(Sent to The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press,
the HBL, and various friends, family and associates.)

From Robert C. Nasir

[Header from copy sent to the Harry Binswanger List:]  Would anyone on the List be able to comment on the significance, historically, of inaugural speeches -- are they usually as bad as the one George W. Bush just delivered? I'd love to hear some reassurance that we can dismiss the speech as completely non-representative of George W.'s coming performance as the Chief Executive.

As for my personal reaction to the speech, the following is a letter I sent out this morning to my friends, family, and associates, geared to a non-Objectivist audience. ___________________________________________________________

Is George W., the man I supported for the presidency, gearing up to be worse than his father?

His inauguration speech reads as though written by his father, and includes the same premises which forced me to vote against both George, Sr., and Bob Dole, despite the loathsomeness of their opponent now leaving office.

George W. is calling for the same damned evils -- faith and sacrifice -- his father has. The same anti-American ideas which made his father a traitor to the American ideal of autonomy, the same moral philosophy his father called upon to destroy the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not merely in our laws, but in the national conscience.

"Where there is suffering, there is duty." Is this not a justification for every welfare, Medicare, social security, and every other altruistic program the Democrats pursue? Are we free individuals, or are we our brother's keeper? Given the explicit religious messages throughout the inaugural speech, the answer is clearly that we are in hock for our very existence to a purpose "higher than ourselves."

"Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens; not problems, but priorities; and all of us are diminished when any are hopeless." One would think that "strangers vs. citizens" is a senseless distinction, unless one accepts that citizens have more than rights, they have prerogatives, they are owed something by those of us who would otherwise prefer to remain strangers to their needs.

"And some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and mosque, lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and laws." In our laws? God forbid! Just which churches, whose faith, which charities are to become honored and it what ways by our laws? And which of us are to become disenfranchised, because our ideas are not properly respectful of nor aligned with our ruler's notions of faith and charity?

"Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience. And though it requires sacrifice, it brings a deeper fulfillment." The government has only one proper means to "encourage" anything -- by leaving us alone, free to pursue what should be encouraged. Freedom is the only needed -- and proper -- encouragement men require to pursue their interests.

"I ask you to be citizens. Citizens, not spectators. Citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character." Welcome to Red America.

"Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves." What about those of us who do not? What about those who believe that a man's life is an end in itself - respecting that right in others. Are we no longer Citizens, no longer entitled to our lives, our honors, our sacred fortunes?

"We are not this story's Author, Who fills time and eternity with His purpose. Yet His purpose is achieved in our duty; and duty is fulfilled in service to one another." So just who the Hell is this "Author"? The God of Abraham? Mohammed? Buddha? Zeus? My coffee table ashtray? And how do we know "His" purpose? Do not worry - apparently George W. and the United States government will see to that.

Well, if this inaugural is any indication of the four years to come, God help us all.