price paid by those who bear the duty, and he will not hug their grieving families. His minions have outlawed photos of the arrivals of our dead. It is beyond his poor power to consecrate or comfort, to add or detract. I doubt it's in his heart to even try.

"Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind."
--Crane