IF YOU PREACH "IT", MAKE SURE YOU LIVE "IT"

How long have the rhetoric been spewed that if you don't support the troops, you aren't "American" or a true "patriot"? Or if you don't support the President's policies, you're against the President and the Administration? If you are pro-choice, then you support the murder of unborn babies; if you support comprehensive sex-ed, you're a pervert...stop, please, this is getting to me.

I've always been a person who believes that my walk has to match my talk, otherwise, I'm being a hypocrite. So, you would think that if those in this Administration who were so gun-ho for attacking Iraq; drive the car that bankrupts Social Security and protects the banking industry by enabling them to take your property if you can't pay your debts, would be the first in line to have their walk match their talk, right? So, why is there a statistic that demonstrates the following about the 535 members of Congress, such as:

• Seven members being arrested for fraud
• 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
• 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses (can we include the current POTUS in this count?)
• 71 have credit so bad, they can't qualify for a credit card
• 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges.

(Statistics courtesy of Capitol Hill Blue - www.capitolhillblue.com)

Given that track record, no wonder the approval rating for Congress in only in the 30%! And it also explains the lack of enthusiasm for participating in one's civic duty of casting a vote that matters.

Yet, to watch the antics of the Bush Administration, you would be forgiven for thinking that they are walking their talk these days...only to wake up to the reality that they are perfectly willing for YOU to do that walking for them.

So, if you are as frustrated as I am, we should be asking our representatives, and pundits the following questions, without any BS:

(1) Since there are those who are supporting the war in Iraq, ask them if they are going to enlist and go fight in it? Bill Maher had it right - since you support the war, be willing to go fight it. And you will help the military meet their recruiting goals - now that's a wonderfully patriotic thing to do {snark}.

(2) Since you don't want children being left behind in public education - those of you supporting school vouchers, and whatnot, are YOU willing to send your child to that public school down the street from you, when NCLB gets through wiping out all of the public schools in the neighborhood where you live? Will you be wanting a voucher to offset the cost of sending your children to private school, even though you earn enough money to pay for it yourself?

(3) If you support affordable housing, such as public housing projects, are you willing to go and live in them? Put your money where your mouth is?

(4) Let's say you're a congressional critter and you get sick to where you have to resign your Congressional seat. You can't work for a year or more, and all that political favors money slush fund has dried up to the point you have to file bankruptcy. Are you going to part with your property when the Credit Card companies come for whatever asset they can seize in order to clear your debts with them? You HAVE to; remember, you voted for the passage of the BK bill. You just didn't know it was going to actually going to personally impact YOU, did you?
(5) The water condition is piss-poor in your tony neighborhood because of that piece of egregious legislation dealing with the environment that allowed the raising of the levels of arsenic in the drinking water. Are you going to continue drinking from the tap, or will your neighbors see the Arrowhead/Sparkeletts' Water Truck parked in front of your house, while everyone else gets sick or dies from drinking contaminated water, because you took a pay off from the Corporate hounds that pay EPA to look the other way?

(6) Will you be as willing to use the Bible as toilet paper like you allowed the military to use the Koran in the same manner? Will you scream, rant and wail - better yet, start a riot in protest, at the desecration of the Good Book?

(7) You already play the reverse version of Robin Hood - as in take from the poor and give to the rich. Soon, you will run out of poor people to take from, and in that event, will those of you who are moderately wealthy allow the mega-wealthy to take from you like you took from the poor?

(8) Suppose you get Alzheimer's or Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and you know that the potential treatment to save and improve the quality of your life lies in stem-cell research. But in order to protect the "culture of life" you are willing to stomp out stem-cells as opposed to allowing the research. Will you remember this as the doctors tell you to put things in order, because you don't have much longer on this mortal coil?

I'm addressing every political pundit, every blowhard, every bloviating "imagines themselves as the second coming of Cronkite" media journalist, but most importantly, I'm addressing every elected official sitting in the United States Congress, on the Judiciary and in the Executive Branch, who never knew what it's like to:

• go hungry,
• be broke and can't pay your debts through no fault of your own,
• get sick and can't see a doctor,
• have to drink polluted water and live in an unsustainable environment

but most of all, cheerleading for a war that we didn't need to fight, when your own record indicates you had the opportunity to serve in Vietnam and, either, your behind couldn't be found, or you created excuses such as boils on your butt, ingrown toenails, marriage, college deferment, or National Guard enlistment (where they allowed you so much freedom, you didn't even have to report!) to get out of doing your duty. If you preach it, you must be willing to live it.

So, if you support "it" be the first in line to go do IT. Otherwise, please drink your tall glass of STHU and stop bloviating, stop whining, stop pontificating and stop bothering us with your pronouncements of who's a true American Patriot and who isn't - cause you don't really know. If you did, you'd demonstrate it and you wouldn't have to toot your own horn to do so.