If you’ve never seen the USA Network series about the 4400 people who were supposedly abducted by people from the future, modified and then returned to the “present” time, you won’t get the title of this blog entry.

In that show, 4400 people, over decades of time, disappeared from the face of the Earth. There was rampant speculation that they had been abducted by aliens and, of course, there were even more people who felt that those who believed such stories were fruitcakes.

In our own time, however, we have seen that it actually is possible to make people — and other things — disappear.

For example, under the Bush administration, the short-but-interesting lists of things which have disappeared are these:

Accountability.

It started from the git-go, when the Supreme Court of the United States decided that Florida election officials did not have to account for all the votes cast in the 2000 presidential election. From there, the Supreme Court ducked (pun intended) the issue of whether the Bush Administration had to account to the American people for allowing oil and other energy executives to craft a secret United States’ Energy Policy which, near as anyone can tell, called for pushing gasoline prices to $7/gallon before Bush finally has to leave office. The case was returned to the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the government of the Administration, by the Administration and for the Administration could keep this secret away from the People. The latest episode, of course, was graphically — and tragically — demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina.

Integrity

This one is more complex, because the Bush Administration has done a phenomenal job of convincing Americans not only that this ex-coke-addict who routinely chastises his staff for telling the truth is a man of integrity, but that he’s God’s right-hand man.

It’s scary to read things like this quote from a Newsweek story about the man at the top:

It’s a standing joke among the president’s top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. — Evan Thomas, “How Bush Blew It” (September 19, 2005) Newsweek.

These indications of Bush’s failure in the area of integrity are bad enough. But if you take into consideration that he could not have “accidentally” told lies about the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, that alone should convince you. Here is a man who not only deliberately mislead the American people, but worked behind the scenes to get other countries to lie, as well. It’s not enough that his lies have sent thousands of Americans to their graves; when government officials have told the truth, he has offered to kill their wives.

Reality

The Bush Administration has repeatedly denied — or tried to re-make — reality. Their efforts frankly The newest border on the delusional. Bush Administration joke concerning lightbulbs would be funny, if it weren’t for the fact that it clearly reflects this new “reality.” Just today, Jennifer Loven reports over at ABC News that President Bush said “he is encouraged by the increasing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces.” As Loven notes,

The sunny presentation of the situation in Iraq is part of a renewed push by the administration to win support for the war effort from an increasingly reluctant American public. — Jennifer Loven, “Bush: Iraqi Military Showing Progress” (October 1, 2005) ABC News.

Unfortunately, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General George Casey, says it’s just flat out not true. This is the second time this week that Casey has tried to force a reality check. But the Bush Administration won’t hear it. Expect Casey to be silenced or transferred any day now.

Christianity

Huh? What? Christianity disappearing? It’s important to note what we’re talking about here. I’m discussing Christianity-with-capital-C, the sort of Christianity where people actually live their beliefs. Today’s christianity (lowercase c) exemplifies comments made by Isaiah several thousand years ago:

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. (Isaiah 29:13 (NIV).)

Jesus himself is reported to have quoted Isaiah, adding, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.” (Matthew 15:7 (NIV).) It’s hard to refute this when you consider this recent item from the Los Angeles Times online:

Of the nations studied, the U.S. — which has by far the largest percentage of people who take the Bible literally and express absolute belief in God (and the lowest percentage of atheists and agnostics) — also has by far the highest levels of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. — Rosa Brooks, “The dark side of faith” (October 1, 2005) Los Angeles Times.

Truthful Reporting

But one thing which has gone missing cannot be totally blamed on the President.

We depend upon reporters to deliver information to us about what is happening in the world. Only an informed citizenry can make appropriate choices at the polls. Only people who know and understand what is happening in the world can work to change it.

But, increasingly, the news has focused on getting people excited about…The News. Not only do we no longer even get some stories, but more and more the stories upon which the news organizations dwell are stories about which not much can be done. And, even there, we’re receiving more opinion than reportage.

So it is that the main story on the CBS News website today is about a bombing of a shopping center in Indonesia. The average American can do nothing about this. But it sure gets us stirred up. We can’t safely navigate past an accident without our heads spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. How could we possibly not tune in to see the carnage on CBS?

If you press through the muck that is their front page, you might eventually find a link to stories of political corruption and the recent indictment of Tom DeLay, arguably at least one of the most powerful Republicans in the United States.

Visit CNN and the main story there is — well, I’ll be damned! — it’s a bombing of a shopping center in Indonesia!

ABC? Indonesian shopping center bombing. MSNBC? Oh! Look! Someone bombed a shopping center in Indonesia!

Hey, at least MSNBC gave us some good news, too! President Bush’s popularity slide is tapering off. Even though Tom DeLay was recently indicted, Bush’s current level of support is holding steady.

But that feeling that everything at home is okay is at least partly manufactured by the New Media. After all, as I said above, an uninformed citizenry cannot effectively mobilize in order to change and improve our society. And when 500,000 people trying to get the rest of the nation’s attention and focus us on the need for change can simply disappear, there’s no doubt The News will be good.

In a world like that, it’s only reality that will suffer.

Perhaps Bush isn’t such a bad President after all; in the end, he’s setting a shining example for how to handle reality when it turns out to be not what you wanted.