It's HOPE-less

US tributes to Bob Hope
Matt Keating
Wednesday July 30, 2003 The Guardian

Comedian Bob Hope died on Sunday, two months after celebrating his 100th birthday. Yesterday America paid its tributes. George Bush ordered all US flags on government buildings to be lowered to half-mast for the funeral, while the papers ran front-page tributes and obituaries.

I have nothing against Bob Hope. He had a looooong life, was very rich, people liked him, and he made me chuckle a few times over the years. We can only dream of living such a life.

It is ironic that we mourn one who is most famous for entertaining U.S. troops during war, at the same time soldiers are dying or wounded daily in a war no one (except rich Republicans) wants. Where are the half-mast flags for our dead and crippled young men?

We've been more or less "waiting" for Bob to die for a while now, with our obituatries and tributes and TV specials prepared probably twenty years ago. At the same time the wealthy, neoconservative, neoChristian, neo-dispassionate, ultra-right Republican tribe was waiting for the opportunity to throw our young, promising, idealistic, poor young men and women across the oceans to secure lands that are rich in resources that will benefit only the wallets of the former (don't make me repeat the description again). Now they've gotten the opportunity and are hell-bent on achieving it, consequences be damned.

So why are we mourning Bob's life when we should be mourning the utter failure of the Bush Administration to accomplish a single positive thing, for a single American who's income is less than $100,000, since the day he took office in January, 2001? WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?