A Pope, A President, Mitch Albom, The Detroit Free Press

Excuse me since I am departing from my intended purpose of my blog — to report true things that have happened to me. I feel a need to rant and rave about hypocrisy I have seen recently. The hypocrisy concerns Pope Paul II and President Bush. Then I would like to talk a little about The Detroit Free Press and one of its columnists, Mitch Albom, who also is a book author and a radio host.

Over his reign, Pope Paul II central teaching was his opposition to war. No other Pope has been as emphatic as this Pope about how wrong war was. Pope Paul II talked frequently about the United States and how he strongly opposed its going to war against Iraq.

I was horrified and embarrassed by President Bush when he first announced his plans on attacking Iraq was really a preventative strike in the fight against terrorism. We were told that without a doubt Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction but that someday in the future that Iraq would share its weapons with terrorists. Of course, we discovered not only was there no weapons of mass destruction, but our attack of Iraq became a recruiting poster for future terrorists.

After 9/11 we had the sympathy of the world. Most of the world was outraged at the violence against innocent people. In one act, President Bush, attacking Iraq, wiped out all that good will and sympathy. The world now disliked the United States as an aggressive country.

Today, the reasons for going into Iraq have shifted from weapons of mass destruction. The real reason we went to war we are now told was to liberate the people from a dictator. This has proven to be illogical since those with real weapons of mass destruction and dictators turned out to be Iran and North Korea.

Now President Bush is bankrupting the United States future with the cost of keeping soldiers in Iraq, as well as rebuilding the country. Our children and grandchildren will eventually have to pay the bill for this deficit. Yet, President Bush says the real enemy to our future is Social Security. Once again, he has shifted the argument.

I heard a comedian say the difference between the Pope and the President is this: the Pope believed in talking to God, the President thinks God is talking to him.

So, it was somewhat hypocritical for President Bush to attend the Pope’s funeral and talk about what a great Pope Paul II was. If President Bush wanted to honor the Pope, the United States would not have gone to war against Iraq. When President Bush’s face appeared on a big screen at the funeral, there were boos by the audience. The crowd recognized the hypocrisy.

Now for the Mitch Albom controversy. He was on deadline for a Sunday column in which it was announced that two ex-Michigan State basketball players were at the NCAA Final Four series. Before deadline the two players had told Albom that were planning on attending the Michigan State game. Albom wrote the column, stating that they were at the game, only to learn later that the players were unable to attend.

Mitch Albom is a solid journalist who made a mistake in judgment — he trusted his sources, which did not pan out. Albom wrote another story acknowledging his mistake. On crimes against humanity, out of a scoring system of 1 to 10, Albom’s mistake ranks a 3 at the most.

But was The Detroit Free Press satisfied with his apology? No, on the front page of their April 8 newspaper on the upper left hand column, it says:

“A Question of Ethics”
“Columnist’s error being investigated.”

The newspaper further banned Albom from printing future stories until its investigation is done.

Now, please!! Talk about ethics. The news media and its reporters were rushing to be embedded with different divisions during the Iraq War. This is a 10 on the scoring system of 1 to 10. Did the news media ever question the war? Did they help promote the war? Did they ask President Bush softball questions?

The Detroit Free Press has a nerve to talk about ethics. They did not turn against this President until it was clear there were no weapons of mass destruction. They did not ask the hard questions about the invasion of Iraq. Talk about hypocrisy. If the Free Press wants an ethics investigation, they should turn to an outside source to see how they contributed and supported the war effort.

Who really cares about whether or not two ex-Michigan State players showed up at a game? When put into perspective to the war in Iraq as an ethics question, there is no comparison.

Okay, I am done with my ranting and raving. I will try to get back to what my blog is supposed to be about. I could not help myself this time.