God Hates Us All (Part 8)

 "What about Bill?”

 

Devon opened his eyes from and looked over at Helen who was sitting up against a tree. He had been lying on the park grass for about ten minutes, enjoying the silence but wasn’t expecting such a general question. “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific. I know a few Bills. Are you referring to the Bill I know in accounting or the Bill that tried to take out the Bride in that Tarantino movie? That was a very cool movie by the way…”

 

She huffed and then gave a cute smile, “I mean Bill Clinton.”

 

“Oh, that Bill.”

 

"What did you think of him as a President and a person?”

 

“I don’t know what to think of him as a person, I’ve never met the man.” Devon answered honestly, “I would never judge people by what others say of them nor would I judge from what I see on television. You have to shake their hand and speak to them in the flesh to judge them as a person. Now if you want me to evaluate him as a commander, I think he did all right.”

 

“Despite the scandals?” Helen asked with an apparent frustration in her tone.

 

“None of the scandals had anything to do with his job. As a President, the man did a pretty decent job. The economy was strong, people were making more income and jobs were up. The budget had a surplus when he left office, what more do you want from the man?”

 

“How about a little honesty?”

 

“That’s impossible. Presidents lie all the time for the sake of national security and to conceal classified information. It happens all the time.”

 

“But he cheated on his wife…”

 

“And that takes us back to the talk we had about Zeus. Just because someone is a bad husband doesn’t mean they are bad at what they do. If I get into a car accident and get rushed into the O.R. for a life saving operation, do you think I’m going to ask the hospital if their best surgeon is a faithful man who doesn’t screw the nurses behind his wife’s back? As long as his hand is steady and he doesn’t sever any nerves or arteries, I could care less what or who he does in his spare time. Would you?” He sat up and looked at her eager to hear what her answer would be.

 

“I guess not.” She answered, “Doesn’t make what they did right.”

 

“I never said it did. What someone may or may not have done in their spare time doesn’t dictate what kind of job they do when they’re at work. People are capable of keeping their personal lives at home and doing their absolute best at work, whether they be burger flippers at Rotten Ronnie’s or living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I realize that character might mean something to many people, but when I look back at the job Bill did, it was leaps and bounds better than a lot of other men did in the same position, especially when you look at the job the current dork is doing right now.”

 

“Spoken like a true democrat.” Helen sniped.

 

“Hey, if I wasn’t a democrat before Bush the sequel took over… I am one now thanks to close to eight years of abuse and neglect from one of the most corrupt administrations this nation has ever seen. I have no doubt our grandchildren will be paying off the mistakes these people made for their own selfish agendas for many years to come.”

 

“I suppose you want an investigation into what Bush has been doing for the past eight years when the next guy or gal takes over?”

 

“Forget that.” Devon said with distain, “I want special prosecutor with subpoena power. A democratic version of Kenneth Star, anything less would be unfair since that was good enough for Bill in the 90’s and his charges were much milder.”

 

“A tad bitter, are we?”

 

“Try a tad upset. I think a lot of mistakes were made, and I for one want him to answer for them. Starting with 9/11…”

 

“Oh you’re not one of those conspiracy theory dudes who think 9/11 was all an inside job?” Helen said as it was her turn to show a face of distain, “because I don’t think I could handle that right about now.”

 

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who are like that, and to be honest… the evidence is compelling. But I’m not talking about that. I’m referring to a memo that was on someone’s desk over a month before the attacks titled ‘Bin Laden determined to attack America’ that went unread by the President despite being asked to take the threat seriously.”

 

“So you think the disaster could have been avoided?”

 

“If it went down the way they said it did, yes. I think it could have been avoided.” Devon sat up and used his arms to prop himself. “Let’s go back to Bill for a good example of the kind of Prez he was. Back in 99, a man named Rickard Clarke who was an anti-terrorism czar for the three previous Republican Presidents was in his face with what he felt was a real threat of an attack. It was suspected that Al Queda was going to strike the homeland during the Millennium celebrations and it was recommended to Bill that they act now rather than wait for the attack to respond.”

 

“So what was Bill’s response?”

 

“He acted. Border security was doubled, people were sent out to knock on doors and follow every possible lead. No request was denied to prevent this attack from occurring. Funny thing was it was one sharp Canuck on the other side of the border who made the bust, catching someone trying to cross from Vancouver into the US with bomb making supplies. Turns out he was on his way to bomb Seattle during their Millennium celebration. The attack was prevented.”

 

“So this didn’t happen when the warning was given to Bush?”

 

“The exact opposite happened in ‘01. Bush not only didn’t want to talk about terrorism, he refused to even speak to the same person who warned Bill about the 99 attack who wanted to again ring the alarm bell. They were sure, as it was written in the unread report that an attack was imminent and could occur with in the next month or so. Truth is Bush didn’t care. He was on vacation and couldn’t care less about what was going on. Had Bill or someone with half a heart been in office that day security would have been tightened like it was in ‘99, people would have been on the look out for specific people and arrests would have been made. Some of not all of those planes could have been stopped from being used as missiles had someone put the airports on alert and stamped a few faces on the billboard. Bush was given plenty of warning of pending disaster, but he never cared. He was given reports of terrorist activity and did nothing. His people were given request for years to repair levees that were on the verge of breaking down, and they were ignored. So when Katrina hit and the Levees protecting New Orleans broke, no one can saw this was never seen coming. People died because the President was asleep at the wheel for the majority of his two terms, and that’s why I don’t hesitate to go easy on Bill. Regardless of what he did with his private life, he did his job and he did it well. When things went wrong, he was there taking care of the country, and when a warning came to his desk asking for action, he was the first one to take that action because when you’re the President even a moment’s pause could cost hundreds, possibly thousands of people their lives.”

 

“Wow, that’s why you’re so pissed off!” Helen said with a grin. “Don’t hold back here bud, tell me how you really feel.”

 

“A good prosecutor could even work a case for negligent homicide.” Devon said, “Knowing that something could kill someone and do nothing about it.  The levees in New Orleans are a good example. There were countless reports that said they were weak and would break if a Hurricane stronger that category two hit them. They had the data there that said a whole city could be flooded unless they took action and spent a few bucks on the engineers needed to repair the levees, but they didn’t want to. They didn’t think it was necessary. They were basically playing Russian Roulette with over four hundred thousand lives and that didn’t bother them one bit. I’m hoping it bothered them a bit when a category three storm wandered into the gulf that fateful week. They should feel guilty of contributing to the death of all those people who drowned in the city, and the chaos that ensued from it, all because they couldn’t be bothered to fix the levees. The funny part is not all of them are even fully repaired and are even leaking. If they get hit with a category four or five, they could easily break again.”

 

“Man, are they not capable from learning from their mistakes?”

 

“You’d think they would be, but they aren’t. A city is destroyed and still the levees are leaking. Thousands of troops are dead post-war and you’re not willing to admit you’re in the middle of a guerilla war in an occupied nation. You swear they’ll be no draft but soldiers are being kept in the force through a back door draft known as stop loss. Soldiers who are already suffering from trauma are being forced to do second, third and even forth tours in Iraq because of this. But at least the guy didn’t get it on with his intern so he’s not that bad, right?” 

 

“I see your point. People seem to have really messed up priorities.”

 

“You think?”