[Grovenet] What an embarrassment . . . . .

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

In the British news yesterday was a tragic piece about two community service
officers (CSOs). CSO's wear police uniforms but have limited duties - much
like our CSO's here. 

It seems a child fell into a pond and the CSO's responded to a call to
police for help. They saw that a "water rescue" was needed and called the
water rescue team, then stood safely on the bank while the child slipped
under the surface of the water. When the water rescue team arrived and
pulled the child from the water they could not resuscitate him. 

The CSO's said that their job strictly forbade them from doing anything they
weren't specifically trained and certified competent to do. They had not had
"water rescue training". 

It's unclear what the civilians were doing. More than the one child had
ended up in the water and passerby's had jumped in to help them out. It
seems that they thought all the children were rescued since the CSO's were
waiting contentedly on the bank. By then the dead child had slipped under
the surface. 

I tell this story because David's comments, which I agree with
wholeheartedly, reminded me of it. 

We Americans consider ourselves a sovereign state. (I have to smile
remembering the President explaining sovereign to us all. We're sovereign,
he said, because we're a sovereign state - a sovereign state is, well,
"sovereign"). I guess that means we're independent and not controlled by
others. 

That is only partly true. We have chosen to mingle our fortunes and our
future with all the peoples of the world. It was inevitable. We no longer
have the resources to do what we want. Our cars and most of our remaining
industry would stop very quickly if we didn't import billions of gallons of
oil. We'd miss all the NFL games without Chinese and Japanese TV sets (the
USA doesn't many *any* TV's now). We couldn't even post a message on
Grovenet: we'd have no computers. At current American wages, if we did try
to build those things at home they'd be so expensive only the very
wealthiest among us could afford to buy them. 

Indeed, I believe the health, even the survival, of our nation depends upon
the health and survival of our neighbors around the world. We may have
different opinions about "globalization" but I think it's a fact:
personally, politically and economically. Only the poorest of nations whose
people live in abject poverty can pretend they are independent. Of course,
they are "independent" only to the extent other nations choose to leave them
alone. 

In Iraq, we are like those British CSO's standing on the bank of the pond.
Do we stand there and watch Iraq drown, or do we do something to help, even
if it means losing our dignity and getting wet, possibly risking ourselves
for the sake of others? 

Ron D'Eau Claire 





-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of David Morelli
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 12:32 AM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] What an embarrassment . . . . .


Bush says that Mandela is dead and Sadam killed all the Mandelas.   
The people of South Africa may not have gotten the word.

Sadam was an evil man.  He killed many Kurds, and many political  
enemies, and his prosecution of the Iran-Iraq war killed hundreds of  
thousands of people.   And while he was doing this dirty work, he was  
the ally of President Reagan through envoys Cheney and Rumsfeld.   
Since Reagan was supporting the murderous bastard, does that taint  
the image of the "teflon President"?  Or the image of his Middle East  
Envoy and Special Ambassador, who later served to invade Iraq under  
Bush?  The blood of the many "Mandela's" who died under Sadam, falls  
on our country's hands as well.

Now, the blood that flows in Iraq is still on the hands of those who  
released the sectarian violence upon that country.

David

On Sep 21, 2007, at 10:24 AM, Bob Browning wrote:

> http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/20/bush-mandela/
>
> bob "how many more days??" browning
>
> PS: Oh, yeah - http://tinyurl.com/yu3lrc 
> _______________________________________________
> GroveNet mailing list
> GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet

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