A few random thoughts about the state of the nation the past few weeks.
The next time a politician or some other celebrity adulterer gets discovered having an affair, paying a hooker or soliciting for a gay sexual act couldn’t he just have the courage to face the press without including his wife or other family members?
For the last week or so the press has played the inane game of belittling the wife of the NY governor that she would “stand by her man” and become one more in a long line of betrayed wives standing in front of the press with their cheating spouse.
At the same time the opposite political party does all it can do to take advantage of the immoral behaviors of the adversarial party’s exposed member…yeah, that is a play on words.
Why not shut up for god’s sake!!!? While political hacks fail in most areas to actually have bipartisan cooperation, there is one area that is bipartisan; the sexual infidelities and peccadilloes of men and women in power.
And what a refreshing thing it would be for the unfaithful individual to accept responsibility without having to have their partner in the limelight. Man up for god’s sake!
And on the same subject, do the people of this country have nothing better to do than worry about the sexual lives of politicians and celebrities when young men and women still die in Iraq and Afghanistan entering the sixth year of occupation? Don’t we have more important and pressing issues in this nation like making good on the promise of rebuilding the homes of the Katrina survivors, making good on a pledge to rebuild the Iraq infrastructure or ending this damnable war that is sucking the life out of the U.S., Iraq and Afghanistan??
I also wonder why the 4,000 dollar call girl gets free layout shots on front pages of many of the American newspapers while the headlines scream out about the immorality of the unfaithful husband. What the fuck?? Monica and all the other victims of the horrible crimes of prostitution or sexual harassment by a famous man always seem to cash in and the morality police look the other way while the poor wife is badgered endlessly and the idiot husband is made out to be vile and evil.
What great role models we have for our daughters with the now famous call girl, the Monicas and other air heads like Paris and Britney. We gripe about sex permeating our culture but like childish voyeurs can’t avoid giving fame to childish men and women who want everybody to know about their sexual exploits. Oh, and the fact the porn industry is a billion dollar plus industry sort of flies in the face of the chaste American persona.
There’s also the idiot editors of rags like the local Rocky Mountain News who consistently endorse conservative dogma but don’t mind putting the call girl with open blouse and plenty of cleavage on their front pages. Looking for stories on the war in Iraq or Afghanistan? You’ll have to look in the back part of the paper for that one.
Another question comes up in my mind. Why is it sexist to oppose Hillary for President when there are so many valid reasons to do so? Granted the candidacy of a woman for president is a new phenomena but Hillary is hardly new as an insider of the ruling class of whites that have held power since the beginning days of the American republic.
NOW and other feminist groups have tried to portray poor “Hill” as the victim of scurrilous attacks by men but seem ok she backed down to Bush on the beginning of the war, allowed herself to be bought off by the Zionist AIPAC and seems to change colors and positions more frequently than a chameleon.
And why should we exonerate her for the codifying racism her campaign has carried out through hubby Bill in his Jesse Jackson analogy of Obama’s victory in South Carolina or Geraldine Ferraro’s blatant statements the reasons for the Obama success has been his blackness at the right time in history. And of course ads about who we would trust at 4 a.m. are also nothing but code for the racist liberal asking us if we really want a black man to be the one. Especially one who is just a “boy” in his experience in Congress.
Give me a break! There are plenty of reasons for Hillary to be thought of as an undesirable candidate that have nothing to do with being female. And of course all the misogynists of the world will deny their sexism and fall back to those other reasons but that doesn’t mean all of us against Hillary are sexists.
And then there’s Obama who wants us to believe he’s a man of integrity and against the war from the get go. Except for all those times he voted to continue the funding of the war. Another egregious action is the cowardly disavowal of his fiery mentor and former reverend at his church. When white Americans become upset the reverend dare suggest God will damn America for the racist and imperialistic policies it has upheld since the days of Washington and that the terrorism of 9/11 was brought about because of past policies that have enraged many parts of the world for it’s tyranny and repression, Obama buckles under and says he never heard the “preach” say these things and he’d never have agreed with them if he had.
Video of blacks leaving the rev’s church after making such comments seemed to indicate most agreed with such an assessment. And why shouldn’t any marginalized community be angry and know they aren’t part of the wealth and prosperity this nation has had? Infusion of drugs, prison and unemployment make all the dreams die quick deaths.
Now Obama is back tracking on his betrayal of his mentor with a new speech that still disavows what he said but explains the anger and many reasons why he might say such things. Talk about Orwellian double-speak!!
And it all circles back to our occcupations and why Americans will always look at the death of one American as being ten to twenty times more important than the death of an innocent Iraqi child, Vietnamese mom or Nicaraguan peasant. The very outcry of anger and angst when someone dares suggest our nation is complicit in oppressing citizens of nations from the Middle East to Central America to Asia is a loud cry of racist ignorance of history.
From backing the Catholic minority tyrants of Saigon to imposing the Shah upon Iran to funding the death and destruction of Saddam there is clearly a nasty trail of American foreign policy never caring how much harm came to the citizens of the nations we imposed our will upon.
We fail to remember or even know democratic elections have been overturned with our help whenever the winner is someone who doesn’t put American interests above those of the people of that nation. Contras, the duly elected president of Iran who attempted to nationalize the oil industry and the attempts to overthrow Hugo Chavez are all examples of our “democratic” intentions in other parts of the world.
We need only look at the most repressive “government” of the Middle East that has enjoyed our constant support, the monarchy of Saudi kings and sheiks. We only need to look at the racist policy of our biggest ally other than the Saudis, Israel.
And we question why those chickens came home to roost??? Oh, sorry…..those words uttered by a college professor or fiery black preacher are anti-American even if they do describe the truth.
Let’s not forget John McCain, though. He just went on his eighth visit of Iraq. Seems like he wants to earn a Combat Action Ribbon. The joke is, his statements the war is working, the surge is working and that American occupation is successful in bringing democracy to Iraq.
McCain wants Americans to believe he’s some kind of expert in combat tactics because he was shot down over North Vietnam in his jet that took off from an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Being a POW made him a legitimate American hero in the eyes of most Americans.
McCain gets well orchestrated walks near the Green Zone in which large numbers of American troops are put on alert and guard him. The area he walks through is cleared well ahead of time by the occupation forces and merchants and other civilians are screened with only the most accommodating allowed to speak to the Senator. He hears the report by the hand picked troops and civilians the occupation has brought progress to Iraq and declares our cause is just.
We can’t blame McCain alone, however. The constant visits of American Congress people get the same orchestrated and artificial treatment. Visits to the few places that have begun reconstruction and walks through areas well fortified have become the norm and the Congress staff and American people are sold a bill of goods.
Let’s remember McCain has recently qualified his stance about the wars. At first he challenged Bush for the mishandling of the war but now he’s talking about the possible need for American troops for the next hundred years. McCain has changed his mind so many times on so many issues I wonder if he wasn’t hit too many times in the head while a POW and suffers from some serious traumatic brain injury symptoms.
I’d just warn anybody listening to American dignitaries tell us how well things are going in Iraq and Afghanistan to recall how the media is only allowed into the field when they’re embedded with the military. Independent reporting and information is scarce. Manipulation of information by the military and the Bush administration is rampant.
One last comment has to do with a group called Gathering of Eagles. This group has taken to shadowing the ever growing GI resistance movement of Iraq veterans, both active duty and discharged. They also turn out for the antiwar rallies being held in D.C. and other cities to get their twisted thinking published as opposition to any group calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The press plays right into their hands and gives the 40-50 equal time with the 200,000 with opposite opinions.
Last summer the group stalked the father of a soldier who had been killed in action in Iraq. The father had taken part in an antiwar rally in D.C.. He was carrying a small mock coffin with an American flag on it. The father is a member of a group called Military Family Speaks Out that opposes the war and seeks to bring troops home.
The Gathering of Eagles thugs ripped the American flag off the mock coffin the dad was carrying. The father was alone because the rally had finished. The thugs physically assaulted the father before they left. The next day, there was a photo of the leader of the Gathering of Eagles shaking hands with President George W. Bush at the White House.
This past week the Gathering of Eagles marched outside the college where members of Iraq Veterans Against the War were holding their Winter Soldiers Investigation hearings. The hearings were individual veterans testifying about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The troops testifying spoke about incidents in which innocent civilians were injured, killed or tortured. They also spoke about private contractors using American troops to guard their workers to assist the companies in reaping more profits from the war. Each speaker was asked to produce their discharge papers and any evidence that would validate their stories. Their backgrounds were verified and any witnesses besides the speaker contacted to verify the stories.
Outside the perimeter of the hearings, Gathering of Eagles members claimed the veterans inside were fake, traitors and communist sympathizers. They spoke to the press about the great “progress” being made in Iraq. They listed hundreds of schools and other public services that had been returned to normal. What they failed to mention was the fact most of the reconstruction was in the Kurdish part of Iraq where little fighting has occurred. The Kurds have been trained by the Israeli army and much of the rebuilding has been assisted by the Israeli and American governments.
Listening to the interview of the members of the Gathering of Eagles was much like most of the rhetoric I’ve heard across the country from neocons associated with the Bush/Cheney/Rove wing of the Republican Party. They attempt to smear the reputation of their opponents and call the service of veterans into question to carry out their own agenda. We must keep in mind a day after thugs for this group assaulted the grieving father of a soldier killed in action while in Iraq, their leaders were meeting and smiling with George Bush. Wonder if they told the war story of how they assaulted the father.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…no, that can’t be used anymore after Crawford…meanwhile back in America. Billions of dollars continues to be spent in the administration of American occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Social programs for the poorest and weakest Americans continue to be shorted in funding by the federal branch of government. The American economy is diving fast into a recession. Workers in this nation now make 1/200 of what most CEO’s of large corporations make. Many of the CEO’s have driven their companies into bankruptcy and insolvency but still garner huge buyouts for their failures in leadership.
As we approach the next “important” election for a “new” presidency, many states can’t assure the voter their vote will be properly counted. Voting machines sold by corporations with ties to the Bush administration have been allowed to be used despite evidence of tampering and break downs. Four years after Bush was elected for his second term, the voters of Ohio are now being told there were problems back in 2004 that possibly tilted the election to Bush. Ohio’s electoral votes were the ones to clinch the election for Bush.
And as the song says….”the beat goes on”.
And here is the rest of it.
Tuesday, March 18
Sunday, March 16
The Duty of the Winter Soldier
I probably won’t listen to much of the Winter Soldier Investigation of IVAW. I’ve heard many of the vets speak and know what they will say and I can only grieve once again at how terribly, terribly immoral we continue to be as a nation.
When regular German soldiers led POW’s into the showers of Dachau they committed a war crime. When they gunned down innocent civilians they were just doing their duty but they still were committing atrocities and war crimes.
When I fired a white phosphorous grenade from the tube of an M-79 grenade launcher I committed a war crime. When I destroyed civilian habitats to displace the villagers so they couldn’t possibly aid the VC, I was breaking the tenets of the Geneva Convention accords. The killing of a prisoner that couldn’t give us intel even after we had water-boarded her was an atrocity. None of us ever reported it. We were just doing our jobs.
And that is the problem. Soldiers and Marines can’t say they were just doing their job without admitting they took part in illegal activity. We can’t say we witnessed something and be without responsibility and guilt if we failed in attempting to stop it or report it.
We’ve allowed humans to become “gooks” which allowed us to look the other way, to just do our jobs and to take part in things we knew were wrong.
History will not absolve us. And try as we may, we can never forget these things as just being part of war. It becomes easy to kill humans if we never know their names or their stories.
WSI is about acknowledging the atrocity and criminal acts of war that become routine for the combat troops. Some say giving such testimony is heroic. Some will want it both ways…they were protecting the nation but they took part in these things.
No, we don’t protect our nation with such actions. We do irreparable harm. We aren’t heroes because we protected one another in battle but failed to protect the most vulnerable. The children and innocents deserved our protection but got our sophisticated means of death and agonizing wounding. Throwing candies to the kids while dropping cluster bombs won’t equate as a good will gesture.
Yes there were implied commands from our superiors on the conduct of carrying out our war. It’s really easy to blame command for creating the culture that allowed My Lai and other lesser slaughters and massacres. But at some point, we individuals knew what we did wasn’t right. We can’t hide behind “duty”.
True duty as humans and as patriots is exposing the immorality of the actions we were being asked to participate in. True duty is taking the stand in investigations such as Winter Soldier. The concept of Winter Soldier dates back to the words of Thomas Paine during revolutionary days of this nation. “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. “.
George Washington’s army had many sunshine soldiers who left him when the cold weather of winter started. Only the dedicated patriot stayed with him during the harshest times of winter.
Today, America is facing the harshest of times as an illegal and immoral occupation drains the lifeblood of our nation. Trillions of dollars have been diverted from programs that could save the lives of newborns, pay the tuition of millions, provide treatment for the mentally ill, aid the elderly, send food to the hungry and rebuild nations that have been previously bombed by our bombers.
Today America is facing the harshest of times as we alienate nations around the world, as we create enemies when we could have established trust and alliance and as we allow ourselves to become terrorists in the dropping of cluster bombs, bunker busters and “smart” missiles.
Today this nation faces harsh times as our young men and women return with horrible wounds of the body and mind and are unable to get the care needed to heal. We face harsh times as we forget the hundreds of thousands dead and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan that are innocent bystanders of our occupation. We face harsh times as we allow ourselves to redefine torture as an acceptable technique of interrogation. We face harsh times as we continue to irradiate the lands we occupy with depleted uranium used in our weapons.
It is the duty of the Winter Soldier to speak out against the policies of the government of the people that causes irreparable harm to our nation. It is the duty of the Winter Soldier to fight against immoral acts of leaders who are more intent on increasing power than improving the standing of our nation as a citizen in the world and a leader in the world.
I know this flies in the face of what many at Winter Soldier believe of this event. I’ve already heard commentary calling the testimony of troops as heroic. I’ve heard the resistance of active duty troops being called bravery. I agree with the latter but disagree with the first.
Taking part in illegal and immoral occupations and then returning to decry what we took part in isn’t heroic to me. I never felt heroic to tell the story of my time in war. I never felt heroic to talk about those days in 1968 with the Marines. What I saw and took part in disturbed me greatly as an eighteen and nineteen year old combat infantryman. The horrors of war compelled me to give testimony about what I witnessed.
I was as young as a Marine could be entering combat back in 1968. At eighteen, I may have been extremely naïve and overly indoctrinated by the Marine culture but even so, I knew the killing of children and innocent civilians either purposely inflicted or as collateral damage was immoral.
I went to war under the influence of propaganda disseminated by mainstream media and the American government’s PR network. I understood I was going war to prevent the spread of tyranny caused by Communist terrorists. I understood I was going to war in an attempt to establish democracy and freedom in a beleaguered nation. I was led to believe participation in my war would be honorable.
I quickly learned the honor I was looking for in Vietnam was missing. Brutal treatment of civilian populations, disrespect for the culture of the Vietnamese people and the violation of Geneva Convention regulations by firing indiscriminately into civilian population centers was in direct contradiction to what I defined as honorable.
The words gook and zip and the intentional dehumanization of the Vietnamese people told me I wasn’t fighting for their freedom or the establishment of democracy for them. The destruction of the villages and homes of Vietnamese was a clear example of our own tyranny. Refugee camps caused by the displacement of the villagers were testimony against our stated intentions. The impoverishment of previously independent farmers and villagers flew in the face of our stated intentions to aid the Vietnamese. Seeing the blatant prostitution and drug trade in formerly flourishing villages and small towns didn’t show me a story of success in our attempts to help these people.
Now, forty years later these same stories are happening again in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once again we have imposed our will with violence while saying we only intend the best for the people of those nations. Once again we have failed to remember history and have repeated our past mistakes.
Now forty years later we have failed the very ideals of democracy, freedom and justice by our actions of occupation in foreign nations. The Winter Soldier has the duty to speak out when they see our nation taking the wrong and immoral path.
When regular German soldiers led POW’s into the showers of Dachau they committed a war crime. When they gunned down innocent civilians they were just doing their duty but they still were committing atrocities and war crimes.
When I fired a white phosphorous grenade from the tube of an M-79 grenade launcher I committed a war crime. When I destroyed civilian habitats to displace the villagers so they couldn’t possibly aid the VC, I was breaking the tenets of the Geneva Convention accords. The killing of a prisoner that couldn’t give us intel even after we had water-boarded her was an atrocity. None of us ever reported it. We were just doing our jobs.
And that is the problem. Soldiers and Marines can’t say they were just doing their job without admitting they took part in illegal activity. We can’t say we witnessed something and be without responsibility and guilt if we failed in attempting to stop it or report it.
We’ve allowed humans to become “gooks” which allowed us to look the other way, to just do our jobs and to take part in things we knew were wrong.
History will not absolve us. And try as we may, we can never forget these things as just being part of war. It becomes easy to kill humans if we never know their names or their stories.
WSI is about acknowledging the atrocity and criminal acts of war that become routine for the combat troops. Some say giving such testimony is heroic. Some will want it both ways…they were protecting the nation but they took part in these things.
No, we don’t protect our nation with such actions. We do irreparable harm. We aren’t heroes because we protected one another in battle but failed to protect the most vulnerable. The children and innocents deserved our protection but got our sophisticated means of death and agonizing wounding. Throwing candies to the kids while dropping cluster bombs won’t equate as a good will gesture.
Yes there were implied commands from our superiors on the conduct of carrying out our war. It’s really easy to blame command for creating the culture that allowed My Lai and other lesser slaughters and massacres. But at some point, we individuals knew what we did wasn’t right. We can’t hide behind “duty”.
True duty as humans and as patriots is exposing the immorality of the actions we were being asked to participate in. True duty is taking the stand in investigations such as Winter Soldier. The concept of Winter Soldier dates back to the words of Thomas Paine during revolutionary days of this nation. “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. “.
George Washington’s army had many sunshine soldiers who left him when the cold weather of winter started. Only the dedicated patriot stayed with him during the harshest times of winter.
Today, America is facing the harshest of times as an illegal and immoral occupation drains the lifeblood of our nation. Trillions of dollars have been diverted from programs that could save the lives of newborns, pay the tuition of millions, provide treatment for the mentally ill, aid the elderly, send food to the hungry and rebuild nations that have been previously bombed by our bombers.
Today America is facing the harshest of times as we alienate nations around the world, as we create enemies when we could have established trust and alliance and as we allow ourselves to become terrorists in the dropping of cluster bombs, bunker busters and “smart” missiles.
Today this nation faces harsh times as our young men and women return with horrible wounds of the body and mind and are unable to get the care needed to heal. We face harsh times as we forget the hundreds of thousands dead and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan that are innocent bystanders of our occupation. We face harsh times as we allow ourselves to redefine torture as an acceptable technique of interrogation. We face harsh times as we continue to irradiate the lands we occupy with depleted uranium used in our weapons.
It is the duty of the Winter Soldier to speak out against the policies of the government of the people that causes irreparable harm to our nation. It is the duty of the Winter Soldier to fight against immoral acts of leaders who are more intent on increasing power than improving the standing of our nation as a citizen in the world and a leader in the world.
I know this flies in the face of what many at Winter Soldier believe of this event. I’ve already heard commentary calling the testimony of troops as heroic. I’ve heard the resistance of active duty troops being called bravery. I agree with the latter but disagree with the first.
Taking part in illegal and immoral occupations and then returning to decry what we took part in isn’t heroic to me. I never felt heroic to tell the story of my time in war. I never felt heroic to talk about those days in 1968 with the Marines. What I saw and took part in disturbed me greatly as an eighteen and nineteen year old combat infantryman. The horrors of war compelled me to give testimony about what I witnessed.
I was as young as a Marine could be entering combat back in 1968. At eighteen, I may have been extremely naïve and overly indoctrinated by the Marine culture but even so, I knew the killing of children and innocent civilians either purposely inflicted or as collateral damage was immoral.
I went to war under the influence of propaganda disseminated by mainstream media and the American government’s PR network. I understood I was going war to prevent the spread of tyranny caused by Communist terrorists. I understood I was going to war in an attempt to establish democracy and freedom in a beleaguered nation. I was led to believe participation in my war would be honorable.
I quickly learned the honor I was looking for in Vietnam was missing. Brutal treatment of civilian populations, disrespect for the culture of the Vietnamese people and the violation of Geneva Convention regulations by firing indiscriminately into civilian population centers was in direct contradiction to what I defined as honorable.
The words gook and zip and the intentional dehumanization of the Vietnamese people told me I wasn’t fighting for their freedom or the establishment of democracy for them. The destruction of the villages and homes of Vietnamese was a clear example of our own tyranny. Refugee camps caused by the displacement of the villagers were testimony against our stated intentions. The impoverishment of previously independent farmers and villagers flew in the face of our stated intentions to aid the Vietnamese. Seeing the blatant prostitution and drug trade in formerly flourishing villages and small towns didn’t show me a story of success in our attempts to help these people.
Now, forty years later these same stories are happening again in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once again we have imposed our will with violence while saying we only intend the best for the people of those nations. Once again we have failed to remember history and have repeated our past mistakes.
Now forty years later we have failed the very ideals of democracy, freedom and justice by our actions of occupation in foreign nations. The Winter Soldier has the duty to speak out when they see our nation taking the wrong and immoral path.
Saturday, March 1
Arrogance
After 58 years and nearly 9 months I continue to be outraged and refuse to accept the status quo. I refuse to linger in this world intent on destroying itself without resistance and solidarity with revolutionary actions of the oppressed.
We have a world where small children are made soldiers and prostitutes. A world where a child dies every 50 seconds or so in ways related to hunger.
What’s worse is a country rich beyond the realm of imagination spending billions of dollars on weapons of war or the means to kill people. These dollars could feed the rest of the world, provide healthcare, jobs and increased standards of living around the globe.
Instead, the people of my birth nation consume wildly and still aren’t satisfied with huge homes, gas guzzling SUV’s and flat screen televisions for every room. They ignore the plight of the impoverished and dying children. They think the money given the Church will somehow filter down to the unfortunates and their consciences are clear. But they insist the churches be some miniature form of the Sistine Chapel first.
My nation has arrogantly created enemies when it could have formed friendships and cooperation around the world. My nation is a nation of arrogance that fears the ever growing tide of world wide demands for justice.
The great American Empire has failed us. The people of the empire fail to see the emperor is without clothing. They stand still with apathetic disregard as more and more of their rights are stripped from them in order to “protect” them from the boogey-man of communism, terrorism and unionism.
The American people live in a perpetual fear that has been manufactured by the elite rich trying at all costs to protect their wealth and power. The fiefdoms of corporate America have off-shored the American jobs to further emasculate the workers’ attempts to merely earn a living wage.
One in every one hundred adult Americans is incarcerated. The growth industry of prisons continues to mushroom. Soon they will have all the “niggers, spics, white trash and fucking liberal terrorists” locked up and the country will be cleansed for the ruling whites who have always ruled since the time they stole the lands of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Whites and the elite claim the reason for the decline in crime is because of the numbers incarcerated. They just can’t explain the Columbines, the Virginia Techs and the other senseless killings caused by mostly white gunmen with ready access to every type of weapon except heavy artillery, jets and tanks.
Wars continue to rage and bombs built in American factories continue to kill wherever they’re dropped without discrimination of victims. Nine out of every ten killed will be an innocent man or woman. Or child. Forty percent of the deaths in wars are children. That number fails to account for the deaths of innocent children because of fouled water and lack of food.
American imposed sanctions meant to allegedly punish dictators and tyrants, often brought to power by American government, punish only the poorest and weakest of the nations they’re imposed upon.
Arrogant America continues to live in a delusional world in which the past is to be forgotten by all those victimized by the rich and elite powers that have always ruled. Reservations far from the original lands of the indigenous people are still the poorest areas of the richest nation in the world. Italian-Americans continue to celebrate the fictitious “discovery” by the barbarian, Columbus, and refuse to understand his initiation of genocide, rape and the theft of lands sacred to indigenous people.
Arrogant America screams in revulsion when a professor accuses them of being the cause of the September 11, 2001 bombings of the towers in New York. They fail to understand the historical grievances of so many in the Middle East. They refuse to accept a new “shoah” or holocaust is happening in Palestine caused by a nation established by the Nazi death camp victims.
Arrogant Americans continue to think the electoral process is the keystone of “democracy” when the truth is no son or daughter of a common man will ever be elected President or Senator. And most likely they will not be elected to the House either. The alleged democracy of Arrogant America is bought and paid for by special interests. Special interests equate with the rich and elite of multinational corporations evading taxes and investing outside American shores. These are the special interests that still continue to steal the natural resources of poor nations and exploit the poor and weak of every nation they enter.
Arrogant America elects stooges and sell-outs that lack original thoughts and ideas. They spend obscene amounts of money for sound bites on a mass media bought and paid for by the rich and elite. Most Americans can’t hold a political discussion based on anything other than the oft repeated bullshit of those sound bites. Most Americans fail to understand the connection between the costs of war and the costs of groceries. Most fail to understand just how obscene it is to spend billions on the rigged two party elections. A toss of a coin is just as likely to bring the same results without any of the costs of the foolish campaigns.
Obama, Hillary and John are the choices this time around. A black, a woman and a senior citizen are supposed to be evidence of how far the nation has come in acceptance of diverse people. Tell that to the imprisoned young blacks, Chicanos, Hispanics, Latinos and poor and impoverished that couldn’t buy their justice like so many in this nation is able to.
Arrogant America will cheer their young soldier off to war but once the parades are over on their return the same soldiers are tossed away like the weekly trash to be dumped in landfills. Arlington, Ft. Logan and other national cemeteries become their landfills.
Arrogant America will continue to allow brothers and sister with non-white faces to be profiled by the over-seers of the racist power structure. The over-seers wear blue uniforms and badges in disguise but they aren’t here to serve and protect anybody except the status quo. Inequity of sentences for the same offense remains a constant between non-white defendants and whites.
But most likely the justice served has to do with the socio-economic factor of the defendants. The poor go to the prison industry’s warehouses while the rich will get away with murder figuratively and literally. The poor are more frequently non-white.
Arrogant America will continue to allow the poisons of crack, meth, heroin and other opiates to kill and disable the children of the marginalized communities. The addict continues to be treated as the criminal while the drug trade in poor nations is often started and funded by black bag operations of Arrogant American “spooks”. Arrogant America is down with letting gang members deal and trade in the poisoning of brothers and sisters. The blue uniformed gangs of police oversee the criminalization of entire generations of blacks and non-whites but seldom if ever does the investigation reach the true criminals reaping the blood money of the drug industry.
Ollie North and his gang got their slap on the wrist and Arrogant America quickly forgot their government was a major player in drug and gun running. Follow the syringe of the drug trade. Every nation that suddenly becomes the leading exporter of the poisons seems to have a connection with Arrogant American military actions. Vietnam, Latin America, Afghanistan and on and on.
The oppressors make money while they poison the young of the non-white and marginalized communities. Addiction is just another form of oppression used by the power structure to keep the masses subdued.
Arrogant America has discovered they can privatize armies and bypass any rules against torture. They have redefined torture to be acceptable with Orwellian tactics and language. The Prince of Machiavelli would be pleased.
Arrogant Americans found they can repair the Superdome and hold Mardi Gras in the French Quarter while continuing to ignore the lower 9th Ward because the sheep and asleep citizens not living there don’t give a fuck. Arrogant America can steal the homes of displaced survivors of Hurricane Katrina for the rich developers and the rest of the nation is led to believe the rebuilding of NOLA is progressing.
Arrogant America sends more troops, arms more Iraqis and creates the ruse of the surge when in effect they have created sectarian rifts that will last for generations. The Salvadoran option fulfilled just as Operation Phoenix was in Vietnam. Mass media and arrogant American officials are allowed outside the charade of the Green Zone only to see the model rebuilding projects of Iraq. The claim is the maneuvers of the occupation troops have caused new hope in the war on terror. They don’t show the continued insurgency has only moved from one heavily manned area to an area where there is less presence of the occupier. Guerilla warfare tactics are being followed as they were in Vietnam.
The Iraqi infrastructure remains in ruin and potable water remains scarce for most of the Iraqi people. Electricity remains infrequent for most. Foreign workers continue to have more work than Iraqis. The medical care of Iraq has gone from state of the art to being overwhelmed and lacking modern equipment and enough doctors. The once thriving economy and educational system no longer exists. Russian arrogance in Afghanistan has given way to American arrogance throughout the region and sectarian violence is assured whether the oppressor leaves or stays.
The litany of arrogance and oppression could go on for many more pages. The fiction of democracy continues despite all evidence to the contrary. Oligarchy has continued since the first signing of the Declaration of Independence. The gap between the poor and the rich grows larger while the middle class continues to disappear.
We are at a tipping point in history. We can continue to cower in fear and allow freedom to be taken completely away or we can resist. The time of oppression has been continuous for many brothers and sisters while many of us have had it good.
We can continue to allow the oppressor to keep us divided with racism and other evil tactics of oppression or we can join together to resist. The only recourse we have to retain as much freedom as possible is resistance.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW member – Denver
USMC combat vet of Vietnam
December 31, 1967-February 12, 1969
We have a world where small children are made soldiers and prostitutes. A world where a child dies every 50 seconds or so in ways related to hunger.
What’s worse is a country rich beyond the realm of imagination spending billions of dollars on weapons of war or the means to kill people. These dollars could feed the rest of the world, provide healthcare, jobs and increased standards of living around the globe.
Instead, the people of my birth nation consume wildly and still aren’t satisfied with huge homes, gas guzzling SUV’s and flat screen televisions for every room. They ignore the plight of the impoverished and dying children. They think the money given the Church will somehow filter down to the unfortunates and their consciences are clear. But they insist the churches be some miniature form of the Sistine Chapel first.
My nation has arrogantly created enemies when it could have formed friendships and cooperation around the world. My nation is a nation of arrogance that fears the ever growing tide of world wide demands for justice.
The great American Empire has failed us. The people of the empire fail to see the emperor is without clothing. They stand still with apathetic disregard as more and more of their rights are stripped from them in order to “protect” them from the boogey-man of communism, terrorism and unionism.
The American people live in a perpetual fear that has been manufactured by the elite rich trying at all costs to protect their wealth and power. The fiefdoms of corporate America have off-shored the American jobs to further emasculate the workers’ attempts to merely earn a living wage.
One in every one hundred adult Americans is incarcerated. The growth industry of prisons continues to mushroom. Soon they will have all the “niggers, spics, white trash and fucking liberal terrorists” locked up and the country will be cleansed for the ruling whites who have always ruled since the time they stole the lands of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Whites and the elite claim the reason for the decline in crime is because of the numbers incarcerated. They just can’t explain the Columbines, the Virginia Techs and the other senseless killings caused by mostly white gunmen with ready access to every type of weapon except heavy artillery, jets and tanks.
Wars continue to rage and bombs built in American factories continue to kill wherever they’re dropped without discrimination of victims. Nine out of every ten killed will be an innocent man or woman. Or child. Forty percent of the deaths in wars are children. That number fails to account for the deaths of innocent children because of fouled water and lack of food.
American imposed sanctions meant to allegedly punish dictators and tyrants, often brought to power by American government, punish only the poorest and weakest of the nations they’re imposed upon.
Arrogant America continues to live in a delusional world in which the past is to be forgotten by all those victimized by the rich and elite powers that have always ruled. Reservations far from the original lands of the indigenous people are still the poorest areas of the richest nation in the world. Italian-Americans continue to celebrate the fictitious “discovery” by the barbarian, Columbus, and refuse to understand his initiation of genocide, rape and the theft of lands sacred to indigenous people.
Arrogant America screams in revulsion when a professor accuses them of being the cause of the September 11, 2001 bombings of the towers in New York. They fail to understand the historical grievances of so many in the Middle East. They refuse to accept a new “shoah” or holocaust is happening in Palestine caused by a nation established by the Nazi death camp victims.
Arrogant Americans continue to think the electoral process is the keystone of “democracy” when the truth is no son or daughter of a common man will ever be elected President or Senator. And most likely they will not be elected to the House either. The alleged democracy of Arrogant America is bought and paid for by special interests. Special interests equate with the rich and elite of multinational corporations evading taxes and investing outside American shores. These are the special interests that still continue to steal the natural resources of poor nations and exploit the poor and weak of every nation they enter.
Arrogant America elects stooges and sell-outs that lack original thoughts and ideas. They spend obscene amounts of money for sound bites on a mass media bought and paid for by the rich and elite. Most Americans can’t hold a political discussion based on anything other than the oft repeated bullshit of those sound bites. Most Americans fail to understand the connection between the costs of war and the costs of groceries. Most fail to understand just how obscene it is to spend billions on the rigged two party elections. A toss of a coin is just as likely to bring the same results without any of the costs of the foolish campaigns.
Obama, Hillary and John are the choices this time around. A black, a woman and a senior citizen are supposed to be evidence of how far the nation has come in acceptance of diverse people. Tell that to the imprisoned young blacks, Chicanos, Hispanics, Latinos and poor and impoverished that couldn’t buy their justice like so many in this nation is able to.
Arrogant America will cheer their young soldier off to war but once the parades are over on their return the same soldiers are tossed away like the weekly trash to be dumped in landfills. Arlington, Ft. Logan and other national cemeteries become their landfills.
Arrogant America will continue to allow brothers and sister with non-white faces to be profiled by the over-seers of the racist power structure. The over-seers wear blue uniforms and badges in disguise but they aren’t here to serve and protect anybody except the status quo. Inequity of sentences for the same offense remains a constant between non-white defendants and whites.
But most likely the justice served has to do with the socio-economic factor of the defendants. The poor go to the prison industry’s warehouses while the rich will get away with murder figuratively and literally. The poor are more frequently non-white.
Arrogant America will continue to allow the poisons of crack, meth, heroin and other opiates to kill and disable the children of the marginalized communities. The addict continues to be treated as the criminal while the drug trade in poor nations is often started and funded by black bag operations of Arrogant American “spooks”. Arrogant America is down with letting gang members deal and trade in the poisoning of brothers and sisters. The blue uniformed gangs of police oversee the criminalization of entire generations of blacks and non-whites but seldom if ever does the investigation reach the true criminals reaping the blood money of the drug industry.
Ollie North and his gang got their slap on the wrist and Arrogant America quickly forgot their government was a major player in drug and gun running. Follow the syringe of the drug trade. Every nation that suddenly becomes the leading exporter of the poisons seems to have a connection with Arrogant American military actions. Vietnam, Latin America, Afghanistan and on and on.
The oppressors make money while they poison the young of the non-white and marginalized communities. Addiction is just another form of oppression used by the power structure to keep the masses subdued.
Arrogant America has discovered they can privatize armies and bypass any rules against torture. They have redefined torture to be acceptable with Orwellian tactics and language. The Prince of Machiavelli would be pleased.
Arrogant Americans found they can repair the Superdome and hold Mardi Gras in the French Quarter while continuing to ignore the lower 9th Ward because the sheep and asleep citizens not living there don’t give a fuck. Arrogant America can steal the homes of displaced survivors of Hurricane Katrina for the rich developers and the rest of the nation is led to believe the rebuilding of NOLA is progressing.
Arrogant America sends more troops, arms more Iraqis and creates the ruse of the surge when in effect they have created sectarian rifts that will last for generations. The Salvadoran option fulfilled just as Operation Phoenix was in Vietnam. Mass media and arrogant American officials are allowed outside the charade of the Green Zone only to see the model rebuilding projects of Iraq. The claim is the maneuvers of the occupation troops have caused new hope in the war on terror. They don’t show the continued insurgency has only moved from one heavily manned area to an area where there is less presence of the occupier. Guerilla warfare tactics are being followed as they were in Vietnam.
The Iraqi infrastructure remains in ruin and potable water remains scarce for most of the Iraqi people. Electricity remains infrequent for most. Foreign workers continue to have more work than Iraqis. The medical care of Iraq has gone from state of the art to being overwhelmed and lacking modern equipment and enough doctors. The once thriving economy and educational system no longer exists. Russian arrogance in Afghanistan has given way to American arrogance throughout the region and sectarian violence is assured whether the oppressor leaves or stays.
The litany of arrogance and oppression could go on for many more pages. The fiction of democracy continues despite all evidence to the contrary. Oligarchy has continued since the first signing of the Declaration of Independence. The gap between the poor and the rich grows larger while the middle class continues to disappear.
We are at a tipping point in history. We can continue to cower in fear and allow freedom to be taken completely away or we can resist. The time of oppression has been continuous for many brothers and sisters while many of us have had it good.
We can continue to allow the oppressor to keep us divided with racism and other evil tactics of oppression or we can join together to resist. The only recourse we have to retain as much freedom as possible is resistance.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW member – Denver
USMC combat vet of Vietnam
December 31, 1967-February 12, 1969
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