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Are we going to be safer in a Bush second term?
George W. Bush's burning vision for his version of 'freedom and democracy' around the globe has already
profoundly affected the world. His zeal is undimmed says former Greendown School and Swindon College
student Alex Ogle, who was given secret service clearance to cover the swearing in of the 16th two-term
president of the United States on 20 January, in the American capital for his university newspaper.
SOLUTION Though Bush's first term officially from thyroid cancer was making Maria Braechel, a student in
Maintenance free ended at midday, he began his his first public appearance in three Washington D.C., complained
second term four minutes before months. Now fitted with an artificial about what she believed were in-
UPVC fascia boards
noon in front of half a million peo- larynx following a tracheotomy. consistencies in the speech. "He is
cladding & guttering ple gathered in the bitter cold in every few words were interrupted really just contradicting himself
Expertly fitted at DIY prices front of the Capitol, stretching al- by the sound of a respirator that when he is talking about freedom,
most a mile away down the Mall to reverberated around the Mall from because he has been taking free-
TREE SURVEY the Washington Monument. a multitude of loudspeakers. dom away from all Americans and
NO 1)1?POSIT As the first inauguration since The loud rasping prompted one others around the world.
the September 11, 2001 terrorist youngster in the crowd to com- "I go to school here in D.C., and
Work it out for yourself attacks, miles of metal barricades ment that the arch-conservative the public schools are terrible. The
20' fascia board fitted £ 60 enclosed the vicinity of the Capitol judge, appointed by the Republi- U.S. is falling apart, and he is talk-
20' fascia & gutter fitted £135 building. Snipers lined rooftops, can President Richard Nixon in the ing about 'prosperity'?"
20' fascia, soffit & gutter £205 and thousands of armed police and early 1970s, sounded like the dark There were no major crowd dis-
20' fascia & soffit £130 bomb-sniffing dogs were stationed lord of the Star Wars fantasies, turbances as Bush spoke. The few
(prices correct at time of publication) around the surrounding snow- Darth Vader. people who had brought signs held
topped landscape. Alex Og/e, arriving at the them up to steely-eyed
Standing on the stares from the president's
Capitol to report the
pttmj steps of the Capitol, president's inauguration supporters. Keith Nelson
Bush recited the 35 from Washington simply
word inaugural oath wandered silently in and
that every president out of the crowd, holding
since George Wash- aloft a placard that read:
! \S09
ington has taken, fol- 'Same old Cold War oil-
lowing the frail-look- dependent logic.'
Fora free quote
ing William Rehn- The president cited Lin-
quist, 80, the Chief coln, drawing upon the
Justice of the U.S. words of the 16th presi-
Supreme Court. dent of the United States,
e-mail: [email protected] Rehnquist, who who made his first inau-
has been suffering gural speech 144 years
The president's address focused ago.
on foreign policy and he made "The rulers of outlaw regimes
sweeping pledges for a greater can know that we still believe as
role for the United States around Abraham Lincoln did," Bush said.
WRAG BARN the globe. "Those who deny freedom to oth-
"The best hope for peace ... is ers deserve it not for themselves;
Wrag Barn Golf Club, Shrivenham Road, the expansion of freedom in all the and, under the rule of a just God,
world ... we have proclaimed the cannot long retain it."
Highworth, Swindon imperative of self-government, "By our efforts, we have lit a fire
Tel: 01 793 86132 7 Pax: 01793 861325 because no one is fit to be a master a fire in the minds of men."
and no one deserves to be a slave." "It warms those who feel its
a
Email: 0i1b0it ragbarn.com woo'.wragbarn.corn
In the crowd Dave Whitt, who power. It burns those who fight its
works at the Pentagon, was in- progress. And one day this un-
spired by Bush's words. "It is what tamed fire of freedom will reach
I was expecting him to say. How- the darkest corners of our world."
ever, although it is good to say Observers outside America will
these things, it is much harder to either feel assured by the right-
do than say. It is the challenge to eous proclamations, or fear what
make it happen." is to come.
Whitt said he appreciated the : r
Be%w one ofthe minority/ 7 Wash-
president's continual references to
ington who came to protest oppo-
God, and the reaffirmation of God's sition to American foreign policy
place in the legacy of the United
SUPER SLEUT States: "From the day of ourfound-
ing, we have proclaimed that every
man and woman on this earth has
MORSE, FROST, rights and dignity and matchless
TAGGART value, because they bear the im-
age of the maker of heaven and
... which are you? Earth."
Iraq was not mentioned, but Bush
Pit you wits at our implied a response to critics of his
administration's foreign policy.
Murder Mystery Evening, "Some, I know, have questioned
including a 3 course meal the global appeal of liberty ... though
this time in history, four decades
Saturday 12th March defined by the swiftest advance of
£22.50 per head • BOOK NOW freedom ever seen, is an odd time
for doubt."