Save the enviroment, fuel frices, oil companies

The future of our world for generations to come was decided by a man who allegedly talked openly with female co-workers about watching pornographic movies that involved sex with animals and that allegedly asked Anita Hill, ‘ Who has put a pubic hair on my Coke.’  Only in America could a man rise from obscurity to overcome allegations from several women under oath and in front of Congress of gross sexual harassment to rise to become the deciding vote in the most important presidential election in the history of the United States.  Clarence Thomas is a testament to the American Dream.

I’ll never forget watching Anita Hill testify before the Congress on October 11, 1991.  I was twelve years old and remember being enthralled by every word.  As a twelve year old boy I was a true idealist not yet corrupted by the wide world around me.  I remember the emotion and sincerity in which Anita Hill testified with before the Congress and the World.  I remember thinking that there was no way someone would get up in front of the Congress and the whole world to lie about such an important matter.  I remember thinking that no one could have such an imagination to make up such allegations.  I remember thinking that she was really courageous to stand up and do what she did.  I believed that there was no way that the Congress could vote to confirm a man for the Supreme Court who had been accused of such nasty things if he did them or not. 

Clarence Thomas was confirmed to be a Justice for the Supreme Court of the United States by the Senate on October 15, 1991 by a vote of 52-48.  I think that was the first day that I realized that our system of government was flawed.  I couldn’t believe that our Great Nation had been reduced to such a disgrace.  From that moment onward I had to look at the world more carefully and question the propaganda that was being taught to me through school. 

Life after that went on.  Rodney King.  Saddam Hussein.  O.J. Simpson.  Monica Lewinsky.  Then it was the year 2000.  We all survived Y2K and it was the first time I was allowed to vote in a presidential election.  I excitedly cast my vote for Al Gore.  I remember thinking that there was no way the American people would vote for a man that obviously represented big business and big oil.  I thought that most people knew that George Bush Jr. would find any excuse to go to Iraq. 

I was extremely happy when Tom Brokaw called Florida and the 2000 Presidential Election in favor of Al Gore, the environmentalist.  Then all of a sudden the channels started saying that they had made a mistake and it was too close to call.  I was gripped with anxiety as I awaited the result.  Then the networks started calling the race and Florida in favor of George Bush Jr.  I was appalled and ashamed.  Then I started learning about hanging chads and that thousands of registered democrats in Fort Lauderdale had voted for Pat Buchanan and that thousands of voters had been turned away from the poles because they were wrongly accused of being convicted felons.  The circus that ensued made our country and system look like a joke.  Only in America could the brother of the man running for president have all the political power to choose the standards and ways that the votes would be re-counted.  Only in America, the Greatest Democracy in the World, could a man become elected President of a Democracy without winning the most votes.  Only in America would the citizenry stand by as big business and big oil stole the most influential position in the world.  Only in America would Clarence Thomas come around full circle to cast the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision to certify the Florida electoral college and the Presidency of the United States election results in favor of the son of the man that appointed him.  Only in America could George Walker Bush be elected a second time.

Clarence Thomas’s one vote has decided the future of our world and has lead to the darkest chapter in the American story to date.  I’ll concede that Clarence Thomas’s vote probably did not create 9-11.  It was probably inevitable, but if the vote had gone the other way it would have prevented the unthinkable reaction to 9-11.  President Bush and his cronies squandered the largest amount of goodwill towards a nation in the history of the world.  President Bush and his cronies used 9-11 to scare people into giving him the power to do as he wished.  President Bush used the fear from 9-11 to push his agenda of going into Iraq through the Congress and on the rest of the world.  President Bush used 9-11 to get no bid contracts for his cronies in Iraq.  No one profited more from 9-11 than Bush and big oil.  This is why George Bush and Clarence Thomas’s names should always live in infamy.  This is why you should never say one vote doesn’t count.