No, I Am Not Happy

Basically, I’m a happy guy. I love to laugh. I’m married to a beautiful, thoughtful, supportive wife. I’m living my childhood dream. I’m a doctor.

Dr. Errington Thompson

Recently a friend sent an e-mail that touched a nerve. It was about happiness. The first paragraph reported on polls showing that a vast majority of Americans are unhappy with the direction of our country, and with our President’s leadership. The e-mail went on to berate Americans for being unhappy: after all, we have a great economy, it said — we have jobs and a roof over our heads. It went on and on, then ended with the question: What is there to be unhappy about? I thought about this for a little while, and then I wrote the following:

But the fact is, I
wrote, we should be unhappy. When we learn that we have been lied to,
we should be unhappy. When people you trusted, and confided your
heart-felt soul and dreams to, turn out to be con-men — you should be
unhappy! Vice President Cheney stated, “There is no doubt that Saddam
Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is
amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and
against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional
ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbors —
confrontations that will involve both the weapons he has today, and the
ones he will continue to develop with his oil wealth.” None of this was
true, and the Vice-President knew it at the time.

When a Black man who is running for president of the United States is
called a “Halfican” by several leading right wing commentators, and
there is no action taken against them — I’m unhappy. When those same
commentators play a song called, “Puff the Magic Negro,” sung in Al
Sharpton’s voice, and it’s about Barack Obama, and these commentators
are still on the air — I’m unhappy.

When politicians like John Warner, the Republican senator from
Virginia, stand up and say that we need to end this war, and then turn
around and vote against timetables, troop withdrawal, and giving troops
some time away from the front — yep, I’m unhappy.

When the average family has two or three incomes, and still can’t make
ends meet, I’m unhappy. The average income for the top 20 hedge fund
managers was $654 million last year. Average! We have a system in place
whereby if you are born rich you can’t lose. If you are born poor, good
luck! Of course I’m unhappy. Aren’t you?

Remember Mark Foley, the U. S. Representative from Florida, and the
e-mails he sent to teenage pages?

Initially the Republican House
leaders, and now their Democratic successors, refused to turn over
documents to investigators based on a separation of powers argument.
Because of this, the statute of limitations is about to run out (maybe
deliberately) on Mark Foley. He probably will not be charged with
anything. Somebody should turn over something to Florida prosecutors,
because it is the right thing to do. Yes — I’m unhappy.

Last January President Bush said, “To establish its authority, the
Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of
Iraq’s provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in
the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues
among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better
life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion of its own money on
reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs.
To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections
later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation’s
political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws, and
establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq’s
constitution.”

None of this has happened. There has been no oil revenue sharing law.
The Iraqi government isn’t close to being able to take over its
security responsibility. Promises were made, none of them were kept,
yet we were supposed to believe that the surge is working.

An influential Sunni sheik met with the president when he came to Iraq
and was called a model of reason and courage; days later he was blown
up near his house. But we’re supposed to believe the Anbar province is
a model of security and tranquility.

General Petraeus used the exact phrases that White House officials,
including President Bush, used to describe the success of the surge.
His data did not coincide with other reports including the GAO report,
General Jones’s report, or the national intelligence estimate. When you
look at his methodology, it was clearly flawed. But no major network,
and very few newspapers, have said that General Petraeus’s report was
seriously inaccurate. I’m unhappy, and anyone who watched any of those
hearings should be unhappy also.

When six teens in Jena, Louisiana got arrested on second-degree
attempted murder charges and conspiracy charges, I became more than
unhappy. I became depressed. When three nooses got hung in a tree, and
the principal suspended the students responsible but the schools
superintendent overturned the suspension, I started taking Prozac! When
black students staged a protest by standing under the tree and the
town’s district attorney told them that he could end their lives with
the stroke of a pen, I increased my dose of Prozac. When a white man at
a gas station pointed a shotgun at several black teenagers, the teens
took the shotgun away from the man in defense of their lives being
threatened.

The black teenagers were then charged with stealing a firearm — but no
charges were filed against the man who pulled and pointed the shotgun
at the teens! By this time, I’m thinking that Zoloft (another
antidepressant) may be a better drug for me! Several white students
beat up a black student, and no charges were filed. Two or three days
later, one of the white students involved in the beating began to hurl
racial epithets at the black student who was beaten up. The black
student and several of his friends beat up the white student, and the
six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder!
(In fact, the white student went to the ER, where he was treated and
released; his injuries were so minor that he went to a party later on
that night.)

This is not justice, especially in a country that was founded on the
rule of law. I just want to see fair treatment! If the black students
are charged with attempted murder, then the white students should face
the same charge.

If the prosecutor lets the whites off because “kids
will be kids,” then he should let the blacks off as well. The problem
is not the students, but the adults who allowed this situation to get
so out of hand and become so racially charged.

Inequality, lies, and judicial and racial bias can make even the
happiest person sad. The greatest thing about America is the promise in
our constitution that we can and will do better.

Now, that makes me happy.