THE BUSH BOYZ took over the wild, wild Western world 20 months ago, and gunsmoke is still billowing out of the streets. The saloon still reeks of thirsty charlatans. The town remains without a physician to stop the bleeding. The only Bush rolling down the street is tumbleweed.

You may recall that when our president strode into town to snuff out the liberal lawlessness of the Clinton years, he said these things in his inaugural address:

''We will control weapons of mass destruction so that a new century is spared new horrors.''

''Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility.''

''Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.''

''If we permit our economy to drift and decline, the vulnerable will suffer the most.''

''When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.''

Since then, this world has become a place where women are yanking their children off the street even faster. As Bush forces the entire planet to dance to his war drums against Iraq, our local weapons of mass destruction are causing new horrors. The D.C. sniper kills 10 and wounds three. A nursing student shoots three professors and himself to death at the University of Arizona. A member of the rap group Run DMC is shot to death in Queens.

A teenager in Oklahoma stole his father's shotgun and went on a rampage, killing two people and wounding eight. Despite the heightened security of our courthouses, a man in Dayton, Ohio, got his hands on the gun of a deputy and shot the officer in the calf before he himself was shot to death by other officers. In Michigan, two men walked into a gun store. One of them opened fire with an assault rifle, killing the owner and wounding the owner's son. The two men ran off with some money and at least 10 handguns.

At Lincoln High School in Jersey City, N.J., a student was showing off a handgun to a friend when the gun went off, wounding the friend in the abdomen. Once the wounded was swept away in the ambulance, classes continued as normal. Just another day in the wild, wild Western world. Only a massacre gets our attention.

Republicans always promise law and order. But last year, homicide, rape, robberies, burglaries, car thefts, and petty thefts all went up for the first time in 10 years. While those supposedly out-of-control big Eastern cities - which harbor the people least supportive of Bush in the 2000 presidential election - continued to have decreases in homicides, the Bush strongholds of the West, Midwest, and South had the biggest increases.

Now that we have more wounded travelers, neighbors, classmates, and teachers on the road to Jericho, the Bush Boyz are still on the other side. The economy has continued to drift and decline. The number of Americans without health insurance rose last year from 39.8 million to 41.2 million, or from 14.2 percent to 14.6 percent. The number of people living in poverty rose last year from 31.6 million to 32.9 million, or from 11.4 percent to 11.7 percent.

Median income fell nearly $1,000, from $43,162 to $42,228. This has been of no concern to the Bush Boyz. Sheriff George is still counting his pennies from the $848,000 he got selling Harken Energy stock, a sale that according to a recent report in the Globe looks more and more like a case of insider trading.

Deputy Cheney is still dragging his feet on releasing documents that might show whether his energy task force meetings had any influence on the administration's allegiance to Big Oil and its nearly complete dismissal of concerns about the environment. Facing a Nov. 5 deadline for releasing the documents, the Bush administration said this week it had only reviewed two of 12 boxes.

This does not exactly inspire trust over cynicism.

That is not to say that a lot of shootings and chicanery did not occur during the Clinton years. But the Bush Boyz rode into town on a wagon train of values. They told us they knew what the meaning of is is. Nearly two years later, with the midterm elections upon us, the streets remain much too wild.

While the Bush Boyz tell us how evil and oppressive Saddam Hussein is, corrupt CEOs continue to spill out of the saloon, angry people are blasting away from coast to coast, the dollar is shrinking, and health insurance is disappearing. That does not sound like a community overcoming chaos. That is a great way to create a ghost town, turning promises into tumbleweed.

© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company

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