The Assassination of Hope

I was just crossing into Massachusetts from New York on I-90 to visit my sister and her family when NPR reported the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Thursday.

The snow had given way to rain. Steam rose from the pavement and clung to empty branches and sleeping hills. My 9-year-old daughter was singing a song she and her friends had made up about Christmas that lightly teased their beloved school principal. I must have gasped because she suddenly asked, "Mommy? Are you all right?"

I barely registered her voice. What? What? whispered my mind. Simultaneously, I was sure I hadn't heard the news correctly and I knew with disabling certainty that Bhutto was dead. The windshield wipers beat on, as if all hope hadn't just died.

When the feeling returned to my fingers, I began punching the seek button, because now NPR was reporting that an escaped tiger had climbed up the leg of a 17-year-old who'd been teasing it with his foot. My compassion for that horribly paid price for a lack of common sense paled in comparison to my fervent wish that I was home in front of CNN. What now? What in heaven's name now?

The implications of this courageous woman's death will not be realized for days, perhaps months, but there is no question that her murder is not only a serious blow to democracy in Pakistan and to women's rights in Muslim countries, but to the broader hope of defeating terrorism worldwide. World leaders and candidates for world leadership positions are all quietly reeling from Bhutto's murder.

We know what this means. What's worse, we know we may be forced to helplessly watch the fallout in the coming weeks - fallout that the best guesses of our political advisers cannot even begin to predict. Terrorism won. In the moment life left Benazir Bhutto's body, terrorism won. Again.

Today, we still do no know who is responsible - not that we would this early in the investigation. Musharraf's people announced Bhutto was not killed by bullets or shrapnel, but by accident as her head hit a lever in her vehicle's sunroof - as if this technical detail - even if true - could calm the ensuing riots and deflect the blame being cast at the Pakistani President's head.

The truth is, it doesn't matter who is responsible right now. What matters is the perception of who is responsible. What matters is the way the assassination was carried out.

Yes, a suicide bomber can kill a national political icon. Yes, a suicide bomber can trigger days - perhaps weeks or months - of riots and violence. Yes, a suicide bomber can disrupt free elections. Yes, a suicide bomber can freeze the world and inflict hopelessness.

Was Al Qaeda responsible? Was it Musharraf? Was it a man operating alone on some internal belief - voices in his head, perhaps? Whatever the case, the suicide bomber tactic has repeatedly proven around the world that it cannot lose. And world leaders - for all their sincerest efforts - cannot do a thing about it.

As a presidential candidate, I am acutely aware of the sword's edge President Bush must dance right now. On the one hand, Pakistan - meaning Musharraf - is a key ally in the war on terror. On the other, supporting the democratic process of free elections is a U.S. moral imperative. The U.S. may have to choose between national safety and freedom's ring - the very concern brought up in the CNN Democrat Debate weeks ago - in its next action.

President Bush has spoken with Musharraf and is pushing for Pakistan's January 8 elections to move forward. Hillary Clinton is calling for an independent investigation, stating Musharraf's government has lost all credibility. John Edwards is also calling for an international investigation. Barack Obama is highlighting the connection between Bhutto's murder and the U.S.'s dropping of the ball by shifting focus from the Taliban to Iraq. The lack of a swift, terrible response to the World Trade Center collapse has contributed to the spread of terrorism. Mike Huckabee lost no time in connecting Bhutto's death to illegal immigration. Mitt Romney called for greater support of moderate Islamic leaders as a means to world security. Rudy Giuliani emphasized the need for increased military funding for Iraq and the war on terror. Fred Thompson spoke of a "perfect storm" between democracy and stability, especially given Pakistan's nuclear weapon capacity.

Yes, I know. I'm missing Ron Paul, Bill Richardson, and more - I'll try to get back to the computer later and add the rest of the candidates because I think it is important for voters to know where all the candidates stand on issues of such great import - but for now let's take the elephant out of the room.

No one is safe. Terrorism can strike anyone, anywhere, anytime. This is even more true today than it was September 11, 2001.

Bhutto was often heard to say that democratization in Pakistan is "baptized in blood." There was a time when Americans understood that viscerally. Over 200 years ago, our own country was in the midst of a bloody fight for freedom. Today, we keep shopping as if our way of life is not in danger. We find ways to justify Bush's leadership - or lack thereof - in punishing the perpetrators of 9/11. We bury our heads in daily living, hoping our government will keep violence oversees where we can safely watch it on the news.

Imagine being at a picnic in a beautiful grassy meadow - chirping birds, colorful butterflies among wildflowers, the sleepy satisfaction from a simple meal in fresh air - and the shadow of a dark cloud begins to roll out across the grassy expanse. Your red-checked blanket is in bright sunshine, and the gray shadow is spreading all around it. The birds fall silent. The color has disappeared. The shadow is near the blanket, so you pull it in closer, shrinking your space. The air is stifling, your breathing more labored, but you focus on the remaining sunshine, the remnants of your rich repast, the security of your shrinking blanket.

The suicide bomber is here to stay. No fence can keep him out. No policy can prevent the workings of his mind. The ostrich response of the everyday American is giving the suicide bomber greater power.

Bhutto knew she was taking her life in her hands when she returned to Pakistan to fight the good fight. She grew up in a family that knew blood was the price of Democracy - had experienced it first hand. Was Bhutto a saint? No. Maybe. We don't know. As prime minister, her leadership fell under corruption's shadow. We may never know the truth of the mixed insinuations and remarkable heroism of this woman. What we do know, however, is that she was fearless in her pursuit of democracy for her country. Fierce in her defense of her people's right to freedom.

And she paid for it with her life. And Western world leaders - none of whom can begin to comprehend what she and her family lived every single day - unconsciously contributed to her death in their combined failed Middle East policies.

Americans will vote for a new president this year. There is no question that Americans MUST vote for someone who will be able to yield the best of judgment and respect in the world.

We need a person of color as president. We need to erase the face of white greed from the misperceptions of extremists in the world. We need someone to represent the plurality of our nation - the fact that we have a thriving Muslim presence as well as many cultures and ethnicities in our country.

We need to focus beyond foreign policy experience in our choice for president. The next president must have a broad academic understanding of world history, of world religions, of economy, global ecology, of the connections between individuals locally and globally. The next president must be someone who can connect the dots and think outside the foreign policy box when making foreign policy decisions.

We need someone who has first hand experience in living in danger. We need someone who knows, without shadow of doubt, that dying for freedom is no longer the job of a far-away soldier. Our next president - even with a hundred times over more security than Bhutto - will be a target for suicide bombers, one of whom could very well succeed.

I am that candidate.

I am a Latina. I know that we cannot justifiably fight for freedom in foreign countries when we have not yet succeeded in ensuring freedom for our own people - racism in America has serious foreign policy implications. I have survived twenty years of unpredictable violence in my daily life between three and twenty-three years old.

My education is not only in public policy, but in psychology and world religions. Islam is one of many beautiful and richly spiritual religions in the world. As President, I would address the people of the world with a deep understanding of their pluralistic points of view, academically and experientially prepared to bridge differences.

And I am uniquely prepared to die for my country, for the protection of freedom. Between the ages of three and twenty-four years old, I lived a daily life of unpredictable violence in the suburbs of America. Broken bones, fear, intimidation, hunger, attempted strangulation - it is a life unfortunately known by many Americans, but not by recent American leaders. That life is no stranger to me, and I can represent that population of America and the world not as a victim or survivor, but as a brave, intelligent, solutions-oriented leader who holds wisdom like no other.

Having looked death in the eye has shaped me to be the leader that can step fearlessly where angels fear to tread, respecting life when making decisions about war, leading by example, rejuvenating the everyday person to find her own courage - to reach out to neighbors and build a coast-to-coast national community that calls out proudly, intrepidly, unanimously "Responsibility begins with me!"

Terrorists want to assassinate hope. Americans need a leader who will empower them to understand the impact of the world on everyday lives. Hope cannot be assassinated where there are no ostriches.

Vote for Ameriga Columbus as a write-in candidate on your ballot in November.

Flu, Plague, and Abortion

Or, Overthrowing New Jersey’s Government

"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny."

- Thomas Jefferson

Can you imagine living in a country where the government forces parents to give questionable medical services to their children? Where parents are no longer allowed parental authority and decision-making on their children’s care?

Well, you don’t have to imagine it. If you are in New Jersey, you are living in it.

The New Jersey Legislature and Governor have just made a very serious mistake that will impact the health and future of thousands of children. New Jersey has become the first state in the nation to require flu vaccines for preschoolers or older students. You can read the story here.

How NJ could do this on the heels of Merck's Hib vaccine recall is beyond me. Vaccines are not necessarily safe enough to mandate everyone to take them.

And, the effectiveness of vaccines can backfire over time. You know how pediatricians are suddenly refusing to provide antibiotics as much as they used to? Well, medical science now shows that the treatment of antibiotics in children has been so overdone that some children are now vulnerable to the very bacteria that the antibiotics were supposed to treat.

This is a result of the “just in case” factor. We’ve learned that using antibiotics as a preventive – just in case the child has strept or could catch strept (or bronchitis or whatever) – means that later in childhood the antibiotic will no longer help them overcome bacteria. Any bacteria.

The same is true for the flu vaccine. Flu strains mutate and just because you get a vaccine for one strain doesn't mean you'll be resistant to another, tougher one later.

Exposure to bacteria and viruses can actually be good for you. Your immune system quickly learns how to fight and how to adapt. Picture you immune system like Mohammad Ali - light on its feet, in a constant vigilant dance, light as a butterfly and tough as a - well, as tough as that world-famous boxer.

Overkill on anti-bacterial handsoaps, flu vaccines, antibiotics, etc. can actually weaken your immune system, like a boxer resting on his laurels and becoming undisciplined in his training.

All a mandatory vaccination for flu will accomplish is making children less able to fight off flu later - for the rest of their lives. Just like the over-dependence on antibiotics has done. Gee, thanks New Jersey. Better beef up your state healthcare budget. You'll be paying for this big time in the out years.

Flu is not the public health problem of, say, polio or plague. The worst cases are the youngest and the oldest people. And of those two populations, the percent of deaths is very small. Not that any death is acceptable, but when government weighs the efficacy and impact of public health policy, it is supposed to consider how likely a disease will be widespread across populations and how dangerous it really can be. Plague, well, that's pretty darn dangerous and can easily be widespread (historically). Polio, well, that's pretty darn devastating and could also be widespread (historically).

Flu? Not so much. The vast majority of the population can easily overcome it without a vaccine. Those who are at the most risk can decide for themselves whether or not to take it. But to risk giving it to everyone that the government defines as at-risk is the height of hubris. This is an issue that should be between parents and pediatricians, without government interference as if it were some huge public safety scare.

Constitutionally, the Supreme Court has already put a high priority on privacy and choice between patients and doctors. That's what abortion is all about - keeping government out of very personal and sometimes devastating decisions between patients and doctors.

Of course, abortion is not contagious like flu, but it is no less serious. If our country has already set a national precedent for valuing doctor-patient privacy and decision-making, why is New Jersey suddenly throwing that out the window in favor of dictatorship? Is New Jersey purposely trying to create an overdependent population of people who cannot think for themselves and must lean on government for everything? Are parent rights so meaningless in that state?

As for you, parents, are you really going to stand there and watch some stranger who can never know your child as well as you do place a needle in your child’s arm or a spray in your child’s nose a flu vaccine that has questionable affect and unknown long-term consequences?

In New Jersey you will. In a Maryland school district you will. Or face fines, jail, quarantine – for no other reason than an urge to protect your child at all costs. (Parents, click here for pertinent information regarding vaccines and children.)

Speaking of costs, New Jersey says it'll offer discounts or free vaccines for the very poor, and that insurers will foot the bill for all these vaccinations.

How naïve can a government be? Insurance companies are for-profit institutions - they aren't going to hurt their shareholders or company profits. You pay the cost, through higher insurance premiums. It seems the NJ Legislature has forgotten we live in a free-market system.

As President, I would respect the doctor-patient relationship. I would do my best to keep government from interfering with the rights of parents as long as I can simultaneously protect the rights of children. I would ensure the availability of natural and alternative methods of prevention of disease, so as to minimize the need for widespread overkill of vaccinations and other side-effect-ridden treatments, while empowering the people to make their own decisions about health care prevention and maintenance.

Please vote for Ameriga Columbus as a write-in on your November ballot. Empowering you, rather than government.

Meanwhile, please join me in working with the American Association of Health Freedom against these disaster-in-the-making public policies in NJ and MD. Click here to see what you can do.

Elephant Rant Candidate: Teabag voting and the Waking Phoenix.

Elephant Rant Candidate: Teabag voting and the Waking Phoenix.

Teabag voting and the Waking Phoenix.

The following is an excerpt from my campaign trail in Iowa. Please pass it on by asking everyone you know to go to www.elephantrant.com.

Eleanor Roosevelt, who would have made a fabulous President by the way, once said a woman is like a teabag, you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

A vote for me is a vote for teabags everywhere. I don't think a single 2008 candidate can hold a candle to my real life, messy, everywoman strength. No candidate is as in touch with the Everyperson reality as well as I.

I am very young, and very old. I thrill in the human condition. Hope. Redemption. Many, many mistakes. Bright joys. Brief passions. And the kind of personal discovery that grabs you and shakes you until your teeth rattle with Truth and your eyes pour relief, and your knees buckle willingly to the floor, completely ready to let go.

Like the Phoenix, I have repeated Burning Days, and repeated new birth from ashes, and I love it all. I think the best lesson I have learned is that life is messy, exhilarating, painful, sweet, frustrating, amazing - and it is all just as it should be. For too long I tried to avoid the Burning Days that come with being human, and the more I avoided, the slower and more tortuous the burn when it finally came.

That is the burden of the Sleeping Phoenix - denying its nature, afraid of the burn, unable to comprehend the joy of the new life on the other side. A true Phoenix chooses the burn, walks into the fire with her head held high, ready to be cleansed of mistakes and impurities, and walks out a new woman, forged with balance and strength and wisdom, ready to begin her next cycle with a firm step and a bright sparkle in her eyes.

A teabag, a phoenix - these are the character qualities that are vital in running a country. The toughest job in the world doesn't require the toughest people. It requires the wisest tough people.

Vote for Ameriga Columbus as a write in on your November ballot.

Gardisil, Welch's, and Mis-Incentives

I've done a pretty good job so far of keeping my rants at an even keel, but today I'm going to let loose.

As President, I would ban Gardisil from every corner of the United States and its Territories. Here we have a company shamelessly capitalizing on public fears of cervical cancer on television ads targeted to young women and their moms for the sake of profit. No, they aren't the first company to do so, and likely not the worst, but they are the ones in my face on television attached to women's programming everyday.

Gardisil is an "unproven" vaccine for HPV, a virus that has been around forever but for some reason, (well, we know the reason, it's because Gardisil was invented) we suddenly all have to take this vaccine against this virus. The virus has been known, upon rare occassion, to be linked to cervical cancer. Whether or not it is a causal link is yet to be determined, but hey, facts are not important here - it's better to make everyone take a vaccine "just in case" because it'll make women "feel better" about their cancer risks.

Hogwash. That's like saying that antioxidants in Welch's grape juice will protect you. (Oh, wait - that IS what Welch's commercials are saying! As if antioxidants didn't exist in grape juice before we "discovered" them.) Gotta love those warm, fuzzy commercials that pat you on the head and say "buy this, now there's a good girl."

Vaccines for HPV are relatively new, considering the typical clinical trials most drugs are put through. Remember Vioxx? Are you SURE you want your college age daughter to be among the first to take this vaccine that's only been tested a couple of years rather than ten? Any drug or vaccine that's been tested for less than five years should be viewed with suspicion. Long term affects can take ten or more to show up.

I have two daughters, one 23 and one 9. My 23 year old and I had a long conversation about this, because her GYN recommended she take the vaccine as a precaution.

A precaution for what? To make sure she is exposed to sufficient potential for side effects? No one has ever died from HPV, in fact, many don't even know they have it.

Yes, people die from cervical cancer, but to tell every woman in multiple TV commercials until it seems like fact that Gardisil is your best protection against cervical cancer is like telling everyone that grape juice is your best protection against old age.

Follow the money. When there are commercials out there that address important health issues, look at who's funding them. And please, please take them with a grain of salt.

Pharmaceutical commercials are banned in most countries, except the United States. For good reason. Keep a health skepticism, and don't give pharmaceutical companies incentives to put more of their hogwash... I mean - misleading advice - out there any more.

And vote for me, Ameriga Columbus, as a write-in on your November ballot. I know I can't really ban Gardisil, but I CAN work with Congress to get hogwash off your television.

Science Fiction Fans Make Better World Leaders

Or, Emergency Preparedness Begins at Home.

I just finished reading the novel-length version of Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. I strongly recommend every presidential candidate read it. In our post-9/11 and Katrina America, we are more aware than ever before how lucky we have been to not live in war-torn neighborhoods as many of our world neighbors do.

Like Scarlett, too many of us murmur: "I'll think about that tomorrow" and move on with whatever is immediately before us for the day, leaving it up to the "powers that be" to deal with emergency response.

I think this is a mistake. As President, I would increase the size of the National Guard and give state governors the power to influence training and call directly on divisions within their boundaries. I would offer tax incentives to corporations who sponsor community emergency response preparation. I would loosen the federal-level ties on emergency planning and response resources, channeling funds directly to states in proportion to their populations to utilize as they see best for their localities.

Why? Emergencies have local impact and require swift and immediate local response. Katrina happened when our federal attention was elsewhere in the world, and New Orleans suffered from the delayed response. The recent California wildfires had better attention, but was that because of lessons learned in New Orleans or because of a not-so-subtle racism and class-ism in our country?

Whatever the case, there is no question that the rug can be pulled out from under us at any time, and it behooves us to be much better prepared than we are. Our national dependence on government to fix all our problems has weakened us as a people, depleted our pioneering and bootstrap spirits. Nightfall depicts an overnight slide into anarchy and feudalism due to a perceived threat from a worldwide event - everyday people reduced to mindless survival state with only a handful able to snap themselves out of it and remember rational thought.

Americans believe we are stronger than that. We would never succumb to irrationality in times of emergency. After all, we built this country from scratch, didn't we? Our forefathers with their brilliant combination of strategy and values; our fearless pioneers willing to endure any hardship to settle new lands; our neighborly spirit that allowed home-calling doctors and villages to raise each child - oh yes, we have achieved much and can accomplish anything.

Can't we? I'm not so sure. I read science fiction like Nightfall and War of the Worlds, and I truly wonder if Americans have grown too soft and self-absorbed to band together under desperate emergency conditions. The warnings in the Foundation Trilogy, 1984, Gattica, Minority Report, and Jennifer Government are beginning to seem like feasibility studies for the Machiavellian's who are paying attention to the inattention of our population.

My respected opponents in this important 2008 Presidential Race are certainly paying attention. Your job is to vote for the candidate that is not only least likely to promote and capitalize on your inattention, but one who will challenge and empower you to wake up and take part in this America our forefathers began. We are only a couple hundred years old - barely teenagers. Our work has barely begun. 9/11 and Katrina remind us that the break is over - it's time to get back to work - all of us.

If you want a strong nation that earns rather than commands respect, that is ready for any emergency, that leads through the empowerment of its local communities - vote for Ameriga Columbus as a write-in on your November ballot.

Wadda'up with Elephants?

Pay attention! You think you are alone? Not a chance. Every room you walk in has at least one elephant. Studies show that for every person in a room as many as two elephants walk in. Think of that next time you go to a cocktail party. Wear wading boots. (Did you know there are more elephants at cocktail parties than football games? Seriously.)

My name is Ms. Ameriga Columbus, and I would like to be your next President. There are many reasons why I am the best person for the job, given the current selection of candidates. First, I am a woman of the people. I have been there, done that. Our last President was elected because he was a "regular guy" and someone the average Joe could envision hanging out with over a beer. I bring that ordinary connection a step further - I actually remember my education; am truly a uniter not a divider; I know how much a beer costs and the work that goes into making it appear on the bar; and have lived the kind of typical American life that could only make GW shudder in fear. I've lived fully and not easily, better representing a much wider population than GW or any candidate ever could.

Second, I am the only (unofficial) Candidate who has the courage to speak openly about any "elephant in the room." I went so far as to hire an Elephant Detective - Detective Dogwith A'Bonne - to keep me informed of elephants in every hidden nook and cranny of every room in the nation. (He might be peering into your room right now!)


And we're going to rant, rave, discuss, share, and even brainstorm about them. Every last one. Race, Religion, Politics, Sex, Money - even the not so obvious ones like Water Cooler Gossip, Media Moguls, Hellbender Rights, Going Mental and Loving It, and everything in between.

Know of an elephant you want uncovered? Let Detective Dogwith know at Elephant.Detective@gmail.com. He'll expose them, I'll voice them, and you will unabashedly comment frequently and with no holds barred!

Disclaimer: Not everything you read, hear, or see is true, including in this blog. I won't even tell you which is fact or fiction on this site - you have a brain and Internet access - check it out for yourself and feel free to challenge me at will. This magnificent nation was founded on healthy debate - so hit me with your best shot!