Belief in Bush

A post on the JRE blog on October 25, 2003:

Letter to the editor of Raleigh News&Observer on Friday:
"I sure wish people would stop criticizing our president. He is my president, but he is your president, too. The "Good Book" says 'we are to pray for those in authority over us'. I wonder what a difference it would make if we all prayed as much as we criticize."

So much said in so few words! We have a president who is not ashamed to admit he does not read, not even newspapers. No curiosity whatsoever. I guess he thinks he knows everything already. And he has constituency who seems to believe that he knows everything and trusts him blindly to do the best. They are too afraid to think for themselves, seek and evaluate information, and admit that he's ruined everything he touched. Where does this close-mindedness and fear of truth come from? Is it instilled from very young age by parents, neighbors, teachers, preachers, media? Is dogmatic acceptance of authority reinforced by many factors in our society? Was there ever a Q&A session after the Sunday sermon? Isn't school, particularly college, the place where critical thinking is taught, along with healthy scepticism and questioning one's deepest convictions? If so, we need to do something about schools, don't we? Otherwise, we'll be a nation of sheep, like the writer of the above letter, letting power-hungry and greedy dictators rule over us while we pray