Sometimes it's hard to be funny. This is one of those times. With the mess that our political leaders are getting us into, it's hard to talk about fun '80s trivia. Perhaps, then, now is a good time to draw some parallels, unpleasant as they may be, between the reign of President Ron and Daddy Bush with the reign of Bush Junior.

Sorry, I can't be funny right now. I don't find our country's situation amusing; in fact, it actually is tossing me back to our political situation in the '80s . . . so I suppose that even though I won't be humorous, I will be sticking to my column's theme.

Right now we have a President, son of a former President who paved the way for his reign in the White House as the VP of yet another President. All three of these men, and those politicians and military officials advising them, spoke then, and are speaking now, loud and long, about madmen on the other side of the world who want nothing more than to blow us up, the sooner the better.

Those madmen, they said then, and say now, are pure evil. Listen to these Presidents' speeches and you can just picture said madmen sitting back in a plush chair in their vast office/palace, spouting the stereotypical evil laugh of "Mwhahahahaha . . . " while those of us in the white hats on this side of the world get all fired up and load up the gun rack to go knock some sense into them. This would mean going in full force with our guns and bombs blazing, until their country is nothing more than an oversized parking lot for an international Wal-Mart Superstore that will be build on the site where their capitol city once stood.

According to the latest polls (I hate polls), our latest "white hat" President, recently complaining about his daddy's "black hat" enemy that he needs to finish off, has a 70 percent approval rating for his position on going to war: "We gotta blow that varmint up right now before he blows us up."

(As an aside, may I ask when the main bad guy switched from that crazy dude with the camcorder to the one with the disco moustache? It's like a reel of the latest action flick got lost and with it went the plot--such that it is.)

Funnily enough (and not in the amusing sense), the desire for an immediate attack is not what I hear from my relatives, friends, coworkers, people on the street, and those interviewed on local and national television and radio. I don't know where that 70 percent is; I haven't found them yet--and as an employee of the news media, I hear more than my fair share of opinions, whether I want to or not. In any case, the people I've heard from all say the same thing: "Why do we have to go to war, again? I think I missed something, here."

What's even funnier (once again, not in the amusing sense) is that it really reminds me of America's situation in the '80s. Remember the Cold War that dragged on for 30 years or more and peaked in our favorite decade? Remember the fear of hearing the sirens that meant a nuclear warhead was headed our way? Remember the Doomsday Clock, which marked how close we were to annihilation depending on how loudly our countries' leaders were rattling their sabers? Didn't we learn anything from that time? Apparently we did not.

Very little has changed in 20 years . . . with the exception that the term "nuclear weapons" has been replaced by the comic-book term "weapons of mass destruction"--can we PLEASE come up with a better all-encompassing name for the weapons threat? The players are the same--heck, even our main villain from Daddy Bush's era has returned for the sequel.

Don't get me wrong, though. I am not some dewy-eyed granola-crunching peace bunny. Well, okay, I am, but I realize that we as a country are more vulnerable after September 11, and we are more inclined to want to fight back. I understand that the U.S. has plenty of enemies, and those enemies want to get a piece of us. I believe in defending ourselves. I believe in stopping those who want to do harm to us or to others.

Yet think back one more time, to the "Axis of Evil" prequel (sheesh, more comic book terms--quit it!), the "Evil Empire" of the Soviet Union. Remember when we finally faced our enemy? He was a little bald guy with a splotch on his head and sad eyes. He looked tired--more tired than our ex-movie star leader. Most important, he wanted peace more than we did.

Remember what happened next? We all became friends. We put away our weapons; the tired bald guy knocked down a wall and the world partied; and the Doomsday Clock was retired--all because we faced each other like human beings and realized we were just that--all human, all alike, all scared.

I never thought I'd be saying "look to the '80s" except for a good laugh or a nostalgic moment, but perhaps we should remember our recent history from that decade before we try to create some new hero myth at the expense of those frightened people . . . as well as our own.

 

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Jayne Denker is a thirty something writer who will work on just about any writing assignment, anyplace, anytime as long as it's something nifty associated with pop culture--especially GenX, of course--and/or entertainment. She is actually employed full time as a web content manager but also fills any free time she may happen to find on her hands with freelance writing assignments to offset the "manager" nonsense. Jayne lives with her husband and three psycho kitties (qu'est que c'est) in quite a small lakeside cottage in western New York state. When she's not writing or "managing," she enjoys loafing/watching movies, cleaning up after the psycho kitties, designing web sites, reading, and making magic. E-mail