the HBO series John Adams gave me hope.

it's more then great TV. it's a great country.

it reaffirmed my lost sense of patriotism. the Bush Administration has really had the effect of tearing my heart out about my country. its gotten to the point where nothing surprises me and i hardly react with what should be revulsion to everything those criminals do.

But when I saw HBO re-create the first over-the-table discussions between Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, And Washington I was AMAZED at the ginormous undertaking creating America actually was. I was in awe at how smart these men were in creating a framework for a country based on one really simple idea, that has grown and weathered through more then 200 years of rapid change.

Where those simple words took us and are still taking us, was WAY further then the men even imagined. they had no idea that they created a system that would eventual work to dismantel the institutions of slavery, and inequality. it would eventually, and i have my fingers crossed on this, live up to its promise of equality. more so then even they imagined. the system was more high-minded then they were.

Watching the historical series i realized the delicate balance and wording that needed to happen in the constitution to properly set the course. what has come out of it, i believe our fore father's couldn't even have imagined possible. for instance, look at this Treaty from 1797 with Tripoli. just look at this sentence and let it sink in:

"Article. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Get it Mr. Bush? let that shit sink in. You zealot. You are unequivocally un-American in just about every thing you do, from hijacking america's fear for your poli-religious agenda, to blowing our delicate economy on oil procurement. It's clear that you wouldn't be welcome at a table with any of the framers of the Constitution. in fact, an outraged Jefferson would probably challenge you to a duel.

The fact that it needed to be stated by our congress and president Adams that there is no religious grounds for our government should be enough to shut down most of what this Administration has claimed and done. these words from the first days of our government's very existence, when men were MORE religious then they are now. this single Article in a treaty with a Muslim country should be the Administration's shame in their attempt to bring the church of 2 thousand years, one of power grabbing and violent crusading, into the white house. that they tried to break the necessary separation that ALLOWS for religion to be free is almost cannibalism. that in fact, its that very separation that is what PROTECTS them and their outdated beliefs. don't get it twisted, son.

The men who defined this country would see Bush as a test of the theory of Checks and Balances. The Administration has managed to manipulate and expose the system for it's weakness, that the executive can actually offset the balance of power and wield the now overly powerful media to the whims of one or two men. and when that happens in this case, with Cheney as a war profiteer holding the reigns, and Bush as the face of religious rightousness, we end up with a disaster like Iraq.

Well, watching John Adams gave me a bit of hope in these dark times. that maybe this system, which depends on the people who run it can react to this in a way that might prevent it from repeating itself. or that, despite the Electoral College and the voter really having very little say in politics, that there are individuals who will be elected that WILL use the lopsided power to restore our good name. that they might put the good of man in front of the good of their personal business associations or their delusional theocratic beliefs. after all, you have to assume that most people have children and care about their grand children enough to be responsible about things like the balance of peace and the environment. you have to assume that there will be a good natured elected official in our future.

That sunny day in September seems like so long ago, when i was standing on the roof of my building next to my dad and we were watching the second tower go down in a volcanic tower of black smoke. i watched the smoke, which looked like a wall of fire, consume my mother's office building and my dad was busy trying to call my brother, one of a few American Airline pilots who flew flight #11 out of Boston. it was a combination of horrific fear for my loved ones, and a gloomy realization that my home was under attack and we were now at War.

That night, i dreamed of the people in the building, i was consumed by grief and really, it was more then i realized at the time. i was wounded as a New Yorker AND as an American. i had never known how much of a patriot i was until that happened. then, the next day, when Bush arrived and made his speech. that was the beginning of the long spiral downward for my sense of pride in America. a spiral that went to such depths by 2003 that i could barely stand in the same area as a republican without feeling an overwelming urge to do violence upon them.

I think i am getting better now. I think i dare to hope that the winds might stat blowing in the other direction. watch John Adams, it will help the hurt a bit.