"HAVE
YOU NO DECENCY, SIR? AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU LEFT NO SENSE
OF DECENCY?"
In the dangerous
1950's, Senator Joseph McCarthy incited a reign of terror
that sent dozens of good American citizens to prison as
a result of his rampant and arbitrary unmasking of "Communists"
he thought were everywhere, including at the helm of the
Army. The tide was turned when Army Counsel Joseph Welch,
responding to McCarthy's reckless attack on one of the
young attorneys in Welch's firm, asked McCarthy, in soft,
saddened tones: "Have you no decency, sir? At long
last, have you left no sense of decency?"
That
eloquent phrase resonated and helped to end McCarthy's
reign of terror.
Another
tyrant, George W. Bush, reigns unchecked. He lied the
country into an unlawful war that has resulted in the
deaths of two thousand American soldiers, enduring tragedy
for their families, the slaughter of thousands of Iraqis,
the maiming of even more thousands. While such devastation
mounts each day, amid explosions and ambushes and bombings,
the man responsible awards himself numerous vacations
in his guarded ranch in Texas.
When
reporters asked him how he found time for biking, fishing
and napping when he had no time meet with Cindy Sheehan,
the protesting mother of a soldier slain in Iraq, Bush
answered: "I've got a life to live, and will do so."
He sleeps, he says, soundly.
Words
similar to Joseph Welch's would ring out today if someone
of equal honor and bravery and position would finally
speak them out about George W. Bush:
"Have
you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense
of decency?"
Then
it is possible that one more courageous word would follow
that would end George W. Bush's immoral and illegal incumbency:
"Impeach!"
John
Rechy
August 2005
Los Angeles, California

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Original material by John Rechy appears
frequently on these pages.
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