The Real #1 Issue

This has been troubling me for a long time. I cannot believe that the number one issue in the United States is the economy and has been for months. Is our nation so desensitized that the thousands of deaths of Americans and hundreds of thousands of deaths of Iraqis are of lesser importance than monetary matters? This is outrageous!

Joseph Stalin once said "the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." Sadly, the Iraqi War is proving that statement once again. We have endured many economic crises in our history and there has always been recovery. That's the key: regardless of the causes, this one will be over (for better or worse) and we move on. The death of even one human being is permanent. One death...over...gone forever. No recovery, no moving on. Multiply that by one million, plus the families and friends of each of those million who will be permanently affected for the rest of their lives and the repercussions are beyond calculation.

How on Earth can the economy be the number one issue? I attribute it to several factors.

One, the insistence of the Bush Administration to censor the press from documenting the realities of war (the mutilated bodies, the coffins being flown home, the burials). I believe if the American people could see the realities of war up close and personal there would be such a backlash that an immediate demand for the war to end would occur. I realize this would be a difficult task, given that the mainstream media gleefully accedes to the demands of the Administration, but hopefully, the world press and independent media could get the message across to the country.

Two, the mainstream media is deliberately downplaying the events in Iraq ("Not good for the ratings"). My favorite example is CNN touting constantly "Issue #1 - The Economy" in its promos and chyron. I believe it has now become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Keep hammering to the viewers that the economy is "issue number one" and they will accept it. Can't you just envision a poller calling a CNN viewer and asking what's the number one issue? Of course, the drilling into the psyche by CNN will evoke a response of "the economy." Welcome to the Circle Game.

Three, the inurement factor. We've been there a long time and our senses have grown calloused to the whole situation. The deaths become "statistics." We begin to accept it as a normal happening in our lives. In other words, "The Permanent War."

Finally, besides censorship, the Bush Administration is purposefully downplaying the war in order to further their agenda in the Middle East without the irritation of scrutiny. It's much easier to get all the Middle East ducks in a row when no one is paying attention. Using legerdemain-like skills, have the masses watch the left hand (it's the economy, the number one issue!) while the right hand is doing the Middle East Shuffle.

I don't care what your beliefs are regarding post mortem, once an individual dies that's it on this plane. That person will never come back...I repeat, never. And for what, exactly? One living, breathing human being permanently obliterated times one million just to enhance the profits of multi-national corporations? What price oil?

So while we are all busy worrying about the "#1 issue" - the economy, one by one, more deaths are occurring. And nobody is getting it! Think of the last loved one you lost. Feel it...remember how badly it hurt. It's happening everyday to someone here and in Iraq. Every day. Right this minute. As a million times previously. We need to understand the ghastly intimacy of death, the horror, the graphic details in order to get our priorities straight. This massacre must stop. Now. It's the number one issue.