The Physician
Who Told
Cheney The F*** Word
By Jackson Thoreau
10 September, 2005
Opednews.com
Dr.
Ben Marble, a young emergency room physician who plays in alternative
rock bands and does art on the side, needs our help. Since he was the
one who told Dick Cheney to "go fuck yourself" on Sept. 8,
that's the least we can do.
Marble is a complex
guy, to say the least. Some of the lyrics he writes can be considered
harsh by some personally what I've heard is very much on target
- but he has a softer side as an organizer of breast cancer fund-raisers,
not to mention an ER doctor.
When he, like thousands
of others, lost his home due to Hurricane Katrina last week, it was
the single most traumatic week of his life. That led to his Sept. 8
confrontation with the man who best represents the worst of the most
callous, heartless, shittiest administration in U.S. history.
As Marble explains,
he was driving to his destroyed house Sept. 8 in Gulfport, Ms., when
military police refused to allow him to cross a barricade that was about
200 feet from his home. They forced him to drive an extra 20 minutes
and spend even more on gasoline.
"Thanks to
Dubya Gump and Mr. Cheney, gas is really expensive and extremely hard
to get anywhere Katrina has destroyed," Marble wrote. "So
needless to say, I was extremely aggravated that they wouldn't let me
pass."
Suddenly a long
line of dark cars pulled up, and they honked at Marble to back up to
let them through the barricade that supposedly no one could drive through.
That only made Marble madder so he did what most of us would do
or at least consider doing.
"I waved a
middle finger at the caravan," Marble wrote.
After driving the
extra 20 minutes and filming video of destruction along the way, he
made it to his home. Marble overheard a neighbor say that Cheney was
down the street talking to people. That's when he got the idea to go
meet Dr. Evil himself.
"I am no fan
of Mr. Cheney because of several reasons," Marble wrote. "For
those who don't know, Mr. Cheney is infamous for telling Senator [Pat]
Leahy 'go fu** yourself' on the Senate floor. Also, I am not happy about
the fact that thousands have died due to the slow action of FEMA, not
to even mention the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time,
i.e. Iraq."
So Marble, who was
wearing an old Mr. T "I Pity Da Fool" t-shirt since he was
sifting through the wreckage, asked a couple of police officers if he
and a friend could walk down to Cheney. They told him Cheney was "looking
forward to talking to the locals.
"So we grabbed
my Canon digital rebel and my Sony videocamera and started walking down
the street," Marble wrote. "And then right in front of the
destroyed tennis court I used to play on Dick Cheney was giving a pep
rally, talking to the press. The Secret Service guys patted us down
and waved the wands over us, and then let us pass."
As he stood about
10 feet away from Cheney and his friend and some camera operators from
CNN and other media filmed the scene, Marble suddenly yelled, "Go
fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go fuck yourself, you asshole!"
Hey, at least Marble
was polite. After all, he referred to Cheney as Mr. Cheney.
"I had no intention
of harming anyone but merely wanted to echo Mr. Cheney's infamous words
back at him," Marble wrote. "At that moment, I noticed the
Secret Service guys with a panic-stricken look on their faces, like
they were about to tackle me, so I calmly walked away back to my former
house."
His friend videotaped
a little bit longer and then came back to Marbles house. As they
were salvaging a few things from Marble's home, two military police
waving M-16's showed up and said they were looking for someone who fit
Marble's description who had cursed at Cheney.
"I told them
I was probably the person they were looking for, and so they put me
in handcuffs and 'detained' me for about 20 minutes or so," Marble
wrote. "My right thumb went numb because the cuffs were on so tight,
but they were fairly courteous and eventually released me after getting
all my contact info. They said I had NOT broken any laws so I was free
to go."
So lets get
this straight: A physician with a newborn baby loses most everything
he owns in the hurricane, does what most of us WANT to do and echoes
Cheneys words he spoke on the Senate floor last year, walks away
harmlessly, mission accomplished, and then once the media cameras leave,
he is treated like a foreign terrorist as Cheneys goons waving
M-16s handcuff him in front of his destroyed home? Had it not been for
the media cameras filming the initial scene, I doubt Cheneys goons
would have just let Marble go after 20 minutes.
America, land of
the free?
Marble and his family
have been in the media spotlight before, including his wife, Lisa, and
baby, Sofia Grace, who was born shortly after the storm, on CNN. Marble
has also been interviewed in art magazines and the Biloxi Sun Herald
about his concert fund-raisers and musical success one of his
bands, dR. O, has had at least 20 No. 1 songs on the MP3.com charts.
"The truth
is even with all our losses, we are still luckier than many people down
here because at least we didn't die," Marble wrote. "But I
thought I could try to raise some awareness to the bad policies of the
Dubya Gump administration and also possibly raise some money to replace
the many things we lost, and so I decided I would auction the videotape
my friend shot of the event. I will also grant an interview to the winner
if so desired."
So go to eBay here
and place a bid for this important video to help Marble raise some needed
funds. I have done so and was at least at one time the high bidder.
Marble also has
an Internet site with photographs of some damage in his town at www.HurricaneKatrinaSucked.com.
A photo of him is here, and you can also email Marble at [email protected].
Dr. Ben Marble,
you rock. May we all return the favor.
UPDATE: Late Friday,
Sept. 9, eBay, which is owned by strong Bush-Cheney supporters, took
down Marble's site. Marble said it was because he didnt bleep
out the first fu of fuck, so he did that, and
the eBay site is back up here. The bidding is over $1,000, as of late
Sept. 9.
www.geocities
Jackson Thoreau
is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. The latest book to which
he contributed, Big Bush Lies, was published by RiverWood Books of Ashland,
Ore. He is working on another book called "Thou Shalt Not Cheat:
How Bush and Rove Broke the Rules, From the Sandlot to the White House."
He can be contacted at [email protected].