Matt sent this in. It’s a good interview with one of my favorite authors, an author who, by the way, Matt turned me onto when we were both youngsters in high school. The interview is about our government and the coming war in Iraq. It’s good. Vonnegut’s great. I love the man and I respect him. Here’s a clip from the article:
I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”
Read the whole thing. You’ll like it. In addition to being a damned good writer, he’s a very perceptive observer of history.
With that said, and acknowledging the fact that our country is being run by a smug buffoon, I still hold to my opinion that, given all the facts, we need to proceed on the matter of removing Saddam Hussein from power. While I love Mr. Vonnegut and respect him, I don’t think that he’s offering a better, realistic alternative. As I said before, it kills me to think that this war is allowing Bush’s gang to force through asinine legislation and that he and his oil friends will financially benefit from it, but I don’t see another course of action that makes sense.
