What in God's Heaven, does Attitude have to do with Thinking?
My attitude is that a young democracy has been born quite quickly. And I think the Iraqi government has shown remarkable progress on the political front. George W. Bush, August 7, 2006
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ATTITUDE: 1)A POSITION OF THE BODY OR MANNER OF CARRYING ONESELF. 2) A STATE OF MIND OR FEELING. WEBSTERS'S II NEW RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY DICTIONARY
Violence happpens daily in Iraq. People get killed daily in Iraq. In the face of its happening, George W. Bush... ADOPTS THE ATTITUDE... that a young democracy has been born in Iraq.
Attitude is a body posture or posturing which may be generated by a feeling or a subjective state of mind.
It is sort of like saying, no matter what you tell me, I am going to sit on that chair and rock. I am going to hold my breath until I turn blue, and no matter what you tell me I will continue to hold my breath and I will continue to rock on the rocker as hard as I can and as fast as I can. My ATTITUDE is that I can hold my breath as long as I can if I can just keep rocking, and rocking, and rocking.
Sort of like saying, those people you say are killing each other off psshh, they are not because that is my ATTITUDE and my ATTITUDE is that they are not killing each other off, they are just expressing differing points of view-so there; I am going to sit inside my airconditioned parlor, drink a tall, kool, glass of lemonade with some crushed ice in it, add some drops of rum and sugar, I am going to drink it, and I am going to tell you that I am not drinking a daiquirí, my ATTITUDE is that I am drinking a tall, kool, glass of lemonade, and those people you say are dying, they are not dying. That is my ATTITUDE and you are not going to shake it away from me. No way, señor!
And with my THINKING, I am going to tell you that Iraq is a democracy and it is a democracy because my thinking tells me that it is, and because it tells me that the Iraqi government has shown remarkable progress on the political front.
With my THINKING I will deny that we Americans are the shoe-string holding the Iraqis up, because my ATTITUDE is that we are not. I will sit here in this rocking chair on this porch, and rock, and rock, and rock till doomsday if you want to, you can ask questions till you are blue in the face, and my attitude will not change. It will not change because you are you, and I am I, and Condi says my ATTITUDE is bliss and I am heaven to her and I believe in her words which come from her thinking-not from her attitude.
And so spins the merry-go-round of Bush's Bushismos and Rice's Cantinflismos.
Teresa Simon-Noble is a computer activist for peace. She is a former mental health clinician. A poet and a freelance writer. Her work has been published in several online publications.
