Mustard Seeds for the Soul
Last night was a frightening night to be an American who doesn’t see the world through the same M21 sniper scope that George W. Bush does. The prophetic undercurrents of manifest destiny, empire building, and privatized hypodermic-crazed health care were all just polite ornamentation on a foreign and domestic agenda that punishes those who don’t live in fear of the rapidly growing holy war.

I poured myself an extra strong drink and made a break for the television early. I was surprised to find Reverend Billy Graham soaking the prime-time NBC airwaves with his usual shtick. The show was at some stadium in Oklahoma. It was just the last five minutes of the program and things seemed to be wrapping up. Billy was requesting people to come up to the stage and embrace Jesus Christ. The last few moments were long angle shots of the masses filing onto the floor. Everyone swaying to the creepy empty organ music being broadcast over the stadium PA. And then just like that, a brief roll credits, and then fade out. Fade back in and it’s George W. Bush walking into the House Chamber with soft spoken Tom Brokaw commentary. The whole transition was enough to send an icicle shiver down my spine. That did not just happen. Then, and I’m wondering here if I was the only one who saw and heard this (it could very well be as I was still in a Billy Graham hypnotic trance), Bush picked up a cute African-American girl in the audience and gave here a quick hug. As he was handing the child back to her father, someone near to the president and the microphone gave a low guttural laugh and said “Oh Man, that’s the shot of the night”.

Trance broken!

So, that’s how it’s going to be?!?! Shallow on-camera action. This is better than reality television. Time for another drink.

And so the president talked. Shots of the audience included people who were; bored, asleep, confused, uncomfortable, hostile, scornful, distrustful, and in Donald Rumsfeld’s case, very happy.

The president’s ambitious plan for improving relations around the Arab world and “cutting the barriers of hateful propaganda” by creating “a new television service” that will “begin providing reliable news and information across the region”, made me very excited that Rupert Murdoch was going to get a chance to expand his FOX NEWS monopoly into the households of those confused and ‘unbalanced’ Arabs. What the hell? Are you telling me Mr. President that my tax dollars are going to fight your ‘objective’ stance that the Arab news channels aren’t filming Americans with the right lighting and correct aperture? Are you sure images of Paris Hilton on the boob tube will sway your enemies over to a more modern capitalist mindset. I’m not convinced.

As the President’s speech wound up I felt things had come full circle. It was back to Billy Graham time and the higher power rhetoric that commands our nations leader to torture and kill. I was reminded of the time when Bush said “Reverend Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul.” That mustard seed has now turned rotten. Thankfully, I’m a ketchup man myself and I’ve always hated mustard.