Rahm Emanuel and crisis

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Rahm Emanuel. "It is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

My response on the HOB/D:

I hesitate to post in response to this because I greatly respect Susan Russell but the quote by Rahm Emanuel, which has shown up in quite a few places recently really bothers me.

That quote is exactly the attitude that got us in to most of the problems of the Bush administration.  The Bush administration used the crisis of 9/11 to launch an attack on Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11 and allowed members of the administration to put into place plans that they had for a long time.  It also was the impetus behind the Patriot Act and similar measures which have  which have done immeasurable damage to the constitution of our country.   The list could go on but I think you get the point.

I also think this is largely the thinking of those who have fomented division in the Episcopal Church.   The took advantage of the so called crisis of Gene Robinson becoming a bishop to put into place power plays that they had longed for.  

I understand that this is not what Susan had in mind but it may have been what Emanuel had in mind.  Obviously we can not avoid crisis and we should make of them what ever positive that we can but the idea of nearly hoping for an opportunity to do things which you otherwise could not has caused us a lot of trouble in the last 7 or 8 years.