2006 Issues

Welcome to 2006 Issues, Opinions and Essays

By Roy D. Follendore III

2005 brought much to consider and write about. You might call it a new 'reawakening of liberal values' in America.

Much of the news in 2005 had to do with the continued war in a enforced 'democratic' Iraq. Our President was just beginning to be forced to come to terms with the fact that war is not a solution to anything. Our soldiers continued to 'sacrifice' themselves to improvised explosive devices and snipers for pointless reasons and the Iraqi people continued to blow themselves up in protest. Our young men and women come back home as 'heros' in aluminum containers to be buried after being draped under American flags and some electronic device playing taps .

Hopefully this means that more Moms and Dads are beginning to think twice about sacrificing their living children to George W. Bush concepts of a compassionate conservative democracy.

In 2005, the use of torture, kidnapping, imprisonment, wholesale violations privacy and other vicious violations of our Constitution by the Federal Government slowly became an important and regular news theme. We can expect more of that in 2006.

In the mean time, Global warming, which according to the President does not exist produced record hurricanes which pretty much put the city of New Orleans under water. Americans quickly found out what President Bush already knew; that our National Guard was incompetent and worn out and otherwise unable to handle the flooding and rescue problem, and most of their equipment of course was left in Iraq. We witnessed the fact that yet another personal friend of the President, the head of FEMA, was dramatically presented to the public as incompetent and the preparation, organization, support and rebuilding efforts of New Orleans a horrible continuing nightmare.

In 2005, as prices went sky high and the government continued to acclaim the job market is doing great because so many people have fallen off of the statistics, the Supreme Court was being stuffed with right wing thinkers, the polls began to show that more Americans were finally coming out of their perfect 'conservative' bubble.

As far as most of us can see, 2005 also didn't seem to produce much really new music or culture, except perhaps the continuation and creation of several new cable TV series.

Of course there continues to be so much that needs to be said.

Regards,

Roy D. Follendore III

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