Soapbox

Skull-duggery

Last night I was watching 60 minutes and they did a story about the “Skull and Bones” society, the secret select group at Yale U. that George Bush belongs to. There was discussion of what some of the rituals are, is it a bunch of foolishness (uh, yeah!) and do members exert undue influence in this country Out of approx. 800 living members, there are 6 in the current administration. That’s a pretty heavy concentration, given the population of the country. But none of that was of any real interest to me.

What did make me sit up and take notice was mention of the fact that George Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, purportedly robbed the grave of Geronimo, stole parts of his skeleton, including his skull, and brought them back for display and use in the secret redoubt of the Skull and Bones Society. The “expert” they were interviewing said that there is today a glass case of bones that are referred to as “Geronimo”.
Grave robbing???!!! This is the illustrious, blue-blooded past of our president? Next we’ll hear that another ancester was a profiteer in the civil war, selling over-priced guns to the union army that sometimes blew the face off of the soldier firing them.
This is serious! I want to know: IS that Geronimo in that box? And even if it isn’t, he stole somebody’s great grandfather, (or grandmother) and they should all be ASHAMED and grossly penitent and put the damn thing back!! How dare they make some stupid, ritualistic game that involves the bones of anyone!
I have a modest proposal: lets go find Prescott Bush’s grave and dig his ass up! Then we can wire the skeleton together and use it for a joke prop down at the Davis Theatre where my kid acts. After all- he’s dead, so what difference would it make? Would George Bush think that was harmless fun and no big deal?

I’m not one of those hard-core people who believe that no ancient bones should ever be dis-interred, even for scientific study. Anthropology is an important science, and the bones can be treated respectfully and then re-interred with dignity after study.

But there was nothing dignified or scientific about this: it was grave robbery, pure and simple. This would be a crime if I did it to ole Prescott’s grave, but I guess it doesn’t count if the body is just some old indian, huh?
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but my opinion of Bush II has gone down even farther.