“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

When Alphonse Karr said, “The more things change, the more they remain the same”, he must have had a vision of the United States, circa 2009. At a time when we are most in need of change (hey, I thought that was going to happen with the Obama Administration, but what do I know), we are just stagnantly maintaining the status quo, in light of our misgivings. The turn of events since the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas in which Barack Obama finally moseyed over to a microphone to make a poorly written and delivered speech about the “evil doers”, coupled with the lame attempt to justify their “process”, thank you Janet Napolitano and Robert Gibbs, has left a really bad taste in my mouth. Look, I get very little solace from any politician, but I am shocked that David Axelrod didn’t have a camera crew at the Obama Christmas morning so he could have killed two birds with one stone: get yet another loving family photo-op and then segue into a heartfelt speech condemning the terrorist. I know, I know, I am not allowed to say BOO about Barack Obama. We are in an era of uber-political correctness, and since I voted for him, I have to limit my criticism…so I’ve been told. But honey, if I were on Flight 253, my outrage would be heard from coast to coast and beyond to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Let me get this straight Janet, our systems are working? What system is that, the willingness of Jasper Schuringa to put a fire out with his bare hands? Is that’s what we have to hold onto? The hope that there is a Jasper on every flight? I mean…what?!?

We continue to be a people that bury our heads in the sand like ostriches. When George W. Bush was in office and the War in Iraq was escalating, we staged two protests and then scurried back to Facebook to find our long lost 8th grade friends. Now, we are confronted with the escalating War in Afghanistan, billions of dollars pissed away on lame attempts to keep us safe at airports, starting with pulling little, old, white ladies aside, looking for hazardous materials…a.k.a. Dentu-Creme and still no outrage from the people…instead spew nonsense on Twitter. Sure a few harsh questions from the media, which propelled Barack to yet another personal appearance to clarify that he was “really angry”. Say what you want about me, but the three-day lag between the incident to the outrage from Obama is not dissimilar to the Bush delayed reaction to Hurricane Katrina. No, I am not saying that Obama is anything near Bush. Had Napolitano not bungled her Sunday morning appearances on Meet The Press and This Morning with George Stephanopoulos, who knows, would the new found outrage from the President have been found? As we enter a new decade, let us all make a commitment to up our ante. As citizens, in case you’re the Jasper Schuringa on your next flight, or as politicians, who need to cut the lip service and demand results…finally.