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DEMOCRACY: Government & Politics | December 10, 2004


KING GEORGE A TYRANT?

A Posting in "Comments From Left Field"

By "The Scarecrow" *

In response to my previous posting, one Fritz doth comment...

George Bush winning the Presidency does not a tyranny make. Remember: the key is a "long train of abuses", not policy proposals that we disagree with. Indeed, it wasn't George III who was the real problem, though the Declaration uses language to that effect, but the fact that the Parliment of England wouldn't recognize the Americans as having the rights of English men. The Americans wanted representation in Parliment first, independence when they realized the wouldn't get it.

To which your humble servant, The Scarecrow, doth reply...

Let us put aside for the moment the entire issue of whether or not your government is truly "representative" -- whether your George the Second was truly elected President and not simply coronated by the vote-counting machinations of his well-placed friends -- for in the England of my day, Parliament was "representative" in name only; it was not truly responsive to the needs of the many, superceded by the wants of a few -- at home, in Ireland, in America, in the West Indies, in India, and beyond.

Be that as it may, a tyrant can indeed be recognized by his "long train of abuses and usurpations", as so eloquently stated by Mister Jefferson, in your Declaration of Independence; and by that very standard, your "King George" -- whom I so entitle because, as I see it, in the cold light of reality, he has been no more elected to govern than that scoundrel in the Ukraine -- is guilty of tyranny -- not simply implementing perhaps well-meaning but misdirected policy -- and notoriously so!

As Mister Jefferson continued, "let Facts be submitted to a candid world." And when reviewing the facts I will presently submit, please ask yourselves, my friends and foes, would not any leader thus described be also, quite truly, called tyrant?

He has waged war on a sovereign nation for false and misleading reasons, in violation of International law, thus making your country a pariah amongst nations.

He has broken faith with his loyal troops, by violating the terms of their contracts of service, keeping them in arms and in harm's way in a state of involuntary servitude for indefinite periods, not prescribed by law.

He has sent forces into battle -- at a time and place of his own choosing -- without the means and materiel necessary for their well-being and survival, at the cost of hundreds of lives and thousands of limbs and eyes and minds of the best amongst you.

He destroyed a nation with no plan within the realm of reason to rebuild that nation, at the cost of untold tens of thousands of lives etcetera of a foreign and largely innocent population, whom he purports to liberate but most likely will subjugate; the government of that nation surviving at his pleasure -- semi-autonomous at best, anarchical at worst -- the natural resources of that nation raped to enrich those propping up his regime.

He has unleashed and inflamed the forces of terrorism upon this nation, that nation, and those of your allies, whom he time and again antagonizes, with hostile and deceptive acts of so-called diplomacy.

He has impoverished and will impoverish millions of his own countrymen with the enactment of laws and regulations -- and the emasculation of other laws and regulations -- that results in the enrichment of the rich and the crippling of the economy.

He has raided the national Treasury and taken funds set aside for the care and upkeep of the elderly and the infirm and once again given the proceeds to the wealthiest and most powerful amongst you.

He actively seeks to increase such burdens upon the poor and the old and the ill and all who are less powerful for generations to come.

He is indifferent to the suffering of millions who cannot afford to care for their health; indeed, he assists those powerful interests exploiting the misfortune of others.

He has allowed vast tracts of the nation's lands and forest and seashores to be laid to waste, providing a temporary increase in wealth for his powerful friends at the price of irreparable harm to the priceless heritage of the nation.

He has by law and regulation and by appointments judicial sought and all-too-often achieved reductions of protections and assistance for women and people of color and any and all other citizens whose share of power has by tradition and prejudice been less than that which is rightfully their due.

He has fostered a general and despicable climate of intolerance and outright hostility towards anyone who is in anyway "different" in the exercise of their personal -- yet harmless -- freedoms, particularly in matters religious. He seeks -- through actions that speak louder than any words he may utter to the contrary -- to tear down the wall separating Church and State.

He professes to speak for the Almighty in both small and grand affairs of State, thus truly serving neither God nor Country.

He...

I could go on, but to what purpose? If these reasons are insufficient for King George to be condemned as a tyrant, then what more can one say?

As I wrote most previously, as your Benjamin Franklin wrote originally, "a word to the wise is sufficient..." And no number of words to the unwise is ever enough.

Choose and act wisely, my friends and foes. History is littered with the ruins of nations that forgot the most essential element of governance: That which is fairest is usually the wisest.

Your obedient servant,

The Scarecrow

* My alter-ego, after the classic 18th Century character created in the early 20th Century by Russell Thorndike in his Doctor Syn novels, adapted in various films. No endorsement of my commentaries by any other individual or company exists or is implied.

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