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Katherine
Montgomery
The
Emperor's New Clothes
When I was a child, I never much
liked fairy tales. Princesses with peas under their mattresses
or hair growing down several stories didn't captivate my
attention as much as stories about real people or historical
events. But there was one tale I did like: Hans Christian
Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes". For those
who may have forgotten, it's the tale of an emperor who
is interested mainly in wearing fine clothes. He is duped
by two swindlers who pretend to weave him the finest cloth
while actually pocketing the gold threads and producing
nothing. As the emperor parades his newest finery, which
is nothing but his birthday suit, and the adults of the
realm congratulate him on his fine taste, a child in the
crowd pipes up the truth that the emperor is actually wearing
no clothes. Knowing that the truth has been revealed, the
Emperor nonetheless continues his procession as if nothing
has been said.
Why do I refer at length to this
fairy tale? Because day in and day out I feel like the child
in the tale as I listen to the words of out elected politicians
and watch their posturing on t.v. Perhaps the epitome of
that was President Bush landing on the aircraft carrier
decked out in flight suit and announcing that the war in
Iraq was over. Meanwhile, since then, hardly a day passes
without an American soldier being killed or wounded, and
the AlQaida terrorists appear to have made Iraq their new
home base.
But it's not just Iraq. We are told
that the recession is over, the economy is on the mend,
and productivity is at an all time high. The stock market
has turned around a bit, but millions of people are out
of work. Productivity is high because those with jobs are
working 60 to 80 hours weeks. During the last two years
we've seen a record number of personal bankruptcies.
On the education front, we are told
that no child will be left behind . The funding to make
this claim possible, however, has fallen far short of what
was promised, and school districts are complaining about
unreasonable procedures now required by the law.
We hear about the Clear Skies initiative
which will bring us the cleanest air ever. Yet regulations
are passed that permit old power-producing facilities to
continue polluting the air, rather than make the previously
required changes to eliminate pollution. Those regulations
fly in the face of the medical community reporting an alarming
increase in asthma and other bronchial conditions in all
segments of the population, including children.
The Labor Department wants to re-write
what it describes as an out-of-date regulation regarding
overtime pay so that more people will be eligible. What
it proposes, however, will deny such pay to millions of
Americans, including our revered first-responders, who have
come to rely on such pay to make ends meet.
In an effort supposedly to clean
our water, the Administration has passed a regulation which
actually raises the amount of arsenic permitted in that
water. It also released reports shortly after 9/11 stating
that the air near Ground Zero in New York was safe to breathe
before the tests for certain hazardous chemicals had even
been conducted.
Is this the EPA's way of protecting our environment?
As I listen and watch the Administration
distort facts day after day, I can't help but reflect on
that fairy tale. Life in this country is not as the Administration
would have us believe. Are we all simply going to humor
the Emperor? I, for one, am standing up to say that he has
no clothes.
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