Bill Moyers on the World's Hope for America
By Heather Saturday Nov 29, 2008 10:00am
After taking a couple weeks off and having some time to travel abroad, Bill Moyers leaves his viewers with some of his thoughts on the world's hopes and expectations for America.
We were abroad these past two weeks trying to cleanse our journalistic pipes, so to speak. We thought we could put American politics out of sight and out of mind for a spell. We were wrong.
Everywhere we went people wanted to talk about America. The Greeks, Sicilians, Sardinians, Tunisians, Algerians, and Spaniards we met, were euphoric - cab drivers, guides, waiters, hotel clerks, bank tellers. They expect miracles from America. Their own economies are imploding: layoffs, budget shortfalls, failing banks, fear spreading among the populace. They want to believe that somehow the long arm of America will pull them back. I tried but I didn't have the heart to tell them just how much trouble their rich Uncle Sam is in.
Maybe I was wrong not to dispel their illusions about America; after all, they live on top of the ruins of long-gone empires, whose rise and fall is a far more familiar and consistent theme of history than democracy's success. I did my best, to say that America is trying very hard right now to put our own house in order.
That self-correcting faculty, even in the darkest hours, is the best thing we have going for us. That and the knowledge that nothing we face in the months ahead is more than was asked of our parents and grand parents in war and depression.
This giant of a country is bleeding badly from savage self inflicted wounds, but what happens next is still our story to write. We can be thankful for that.
That's it for the JOURNAL. See you next week, I'm Bill Moyers.
You can watch Bill Moyers Journal on line including all of the show's archives at his site here.
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Saw this last night and certainly agree. Thanks to the self centered cowboy mentality of the Buscovite junta, our leadership role in the world has been crippled and compromised by their do what I say not what I do message. It will take some time for other centered people to rebuild with the Neocons tore down, but rebuild we will.
As Bill says it spot-on, "savage self inflicted wounds". Not Bush, not neocons, not Wallstreet. We have no one to thank and blame but ourselves.
Oh wow! I just had Thanksgiving with friends of my wife's family the other day. They went on a cruise for their anniversary. On the cruise ship was none other than Bill Moyers. We watched slides of the trip and there he was with his wife. We looked at the CD slide show that apparently all of the passengers get of their trip. It was fascinating seeing the ancient architecture of Greece and Tunisia and, well, all the places mentioned above. Funny coincidence.
Yeah, we are in huge trouble and the people who caused it? So what? Impeachment is still off the table. Makes me sick to know the people who caused this mess, caused terrible suffering for the families of military families and Iraq and Afghanistan families will walk away free. No retribution. No worries.
It's not much...but money doesn't buy happiness...the inner self is where it is found.
If we, the people, remind them over and over and over and over again of their shame and how they put us here in this moment in time; then we have taken their power and happiness and made them realize in their hearts what they have done to this land, the world, and the future of our children around the world.
We must hound them with the truth until their last days and well beyond so that the history books that this jerk off is so sure will vendicate him will tell the TRUTH!
We are the GREATEST....Number ONE!
EXCEPT now, that is...Now you're on your own...
But it is great to know that when we collapse, we've still got enough weight in the world to pull everything down on top of us...
Izzis a gret cunchry, er wat...
Being old makes it easier to see things people seem to think others got away isn't always right. America didn't learn from Nixon scandal and with the students of Nixon now grown their doing much worse to this country. Yes some might think Bush/Cheney and Team will get away with this crime but things has changed as we saw in the electoral vote of 365 for Obama/Biden. Nixon hurt the American people and the Law Makers did nothing. Bush/Cheney have hurt the American people and the World. Look for countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Turkey and others to start a case of War Crimes. Look when Obama releases these people back to their homes in the tortured conditions their in pictures, criminal charges and law suits will be flying out. Yes Bush can pardon everyone in the US for crimes but not overseas. We were shocked to see Abu Grab photo's we haven't seen anything yet like the conditions of the men/children held now in Gitmo. The US will have to face the fact our President allowed innocent men/woman/children to be tortured/raped/murdered. It would cost the US so much money to bring all the criminals to Justice, but the United Nations will do it all. Even Daddy Bush can't get his son out of this one. Cheney hasn't stolen enough money to pay his way out. Rummy is hosed. Yoo will wish he never met Bush/Cheney. Rice will claim she's black. Powell will be the soldier he is and face the music for the lying and crimes he played a part in. The CIA agents/FBI agents will knnow the fear Valerie Plame lives everyday as the White House Leaked heer name. Remember Satan will give you what you want the problem is what you have to pay in return.
n/t
All the other countries in the world can get together and hold Bushco accountable and even get convictions, etc., etc.
but if we don't do something ourselves to hold these people accountable then we are still complicit in Bushco's crimes.
We need to lead the world by charging these criminals first and then we can hand them over to an international court for trial. that will show the whole world that we are working to make things right again (maybe right isn't the best choice of word in this case...but you know what I mean.)
What the neocons and trolls et al still do not realize is that America is far more loved by the world than hated...
and those that do hate...may just have an argument worth listening to.
Conservatism was the cause of the damage. Liberalism will be the cure. Go Obama!
Woody I noticed how all the Republicans used God while campaigning. Even Bush used God in 2000 saying He wanted him to be President. The Religious base was the foundation of the votes and Bush let the Church have an office in the White House. Now for 8 years it was all about God. Rev. Huck used God and a fake floating cross to push for votes. Sarah even used God for her campaign. Now when pay back comes from the Evil committed it's not about Satan? Republicans used Americans faith to draw them in and this is the results. Lessons aren't learned if you don't pay attention or read and think for yourself. People of faith see that in the end we pay for our actions. People with no faith, don't read, or think for themselves only have n/t as a response.
I am a proud athiest and I see that we pay for our actions here on earth. the choices we make dictate the lives we lead. The heaven that the faithful are looking for is supposed to be hear on earth, but we as a society have a hard time taking care of each other, even when it's someone coming home from fighting for our way of life, as a society we are glad to let these people fall through the cracks too.
I say we pay for our actions here and now as a people.
Cheney may never suffer a day in his life due to the choices he has made but we can end a little suffering that he has caused by bring to light his crimes.
I also belive we can't fix the problem if we don't know what it is, we need to hold trials for all these criminals so we can find out exactly what was done.
Karmic payback is a bitch, ain't it?
And who can blame her?
"This giant of a country is bleeding badly from savage self inflicted wounds." More self-referential, self-reverential navel-gazing and hand-wringing, Americo-centric babble from a pseudo-intellectual.
Any decent therapist would tell you that it's important to stop talking about yourself in such pointlessly negative ways. Good luck!
Bill Moyers: "Maybe I was wrong not to dispel their illusions about America; after all, they live on top of the ruins of long-gone empires, whose rise and fall is a far more familiar and consistent theme of history than democracy's success. I did my best, to say that America is trying very hard right now to put our own house in order.
That self-correcting faculty, even in the darkest hours, is the best thing we have going for us."
Sitting here in La Ciudad de Los Angeles in Alta California, I read Mr. Moyers' words with some sense of irony. I like Mr. Moyers. On the whole, he is a nice man, flawed but trying to be honest. But I can't help but notice US self-delusion when I hear it.
Europeans "live on top of the ruins of long-gone empires" but US citizens do NOT live on top of long-gone empires? Really?
Didn't the US begin as a "spin-off" franchise of the British Empire? And hasn't the US "expanded" (such a nice imperial euphemism) by "muscling in" on the imperial possessions of other empires? Florida (Spanish Empire). Louisiana Purchase (French Empire to help finance Napoleon's wars). All the Native American nations crushed. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California Alta (stripped from Mexico having newly won its own independence from the Spanish Empire). Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines as US colonies (Spanish Empire).
All of that imperial "expansion" represents "democracy's success" to Mr. Moyers and so many other US citizens, both liberal and conservatives. Really?
At least the Neo-Conservatives spoke the truth out loud back in 2003-4 when they publicly pronounced the US as global empire. That is what the US is-- a global empire. I'm sick of hearing US liberals and conservatives parroting the propaganda that the US is not an empire and that the US is just a nation among other nations and that the US owes its "wealth" to its just being so good and righteous and to "democracy's success"-- rather than recognizing that "their rich Uncle Sam" is rich through sucking in the wealth of other nations all around the globe.
I would welcome the "self-correcting faculty" of recognizing the fuller, larger political and economic picture framing how the world really works.
The US is suffering imperial indigestion. Yet when in all the vast US "media" does one ever hear the word "empire" applied to the United States?
People don't want the US to "fix" the global economy. People want the US to fix their own financial mess, because of the direct and indirect ways it affects other nations. Even when a nation is looking bankrupt, people are still waving that damn flag that causes most of their grief.
The rise and fall of the American Empire.
People have been predicting this for decades. There is simply no way under God's green Earth that the American lifestyle can be sustained into the future. Perhaps a giant collapse is exactly what we need.
The whole deal is, Bush pegged the meter on the world's bullshit detector. They knew he was a fraud, and the few voices this country had that tried to warn us were ridiculed, persecuted and silenced.
The MSM was complicit in this, and it took far too long for them to realize it most of them still parrot the neo-con lies. Thank God for the bloggers like Crooks and Liars, Firedog Lake and others for if we did not have them, I seriously believe Bush Inc. would have totally silenced all opposition.
I was so excited when Mr. Moyers came back to PBS after W had him fired. Now, I never miss his show. You get two chances at the show where I am and I will tune in a second time, for awhile to see if I missed anything. He is a good man and a knowledgeable man. He has worked inside power rooms and outside.
He brings issues to a table with knowledgeable people and his show does not talk down to his viewers. Last night was another example of this. He is the best PBS has and nobody can match him.
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