"The other kids were all into black power," Oprah told the Tribune in the mid-1980s. But "I wasn’t a dashiki kind of woman … Excellence was the best deterrent to racism and that became my philosophy."

Excellence indeed. Few would deny that Oprah Winfrey has achieved an extraordinary degree of THAT, at least by our society’s warped standards. Witty, articulate, attractive, beloved by tens of millions, and fabulously wealthy, she is the "I pulled myself up by my bootstraps" queen of a vast media empire. Oprah is a living embodiment of the American Dream. What is perhaps most inspiring to her genuflecting disciples is that Oprah rose to her stratospheric position of wealth and influence from an impoverished start in a socioeconomic hierarchy still largely dominated by white males.

Oprah Winfrey ostensibly possesses the mythical Midas Touch, a generous spirit, deep spiritual wisdom, and, in the eyes of those blinded by their adoration, the credentials of a saint. Yet despite appearing destined for canonization, Oprah injects heavy doses of infectious pus into the already deeply abscessed wound of the American psyche.

Six years it has been. Six years so very long ago, and six years still very short.

A child born that terrible blue sky morning prepares this September to head off to school. A freshman made suddenly aware the meaning of real terror after living only in terror of her first days at high school is now an upperclassman at college. A sixteen acre hole in the heart of a nation slowly fills with concrete and rebar, a sky-scraping phoenix soon to rise from the ashes.

Six years in which so very much is different, and six years in which too much is the same.

We all remember where we were and what we felt on the morning of September 11th, 2001, when calamity glided down upon us out of a clear blue sky. We remember the feelings of fear and trembling, of sadness and loss. Most of all we remember the images, the so many awful images indelibly seared on our souls.

When comedian Lewis Black said sardonically that he knew we shouldn’t go to Iraq, and he was just sitting on his couch, he also echoed how numerous Americans felt about the stolen presidential election of 2004.  On November 3, of that same year, we woke up and felt that, once again, we had been had without knowing all the facts.  We felt it because we knew that what had happened in 2000 had not been fixed.  Sadly, before the 2004 election we proceeded on a noble mission to register thousands of more voters than ever before, believing that the truth of a great turnout would be the antidote to voter fraud, as if a higher paying job would resolve being robbed at the bus stop every day.

However, they, the GOP, had done it again, but how could we prove it, and what could we do, especially since another Democratic contender passively walked away from us?  A collective depression set in and then we began the stages of grief, but somehow we weren’t able to go beyond denial.  Fortunately, some followed the inference of the last election, and lifted themselves above the post-election stupor in order to find out exactly what happened.

United for Peace and Justice, the country's largest anti-war coalition, has produced an assessment of the situation on the ground in Iraq that contrasts sharply with the projected conclusions of  the  so-called Petraeus Report – actually written within the White House.  Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of the group, which claims 1400 members, states:  " We feel it is essential to provide a true picture of what the shattered lives of the 25 million Iraqis look like today. Prepared by Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver, researchers at the Institute for Policy Studies, Iraq: The People's Report  takes a look at what this war has cost Iraqis and the U.S."

Iraq: The People's Report notes that:

• two million Iraqis have fled the war to seek hard-to-find refuge in neighboring countries, and an additional two million Iraqis have been forced by war-fueled violence to flee their homes and  remain displaced and homeless inside Iraq.

• most Iraqis have electricity for only about five hours a day, clean water remains scarce for most and unobtainable for many, and Iraq's oil production remains a fraction of what it was before war.