To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] I want to be . . . .
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 10:23:04 -0700
In My Next Life
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 25, 2004
In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.
Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of
Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to
twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically
requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge
- something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of
corruption allegations.
But most of all, I want to have the gall to sully American democracy at a
time when young American soldiers are fighting in Iraq so we can enjoy a
law-based society here and, maybe, extend it to others. Yes, I want to be
Tom DeLay. I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity
with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for.
If I can't be Tom DeLay, then I want to be one of the gutless Republican
House members who voted to twist the rules for DeLay out of fear that "the
Hammer," as they call him, might retaliate by taking away a coveted
committee position or maybe a parking place.
Yes, I want to be a Republican House member. At a time when 180 of the 211
members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq who have been wounded
in combat have insisted on returning to duty, I want to look my
constituents and my kids in the eye and tell them that I voted to empty the
House ethics rules because I was afraid of Tom DeLay.
If I can't be a Republican House member, I want to be Latrell Sprewell, the
guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I want to say with a straight face
that if my owner will only give me a three-year contract extension for a
meager $21 million, then he's not worth working for, because "I've got my
family to feed."
Yes, I want to be Latrell Sprewell. At a time when N.B.A. games are priced
beyond the reach of most American families, when half the country can't
afford health care, when some reservists in Iraq are separated from their
families for a year, including this Thanksgiving, I want to be like
Latrell. I want to make sure everyone knows that I'm looking out for my
family - and no one else's.
If I can't be Latrell Sprewell, I want to be any American college or
professional athlete. For a mere dunk of the basketball or first-down run,
I want to be able to dance a jig, as if I'd just broken every record by
Michael Jordan or Johnny Unitas. For the smallest, most routine bit of
success in my sport, I want to be able to get in your face - I want to know
who's your daddy, I want to be able to high-five, low-five, thump my chest
and dance on your grave. You talkin' to me?
I want to be able to fight on the court, off the court, in the stands and
on the sidelines. I want to respect no boundaries and no norms. And when I
make your kids cry, I want to be able to tell you to just "chill" - that my
coach says "stuff happens" and that my union rep is appealing my punishment
in the name of the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. Yes, in my next
life, I want to be The Man.
If I can't be The Man, then I at least want to be the owner of a Hummer -
with American flag decals all over the back bumper, because Hummer owners
are, on average, a little more patriotic than you and me.
Yes, I want to drive the mother of all gas-guzzlers that gets so little
mileage you have to drive from gas station to gas station. Yes, I want to
drive my Hummer and never have to think that by consuming so much oil, I am
making transfer payments to the worst Arab regimes that transfer money to
Islamic charities that transfer money to madrassas that teach children
intolerance, antipluralism and how to hate the infidels.
And when one day one of those madrassa graduates goes off and joins the
jihad in Falluja and kills my neighbor's son, who is in the U.S. Army
Rangers, I want to drive to his funeral in my Hummer. Yes, I want to curse
his killers in front of his mother and wail aloud, "If there was only
something I could do ..." And then I want to drive home in my Hummer,
stopping at two gas stations along the way.
If I can't be any of these, then I want to be just a simple blue-state
red-state American. I want to take time on this Thanksgiving to thank God I
live in a country where, despite so much rampant selfishness, the public
schools still manage to produce young men and women ready to voluntarily
risk their lives in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to spread the
opportunity of freedom and to protect my own. And I want to thank them for
doing this, even though on so many days in so many ways we really don't
deserve them.