Tyler's Turn Blog

One of my favorite things on NPR these days is StoryCorps. Every Friday, Morning Edition includes an interview from the StoryCorps project. These are personal stories of everyday people interviewed by friends or family in a traveling studio, which has been touring the country.

The way the StoryCorps project works is that people schedule time to go into the StoryCorps booth and interview each other. The resulting interviews have a personal tone not possible in more formal interviews with strangers. After recording, all the interviews are given to the Library of Congress as an oral history of this time and place.

More often than not, I cry as I listen to the interviews NPR plays on Friday mornings. Sometimes I laugh. Always, I'm touched by the joy of listening to another person share from the heart.

One of the most touching interviews was an adopted child asking his birth mother why she gave him up. Another was a grandfather ansering his grandson's question, "How did you meet Grandma?" I'm reminded of conversations I've had with family and friends around a table or over coffee.

Check out StoryCorps. It'll give you hope for the world.

I listened to the whole press conference yesterday as I walked the dogs, and I think the MSM is missing a very important part of what the President said. They're all focusing on Iraq and his "admission" that the troops will likely be there through 2009 — as if no one knew that before Bush said it.

Where the MSM has missed the boat with Bush is on his belief that "any means necessary" really means "any means necessary." Yesterday, Bush said:

"My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We — when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. . . . And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people."

Bush is a devout evangelical Christian who takes the idea of vows very seriously. He believes he vowed on September 11, 2001 to do "everything in [my] power to protect our people." That explains a lot.

This vow is where Gitmo comes from. This vow is where the torture memo comes from. This vow is where illegal wire-tapping comes from. In fact, this vow makes almost any action moral for Bush, as long as it's done to protect the American people. As far as Bush is concerned, every decision post 9/11 has been subject to that vow. And the bottom line is whatever it takes to keep America safe from terrorism.

That's really scary, both because the limits on his actions are so broad (everything in my power) and because the goal is so impossible to achieve (to protect our people). We've already seen Bush stretching the legal and ethical limits of his power. And we know he defines "protection" as protection from terrorism and not protection from the government, from environmental chaos, or from economic collapse. How soon before he begins to redefine "our people" to make the vow's goal more achievable (our people already excludes terror suspects and anyone who's not American)?

Every time I hear this president speak, I have to remind myself that Armageddon is not inevitable. Likelier than it was six years ago, maybe, but not inevitable.