By Joan Healy
Buffalo, NY – There are days when I feel as if I have fallen through Alice’s looking glass. Or could it be that we are living in the age of doublespeak?
On Earth Day, a day to increase public awareness of environmental problems, I heard President Bush talk about the Clean Water Act and how we will all be better off because of it Then his administration proceeded to give the go ahead to allow whole mountain tops to be dumped into streams. As one might assume, when a whole mountain top is dumped into a stream, the stream is no more. I guess that’s one way to clean the water - no stream equals less water, less water equals less water to clean up, less clean up makes the job easier. So we are just to forget about what is lost when we eliminate the stream. Isn’t this fun? Anyone for tarts?
We are also told we must conserve energy. It is imperative to become less dependent on foreign oil. Who is the “we” that must conserve? Our government certainly doesn’t think that the auto industry is included in the “we.” One way to become more energy efficient would be for all Americans to drive cars that had better gas mileage. Not only do our car manufacturers seem to treat this as an impossible goal, but the cars that are advertised the most and glorified as the most prestigious are the ones with the worst gas mileage. The public is sold the idea if you want to look successful, and that seems to be uppermost in many people’s minds these days, you will drive one of these gas guzzling monsters.
Our government can’t seem to find the courage to ask auto manufacturers to make more efficient cars. The energy bill just passed in the senate left out this important component. Alas, the U.S. auto industry is not up to the task. I find it hard to believe that the auto engineers of Japan and Korea are that much smarter and advanced than the engineers that work for Ford and GM. Yet their cars offer better mileage per gallon year after year.
Could it be that everybody in Washington says one thing, but really means another? Do they mouth words when they speak to us the voters, but what they are really interested in is keeping all their large contributors happy? Is that doublespeak?
I don’t know what to call the idea that we will not condone any country that harbors terrorists? At the same time our administration proclaims this, our government funds the training of terrorists at the School of the Americas. One of the many graduates was Manuel Noriega. Not only did we train him, we later were able to attack his country and remove him from power when he became objectionable to us. That does keep us busy and it also keeps our defense contractors happy.
Oh, I forgot they did change the name on Jan. 17, 2001. It is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. We do love those impressive sounding names. Don’t we? As someone said, new name - same shame. The training remains the same but because of the name change we are supposed to forget that some of the worst human rights abusers were taught their trade at this school. Hundreds of thousands of people in Latin America lost their lives because of them. For those who don’t know, SOA , or if you prefer the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is in Fort Benning, GA.
As our administration spouts off about the horrors of terrorism, new terrorists are being trained in our own country as I speak. That has to qualify as quadruple speak.
And we the people sit back and let it happen. Maybe we all love living in wonderland. Behind the glass it’s very relaxed because we don’t have to think. We can let those in power think for us. It’s very convenient to believe all the reassuring stories we hear as our politicians tailor that talks to the group they are addressing and tell them exactly what they want to hear.
The doublespeak makes us feel that those in power really do have our interests at the top of their agendas. Never mind that most of the promises are never fulfilled. Remember you must never question their wisdom. The problem is someday the looking glass may come crashing down on us.
Commentator Joan Healy is a writer from East Aurora.