Booing Bush
by Cinderalka
At 11:35 am on inauguration day, January 20, 2009, a few friends and I held forth in sincere deliberation about a topic of urgent moral and political significance – whether or not to boo still President Bush as he was announced on the steps of the Capitol before President-elect Obama’s swearing in. Of all the joyous or mundane topics we could have been discussing, this one was taken with seriousness of purpose. We did not want to mess up our last, and in ways only, chance to express ourselves to our departing leader. Our arguments for and against were various:
Justice – I don’t need to boo him. Impeachment is now too late, but he must be tried for war crimes!
Resignation – It’s over and he’s finally leaving! He won’t hear us or care anyway. Let it go.
Nobility – It’s not in the spirit of Obama and this crowd to engage in such petty behavior. Everyone around us is calm and generous. Why should we boo and betray these nobler feelings?
Pity – Such public rejection seems cruel. I feel badly for him. He has been Cheney’s puppet for eight years.
Responsibility – But the entire planet is watching. Think of the billions who should know that we reject him. It’s our civic duty.
Validation – At this last moment, I want him to finally hear us. He has never taken us seriously, and we will be heard.
And so, a few minutes later, with a sense of civic duty and a deep need for validation, we booed the hell out of George W. Bush. As it turned out, so did almost two million others stretching back from the National Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. As the waves of rejection echoed, a familiar sports anthem superceded the booing – “Na na na na, na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye!” We tried that out for a while too.
His final image on the steps of the Capitol invoked palpable pity for a man who appeared lost and without a country. Though I booed in chorus, I was left feeling lonely and dissatisfied in my protest. It didn’t help because he doesn’t want to hear and quite possibly simply lacks the needed human skills. Booing is a dull tool, not even a tool. Not even worth it, but necessary. Why were we giving in to groupthink and the dehumanizing anger of crowds? Because amidst all the joy, hope, change, and purpose, the nation is slowly realizing that there will be a sever case of post-traumatic stress disorder to deal with now that we have freed ourselves of him.
George W. Bush is on the wrong side of history, and our dissent will not be silenced. He did not build trust but destroyed it, and of his many crimes, the worst is surely this: He took our money and spent it to kill the wrong people in our name.
So how do a people abused heal when the perpetrators of the crimes fly away unscathed, unprosecuted and unwilling to see how badly we have been beaten down? President Obama began the healing with bold words, clearly contrasting with his predecessor and restoring, at least in speech, the values we hold most dear.
“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”
False dichotomies buried and ideals restored despite the expediency of compromise. This is a good start. But the following is even better.
“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
Most commentators point to Iran, the Middle East and North Korea as the objects of those words, but in them I hear a domestic call. George W. Bush is on the wrong side of history, and our dissent will not be silenced. He did not build trust but destroyed it, and of his many crimes, the worst is surely this: He took our money and spent it to kill the wrong people in our name.
Our validation will come not from silly pranks or vengeful bloodletting, but by being given a forum where we can speak as equals and regain our power as citizens.
But charging him and his administration with war crimes, while satisfying our thirst for revenge, will not heal our wounds, but rather keep them open, sore, and susceptible to infection. The Hague is not the model we need, but rather a sunnier clime. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the real balm and the best way to quiet our powerless booing. Make Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove and Rice sit for hours and days and weeks and hear us tell our tales. Our validation will come not from silly pranks or vengeful bloodletting, but by being given a forum where we can speak as equals and regain our power as citizens. Mr. Bush, we will put away our childish things. We will extend our hand to you, if you will only unclench your fist.
Alka,
I really enjoyed reading this piece. I have to admit, I did not think of condemning Bush on Tuesday(probably for the first time ever!!!). Instead, I could not help but notice that for all his evils, he was actually happy if not blatantly relieved to be done & flying home. I feel even if one is evil, it is not easy to be hated by the masses. I dont believe it is Bush who is the evil one, I think he has been the pawn. Nonetheless, it must not be easy to stand in fornt of 2 million people & be booed. The “shoe” incidident spoke for itself!
I was truly overwhelmed by everyones hope & sentiments on Tuesday. I was really proud of ourselves as a country because we were finally showing the whole world that we are who we say we are. We are an amazing land of oppurtunities, a country where you can be whatever you want with hard work & determination. A country that can overwhelmingly elect a man whose middle name is “Hussein”!
We proved that we have choice since we have chosen hope over fear.
Looking forward to your next post.
Thanks Alka for sharing your perspective. WOW-that is very interesting that you came prepared to boo. Overall, the booing seemed a spontaneous reaction of a crowd expressing their deep-felt sentiments. I must say I could not bring myself to boo Bush at that crucial moment of his introduction although I did chime in with the “nah nah nah nah” singing that came earlier. However, when argubly millions were booing at the top of their icy lungs, I actually took pity on him. We are very complex creatures. We all possess a darker self and we all have the potential for good. When I looked at Bush, he seemed weak but most of all, I saw another human, a husband, a Dad. If he ever confronts himself and sees the truth of his misdeeds, an internal booing will be most deafening. Maybe your booing was the beginning of that therapy for him. Who knows. He will have plenty of time to think about it as President Barack Obama shows what being a true leader really looks like! Cheers!
Keep posting!
As one of the interlocutors quoted in your piece, I wanted to say, first, thank you for memorializing our experience in words and for reflecting on and expressing the deeper significance of that experience.
How beautiful that we did not simply spontaneously boo Bush, but deliberated, seriously, about the purpose, relevance and ramifications of so doing. And as one who did boo him with vim and vigor, I did so not to speak primarily to Bush, but to the World: “World, we are one with you. We have been kept silent and invisible by a leader who spoke not for us but for himself and who misled you into believing that his voice and vision was ours. World, we are you. We have emphathized with your cries and suffered with you at the ills done to you by our country. We have longed to speak, but in our silenced invisibility, we have been unable to. And in this moment, when we know you are all watching and listening, we will finally, for the first time, raise our voices in unison with yours as we climb the long, stone stairway up from the dungeon, our eyes blinking in the unfamiliar light.”
Great read.
Lets just hope however that Obama does enough to help us heal as a country, we need it in various ways.
Alka, I have an unruly ( and dialectic ) mind: Would Obama have been possible without George W. ???
cheers
W
I did not boo. I tried for a moment, but the invocation would not parse across my lips. He was a fool and fools are pitied creatures. Yet the fool can burn with his masters. It was not for him that I did not boo, but rather for ourselves, for our country, for what we have become, for a society that would put such men in power and allow their transgressions to go unaccounted. In the end it was We the People who failed and We the People who booed a scapegoat to once again absolve ourselves.
Great article, btw!