I wrote this one during one of my frequent nights of being unable to sleep. Cindy Sheehan had just gone to Crawford, Texas to confront George W. Bush about the death of her son, Casey. Two days after I wrote this piece, I was in Camp Casey I.
Her story made me think, first as a parent of two sons, how it would be if they were in Iraq or Afghanistan in harm's way. It also made me think of how my parents looked when I returned from Vietnam.
I realized immediately upon seeing my parents for the first time in over thirteen months they'd been as much at war as I had been.
Only later in talking with my mom did I truly understand the inner turmoil that having a child go to war causes a parent. When I became a parent I had an even better understanding of what it means to have a child in harm's way.
Last evening I met a mother who had a son killed in Iraq. I listened to her compelling story near tears, with great sadness and with an overwhelming sense of rage.
As she talked, I saw in her the compassion and love I remember from my own mother. My mother was never the same after my tour of Vietnam and she was able to have me return alive if not entirely healthy.
Since I heard from many mothers about this article after I posted it, I felt it was something that does touch a parent in some way. I've decided maybe I should put it on top of my blog every so often as a remembrance of moms and dads who still grieve or still wait in horrible limbo.
With great love in my heart for all parents who face the grief or the constant unknown.
An now here it is in the year 2010. What's changed? Another quagmire in Afghansistan? This is why we voted for the young President who promised us dreams but has only kept the nightmares coming???
Terry Leichner, RN
Vietnam combat vet - USMC
Parent of two grown sons
Grandfather of three
Imagine (Written August 22 05)
Can you imagine what it would be like to see them come up to your door?
In uniforms and grim looks on their faces, and your child in the war.
Can you imagine how it must feel when they say those five words?
We regret to inform you…do you hear anything but those five words?
Can you imagine telling your husband or wife your child is gone?
Your child whose birth gave your greatest joy is gone.
I’m sitting here in the middle of the night wondering how someone could question a mother or father who lost a child to this war. How could someone in good conscience accuse a mother of politicizing the death of their child? Have we grown so disconnected with our humanity we can’t imagine the day a parent sees the dark colored car drive up to their street, up to their house and uniformed men emerge?
If you’re a parent, maybe you can imagine hearing those five words. It’s your greatest nightmare. You lie awake at night wondering where your child is at tonight.
You hate hearing the phone late at night. You hate seeing strange dark cars in your neighborhood. You can’t stand the newspaper or television news.
Then imagine the five words. Will you hear beyond them? Will you know before they say them?
Then there will be telling the rest of the family. You tell it over and over again…you child is gone. You want to scream out insanely. How can they be gone!!!!!?
Imagine the memories of your child first walking. The first words from their lips. The first worrisome cold. How can they be gone?
Imagine when you watched them swim, or skate or play baseball or football. Imagine playing basketball with them in the driveway in the fall as the leaves turned gold. Imagine the graduation and the joy in their face.
Imagine the day they leave your house to enter boot camp. The next time you see them their hair is short and they seem different and changed.
Imagine the last flight you see them off at the airport. The last phone call from the place of the war. The last letter.
Imagine the day when, with a broken heart and empty soul, you follow the dark hearse with your beloved child inside a casket. Imagine the numb feeling as you get out and see the burial plot where your child will be lowered into the earth. There will be words from the Bible, the Torah or Koran. They don’t bring your child alive.
There will be family all around you but you’ll be as lonely as you’ll ever be. They’ll hand you a triangle in red, white and blue like it will replace your child or there is something there to comfort you.
Imagine the final moments as the casket is lowered into the ground. The thought of your child leaving this earth before you rips at your heart. You hear over and over the words of sympathy and comfort and they are arrows that smash into your spirit in reminder of your child.
Then everybody leaves, you’re alone with only the terrible thoughts of the death of your child. You wonder how it really happened. You wonder if your child suffered. You wonder if they died alone. Death for you would be a welcome thing instead of these thoughts you have.
Imagine after the first month or so, everybody seems to think you’re able to be yourself again. They’ll never understand you’ll never be yourself again; you’ll never be whole again. Your child is gone and each day is a struggle to get up and each day the sorrow begins again.
Imagine returning to work and seeing the looks and the avoidance of some and the overbearing presence of others. They don’t know.
Imagine going to the grocery store and seeing a child with a smile like the smile of your child. You want to scream out your child is gone!! They’ll look the other way to avoid the sadness you hold in your heart.
Imagine the silence between you and other family members. You’re left to think of the moments of each day when your child would get up, go to school, return from school, go to a friends, eat dinner, go to practice, get ready for bed. Each moment so damn precious and you failed to recognize it at the time.
Imagine hearing a song and becoming tearful because it was your child’s favorite. Seeing a book and the memory of discussing the plot and characters with such joy.
That’s all I can do. Imagine it. My mom and dad feared it each day of 1968. They imagined it but they never heard those five words.
I imagined my sons being that dead child as I sat here this late, late night. My heart ached from just the thought of it. I had memories of them swimming and running. I remembered the day of each birth. I remembered reading Mark Twain or Watership Down to them.
All those memories of my children came flooding back to me and I couldn’t really imagine how gut wrenching awful it would be to hear those five fucking words!!!
“We regret to inform you….”
Monday, April 5
Monday, March 15
The Unimaginable Reality
They still hold their breath every time a door bell buzzes or a phone rings. Their nights are still sleepless with worry and thinking the worst. They hate seeing government looking cars going down their street. It's seven long years since shock and awe started. Nine since the Taliban were first defeated.
Young men and women still go time after time to the senseless wars our nation's leaders can't seem to avoid or don't want to avoid. The ultra rich and fat cats seldom think of them. The average American hardly remembers them. The mainstream media seldom mentions them. What are they doing there, again?
A few years back I wrote a piece about parents waiting for them. I asked the readers to imagine staying up late at night wondering where your child is at that very moment in Afghanistan or Iraq. Are they one of those Marines going through the hell of a Fallujah or a Marjah? Are they pinned down at some remote outpost near the mountains of Afghanistan?
Imagine a parent wondering why their child has been asked to go three, four, five times to the two wars no one at home seems to remember. Imagine a son or daughter who has seen their parent only 24 months of the last 60 months. The parent missed all their recitals, school plays, basketball games, first proms, field days and birthdays while they were gone to a war.
Imagine a young wife left behind by her husband 3 months after their marriage. Living on base is impossible to think about. A constant reminder of where he is. Going back to mom and dad's place seems like one step back. Living with his parents is out of the question. So a dingy studio apartment in a rough part of town seems the alternative. Skyping and emails hardly makes up for the lost intimacy. Minimum wage jobs hardly helps pay the bills even with his private's pay.
Imagine a reservist who has already lost his heating company because he could no longer be in the country to run the jobs. He could no longer bid jobs and expect to get them because his contractors knew he was likely to leave again for one of the wars. They support the war and all but they have to make money. Too bad the reservist got the wrong end of the stick. Who knew he'd end up going back three more times. Too bad his wife faces foreclosure with him out of country at war. Someone should do something.
Imagine the poor lost kid who barely made it through high school because of his ADD. His mom insists he stay on medications but the recruiter says he can enlist if he stops them and signs a waiver. The military doesn't care about the ADD as long as the kid can learn to be a grunt infantryman. Imagine the kid off meds in the middle of a firefight. He gets shot but it hits him in his Kevlar. The guy who befriended him isn't so lucky. He takes a round in the head and bleeds out in front of the kid. The kid makes it through the firefight but the images haunt him. His ADD kicks in big time with impulsive behaviors and disorganized thoughts being in the forefront. He tells his 1st Sgt. to "f' off. He drinks excessively. Misses formations. Fights with his squad leader. They put him on report. He's restricted and spends his time obsessing about the firefight. He sinks into depression and thinks about "offing" himself. He thinks about killing that "top". They put him on suicide watch and place him in a closet with a fire hose and fire axe next to the quarters of the First Sgt.. Smart.
Imagine the parents of the young Marine who came back and fell into the abyss of alcoholism. They keep taking him to the VA but the VA keeps kicking him back out on the streets to return to his torment and his booze. They say he has to be sober before they can provide services. The stupid cycle repeats itself over and over as the frantic family sees their son spiral toward the drain. On one evening the young Marine wants to sit on his father's lap and be held as he was held as a child. A young combat Marine wanted this. The next day the family finds their son hanging in their basement. He will always be known as a suicide but his parents know he was a casualty of the war. He died of the neglect we have allowed ourselves to have toward the returning troops.
Imagine a parent sitting up late at night going through family photos to take to the memorial service of their dead son or daughter. Imagine the young wife devastated by the suddenly abusive husband returning from the war. Imagine the young woman returning home after doing her tour of duty in Iraq surviving the IEDs and firefights but not the rapist who was a member of her combat unit.
Imagine seeing the blood of an infant drained from the body at the site of the exploding cluster bomb. Imagine seeing the sniper round hit your best friend in your combat unit. Imagine his brain matter splashed across your face. Imagine coming to the aid of one of your men whose leg is lying in a horrifying pool of blood across the road. Imagine the arterial blood pumping from the stump of the quickly dying man who screams from the fear and excruciating pain.
Parents sit up late at night wondering if they will see their chld again. Wives get up each morning fearing their husbands next rage attack. Children go to school unable to talk about their mom who has been gone for a year in a place they know nothing about.
Parents and wives, husbands and daughters, sons and brothers, sisters and friends all wonder about their loved ones but feel angry no one else seems to remember them. Imagine that their loved one survives the combat but ends up addicted, incarcerated or dead at the hands of a cop after waiting six months without an appointment with a VA psychiatrist. Imagine a mom being told her son died from " friendly fire" but later is told her son committed suicide. When she questions how he could have shot himself in the temple with a rifle the story changes to "unknown" cause of death. Imagine being awarded a bronze star and purple heart and finding yourself lined up at a local homeless shelter only six months after discharge.
We no longer need to imagine these things. They've all happened along with countless other tragic and detestable stories Defenders of the "holy wars" of Christianity against the "godless" Muslims will likely say "things happen" but most of the troops are treated well. For the families and friends of the victims of these wars, all they know is the hellish truth of what happened to their loved ones. Only thing is.....no one wants to hear them.
Wm Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat vet - RVN '67-'69
Young men and women still go time after time to the senseless wars our nation's leaders can't seem to avoid or don't want to avoid. The ultra rich and fat cats seldom think of them. The average American hardly remembers them. The mainstream media seldom mentions them. What are they doing there, again?
A few years back I wrote a piece about parents waiting for them. I asked the readers to imagine staying up late at night wondering where your child is at that very moment in Afghanistan or Iraq. Are they one of those Marines going through the hell of a Fallujah or a Marjah? Are they pinned down at some remote outpost near the mountains of Afghanistan?
Imagine a parent wondering why their child has been asked to go three, four, five times to the two wars no one at home seems to remember. Imagine a son or daughter who has seen their parent only 24 months of the last 60 months. The parent missed all their recitals, school plays, basketball games, first proms, field days and birthdays while they were gone to a war.
Imagine a young wife left behind by her husband 3 months after their marriage. Living on base is impossible to think about. A constant reminder of where he is. Going back to mom and dad's place seems like one step back. Living with his parents is out of the question. So a dingy studio apartment in a rough part of town seems the alternative. Skyping and emails hardly makes up for the lost intimacy. Minimum wage jobs hardly helps pay the bills even with his private's pay.
Imagine a reservist who has already lost his heating company because he could no longer be in the country to run the jobs. He could no longer bid jobs and expect to get them because his contractors knew he was likely to leave again for one of the wars. They support the war and all but they have to make money. Too bad the reservist got the wrong end of the stick. Who knew he'd end up going back three more times. Too bad his wife faces foreclosure with him out of country at war. Someone should do something.
Imagine the poor lost kid who barely made it through high school because of his ADD. His mom insists he stay on medications but the recruiter says he can enlist if he stops them and signs a waiver. The military doesn't care about the ADD as long as the kid can learn to be a grunt infantryman. Imagine the kid off meds in the middle of a firefight. He gets shot but it hits him in his Kevlar. The guy who befriended him isn't so lucky. He takes a round in the head and bleeds out in front of the kid. The kid makes it through the firefight but the images haunt him. His ADD kicks in big time with impulsive behaviors and disorganized thoughts being in the forefront. He tells his 1st Sgt. to "f' off. He drinks excessively. Misses formations. Fights with his squad leader. They put him on report. He's restricted and spends his time obsessing about the firefight. He sinks into depression and thinks about "offing" himself. He thinks about killing that "top". They put him on suicide watch and place him in a closet with a fire hose and fire axe next to the quarters of the First Sgt.. Smart.
Imagine the parents of the young Marine who came back and fell into the abyss of alcoholism. They keep taking him to the VA but the VA keeps kicking him back out on the streets to return to his torment and his booze. They say he has to be sober before they can provide services. The stupid cycle repeats itself over and over as the frantic family sees their son spiral toward the drain. On one evening the young Marine wants to sit on his father's lap and be held as he was held as a child. A young combat Marine wanted this. The next day the family finds their son hanging in their basement. He will always be known as a suicide but his parents know he was a casualty of the war. He died of the neglect we have allowed ourselves to have toward the returning troops.
Imagine a parent sitting up late at night going through family photos to take to the memorial service of their dead son or daughter. Imagine the young wife devastated by the suddenly abusive husband returning from the war. Imagine the young woman returning home after doing her tour of duty in Iraq surviving the IEDs and firefights but not the rapist who was a member of her combat unit.
Imagine seeing the blood of an infant drained from the body at the site of the exploding cluster bomb. Imagine seeing the sniper round hit your best friend in your combat unit. Imagine his brain matter splashed across your face. Imagine coming to the aid of one of your men whose leg is lying in a horrifying pool of blood across the road. Imagine the arterial blood pumping from the stump of the quickly dying man who screams from the fear and excruciating pain.
Parents sit up late at night wondering if they will see their chld again. Wives get up each morning fearing their husbands next rage attack. Children go to school unable to talk about their mom who has been gone for a year in a place they know nothing about.
Parents and wives, husbands and daughters, sons and brothers, sisters and friends all wonder about their loved ones but feel angry no one else seems to remember them. Imagine that their loved one survives the combat but ends up addicted, incarcerated or dead at the hands of a cop after waiting six months without an appointment with a VA psychiatrist. Imagine a mom being told her son died from " friendly fire" but later is told her son committed suicide. When she questions how he could have shot himself in the temple with a rifle the story changes to "unknown" cause of death. Imagine being awarded a bronze star and purple heart and finding yourself lined up at a local homeless shelter only six months after discharge.
We no longer need to imagine these things. They've all happened along with countless other tragic and detestable stories Defenders of the "holy wars" of Christianity against the "godless" Muslims will likely say "things happen" but most of the troops are treated well. For the families and friends of the victims of these wars, all they know is the hellish truth of what happened to their loved ones. Only thing is.....no one wants to hear them.
Wm Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat vet - RVN '67-'69
Saturday, March 6
The Rotten Core of The Catholic Church
Once again Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Denver Roman Catholic Archdiocese has demonstrated his pettiness and lack of true Christian faith. In the latest of many hateful acts by this archbishop, a young preschooler at Boulder's Sacred Heart of Jesus will not be allowed to return to the center because their parents are gay women.
Yep, kids with gay parents aren't allowed in Catholic day care because their parents are living a lifestyle contrary to the dogma of the Church. This is the same Church that concealed predatory, child molesting priests for decades rather than dismiss them and comfort the child and the family of the child. This is the same Church that cries out against the intrinisic evil of abortion but still fails to object to the intrinisic evil of the wars George W. Bush started for the evil reason of American empire and greed.
Chaput should particularly be singled out as he has consistently gone along with the hateful anti-gay and pro-war crowd of politicians. I've previously mentioned his participation in Presidential prayer breakfasts with Dubya. There's a telling photo of Bush and Chaput together smiling and laughing with Chaput touching the leg of Bush. There's the attempts by Chaput to influence Catholic voters against candidates opposing Bush because of their political stand concerning abortion and gay marriages. Chaput joined the growing number of evangelical right wing Catholic leaders in suggesting communion should be denied any politician or follower who didn't agree with the Church dogma concerning gays and abortion. These leaders had much in common with the war mongering evangelical Protestants such as the Focus On The Family group in Colorado Springs led by James Dobson. Chaput seemed to always overlook the mean spirited policies of the Bush-Cheney administration that gutted social programs and programs meant to help the weakest and most at risk, however.
Chaput wrote he opposed war but sometimes there were "justifiable wars". Apparently his failure to lash out against the wars as strongly as he has against gays and abortion suggests he considers wars for oil and empire fall into the justifiable column.
What's incongruent with Chaput and the Roman Catholic Church being so loudly vocal about abortion and the intrinsic evil of abortion is they fail to recognize the number of innocent children from age one day to adolescence killed by American bombs, rifles, rockets and mortars. They fail to recognize the number of children living well below the poverty level in starvation throughout the world, including here in America. They fail to recognize children dying in gang wars, children dying from addiction and abuse.
The answer for the Catholic Church is not allowing a woman any form of birth control and then calling her a killer should she decide an abortion is necessary to prevent her other children from starving. The woman is a killer if she doesn't want to carry the child of her rapist. She's a killer if she has an abusive husband who has raped her other children. She's a killer if giving birth will cause her family to fall further into poverty.
The Church talks a great story about how they will provide for unwanted children but the astronomical number of orphans and unwanted children throughout the world are testimony to the abject failure of promises by the church.
I've sat through many a homily directed by Chaput and the Church's leadership in Denver bashing gays and women who have had abortions. The original Church of Jesus Christ has forgotten the very tenets of their Savior. They have failed in Christian charity and understanding. They have failed to live up to the beatitudes of Christ.
What purpose does barring a young child from being with other children they have come to know accomplish for the Church? What message does the hateful ban against gay parents give to us? One message is the Church doesn't want gay parents adopting children. This flies in the face of the Church telling women they should preserve life by carrying their child throughout the pregnancy and if need be, put the child up for adoption. Another message to the child barred from a Catholic day care is somehow the child is "bad" and the child's parents are bad. How Christian is that?
But what do we expect from this Church so full of misogyny and hatefulness led by men only? What can we expect from a Church that has such a bloody and evil history toward women? What should we expect from a Church more worried about image problems than children molested by priests? What should we expect from a Church that had priests encouraging young men enlist to fight the Godless communists in Vietnam as they did with my friends back in the 60's and 70's?
What should we expect of Charles Chaput who told a woman heading a priest abuse panel of victims to shut up and allow the Catholic Bishops Conference to decide the course of victim reparations? The same Charles Chaput who aligns himself with fanatics and intolerance of the right wing evangelical movement that has led this nation to illegal wars and the financial ruin we now face.
This latest action by Chaput and the Denver Archdiocese is symptomatic of the disease of hate that has rotted the core of the Catholic religion. Chaput and the Church may defend themselves by citing Christ as an opponent of gay marriage and abortion but there is no such evidence Christ believed any of this hateful dogma. The Church may rail against gay marriage being a threat to the traditional marriage but their logic is failed logic that assumes men and women can be "converted" to being gay rather than accepting there are men and women born with a genetic code causing them to love persons of the same sex. And let us keep in mind the Church objects to loving couples because they happen to be same sex but fails to take a moral stance against the illegal wars our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters are sent to die in. What moral sense does it make that a relgion hates a couple in love but endorses a war?
The Church is really big on talking about the culture of death when it comes to abortion but what about the culture of violence and hate that is so historically associated with the Catholic and Christian religions? Did Christ really want what has occurred to be done in His name?
I have long believed in Jesus Christ but I just don't know the Christ of the Catholic Church. I converted to Catholicism many years ago but came to realize the Church leadership has infected the Catholic religion with hate. This latest action by the Church only confirms what I've sadly come to realize, the Church has a rotten core.
Wm. T. Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW
Yep, kids with gay parents aren't allowed in Catholic day care because their parents are living a lifestyle contrary to the dogma of the Church. This is the same Church that concealed predatory, child molesting priests for decades rather than dismiss them and comfort the child and the family of the child. This is the same Church that cries out against the intrinisic evil of abortion but still fails to object to the intrinisic evil of the wars George W. Bush started for the evil reason of American empire and greed.
Chaput should particularly be singled out as he has consistently gone along with the hateful anti-gay and pro-war crowd of politicians. I've previously mentioned his participation in Presidential prayer breakfasts with Dubya. There's a telling photo of Bush and Chaput together smiling and laughing with Chaput touching the leg of Bush. There's the attempts by Chaput to influence Catholic voters against candidates opposing Bush because of their political stand concerning abortion and gay marriages. Chaput joined the growing number of evangelical right wing Catholic leaders in suggesting communion should be denied any politician or follower who didn't agree with the Church dogma concerning gays and abortion. These leaders had much in common with the war mongering evangelical Protestants such as the Focus On The Family group in Colorado Springs led by James Dobson. Chaput seemed to always overlook the mean spirited policies of the Bush-Cheney administration that gutted social programs and programs meant to help the weakest and most at risk, however.
Chaput wrote he opposed war but sometimes there were "justifiable wars". Apparently his failure to lash out against the wars as strongly as he has against gays and abortion suggests he considers wars for oil and empire fall into the justifiable column.
What's incongruent with Chaput and the Roman Catholic Church being so loudly vocal about abortion and the intrinsic evil of abortion is they fail to recognize the number of innocent children from age one day to adolescence killed by American bombs, rifles, rockets and mortars. They fail to recognize the number of children living well below the poverty level in starvation throughout the world, including here in America. They fail to recognize children dying in gang wars, children dying from addiction and abuse.
The answer for the Catholic Church is not allowing a woman any form of birth control and then calling her a killer should she decide an abortion is necessary to prevent her other children from starving. The woman is a killer if she doesn't want to carry the child of her rapist. She's a killer if she has an abusive husband who has raped her other children. She's a killer if giving birth will cause her family to fall further into poverty.
The Church talks a great story about how they will provide for unwanted children but the astronomical number of orphans and unwanted children throughout the world are testimony to the abject failure of promises by the church.
I've sat through many a homily directed by Chaput and the Church's leadership in Denver bashing gays and women who have had abortions. The original Church of Jesus Christ has forgotten the very tenets of their Savior. They have failed in Christian charity and understanding. They have failed to live up to the beatitudes of Christ.
What purpose does barring a young child from being with other children they have come to know accomplish for the Church? What message does the hateful ban against gay parents give to us? One message is the Church doesn't want gay parents adopting children. This flies in the face of the Church telling women they should preserve life by carrying their child throughout the pregnancy and if need be, put the child up for adoption. Another message to the child barred from a Catholic day care is somehow the child is "bad" and the child's parents are bad. How Christian is that?
But what do we expect from this Church so full of misogyny and hatefulness led by men only? What can we expect from a Church that has such a bloody and evil history toward women? What should we expect from a Church more worried about image problems than children molested by priests? What should we expect from a Church that had priests encouraging young men enlist to fight the Godless communists in Vietnam as they did with my friends back in the 60's and 70's?
What should we expect of Charles Chaput who told a woman heading a priest abuse panel of victims to shut up and allow the Catholic Bishops Conference to decide the course of victim reparations? The same Charles Chaput who aligns himself with fanatics and intolerance of the right wing evangelical movement that has led this nation to illegal wars and the financial ruin we now face.
This latest action by Chaput and the Denver Archdiocese is symptomatic of the disease of hate that has rotted the core of the Catholic religion. Chaput and the Church may defend themselves by citing Christ as an opponent of gay marriage and abortion but there is no such evidence Christ believed any of this hateful dogma. The Church may rail against gay marriage being a threat to the traditional marriage but their logic is failed logic that assumes men and women can be "converted" to being gay rather than accepting there are men and women born with a genetic code causing them to love persons of the same sex. And let us keep in mind the Church objects to loving couples because they happen to be same sex but fails to take a moral stance against the illegal wars our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters are sent to die in. What moral sense does it make that a relgion hates a couple in love but endorses a war?
The Church is really big on talking about the culture of death when it comes to abortion but what about the culture of violence and hate that is so historically associated with the Catholic and Christian religions? Did Christ really want what has occurred to be done in His name?
I have long believed in Jesus Christ but I just don't know the Christ of the Catholic Church. I converted to Catholicism many years ago but came to realize the Church leadership has infected the Catholic religion with hate. This latest action by the Church only confirms what I've sadly come to realize, the Church has a rotten core.
Wm. T. Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW
Saturday, February 27
Connected Through Violence
So there it was again. Television cameras showing students running from a local suburban school because someone with a rifle had shot two students. The middle school was only 3 miles from Columbine High School here in the Denver metropolitan area.
The local media hopped right on the story and has continued to highlight it for the last four days. Two students were shot. One was injured with a wound to her arm. Another was shot in the chest but the wound wasn't lethal. He will recover.
Now the school is shown with aggreived parents and school staff hugging and sobbing as the school comes back together. And everywhere there's a personal story of trauma or shock. And everywhere a camera is present there seems to be a crowd of people willing to play the role of victim and hero for surviving the shooting of a madman.
Turns out the shooter really is an insane young man who fell through the cracks of the pathetically underfunded mental health system. His father talks about his son's daily conversations with his hallucinatory "friends" that only he heard or saw. The father talks about his son trying to get help but being unable to afford the costs. The police record of the young man is lengthy and full of violence and yet he only spent time in jail but was never hospitalized for his psychotic thinking.
Maybe I've reached the end of my compassion for the almost weekly shootings that go on in this nation by people who should never have had access to weapons. Maybe I've become desensitized to the violence of our culture. But you know the first thing I begin to think when the shootings are at a school and I see the mad rush of parents to the scene to make sure their children are safe? I wonder why they are so panicked about the safety of their children when they're in school but think it's normal and quite ok when their children are sent off to one of our incessant wars of aggression. I wonder why they aren't as protective when at age 18 or 19 their children are sent into combat with a much more likely chance of death and irreparable harm?
Call me cruel and heartless if you want but this has become my thinking because I believe we live in a time where the nations of the world are interconnected so closely that the violence of a culture in North America can result in the violence against a culture in Iraq or Afghanistan.
I can't help but wonder why parents are shocked when violence comes to their local schools when their kids are frequently mesmerized by games of war such as Call of Duty I and II. War games are prevalent in the market of games our children play on X-Box and other gaming systems. I even had my younger son, who very well knows my hatred for war, tell me he knows it's not cool but the graphics of the latest war game are so realistic he feels he's right there in the middle of the war.
I tell my son there will never be a game that can simulate the true feeling of combat. But, I sadly realize all across this nation there are young men who are obsessed by the games of violence. They will argue they're only games and they would never lead them to real violence. Some argue the games actually help relieve their aggression.
I won't argue the vague psychology of violent video games being causative factors of real life violence. What I will argue is the acceptance of violence in our daily lives has reached the level we should not be shocked when our children become targets in real life. The violence of our words and interactions with one another have a ripple effect. All across the blogoshere it's become totally acceptable to belittle one another with racist, misogynistic and threatening responses that are so easy when they remain anonymous.
Almost weekly the media of television and movies seems to find newer and more violently graphic forms of human carnage. NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds, etc. are favorite forms of entertainment. Hollywood continues to churn out the bloodletting of horror movies so graphic that the idea of a "snuff" film seem tame. We don't need snuff films when we can watch real life events of violence on programs documenting car wrecks, near death and death experiences and attacks by animals.
And yet the Pentagon and Presidency worries about showing dead American soldiers, the return of their caskets and the graphic nature of the wars we're involved in out of "respect". Mainstream media outlets continue to censor film or photos of the aftermath of drone attacks on innocent civilians in remote Afghan villages or the aftermath of 500 pound bombs on neighborhoods in Baghdad during the start of the war in Iraq. Are they seriously worried about the American people being unable to stomach what they might see if they showed the true nature of the wars they send their sons and daughters to fight?
It's more likely the censorship of the true reality of war has more to do with the fall out of media showing such scenes during the Vietnam war. If the true nature of war is allowed to be seen it might cause some Americans to start thinking about the reasons we're in these wars.
I believe there are connections between the costs of war and the spiritual health of a nation. I believe there's a connection between the costs of war and the collapse of the economy, the failure of government to maintain a safety net for Americans most in need, adequate housing and schooling, healthcare for all and the way the people of this nation are perceived around the world. I beleive there is a connection between the accidental killings of innocents and the continued number of insurgents and groups of people who hate America.
I believe there's a connection between the shooting of two students at a middle school here in the Denver area to the culture of violence we've allowed to fester and infect so many of our people. There is a connection of an American to a Palestinian to an Israeli to an African to a Chinese to all other people of all other nations. Our reliance on violence affects all humans. It diminishes us all.
The local media hopped right on the story and has continued to highlight it for the last four days. Two students were shot. One was injured with a wound to her arm. Another was shot in the chest but the wound wasn't lethal. He will recover.
Now the school is shown with aggreived parents and school staff hugging and sobbing as the school comes back together. And everywhere there's a personal story of trauma or shock. And everywhere a camera is present there seems to be a crowd of people willing to play the role of victim and hero for surviving the shooting of a madman.
Turns out the shooter really is an insane young man who fell through the cracks of the pathetically underfunded mental health system. His father talks about his son's daily conversations with his hallucinatory "friends" that only he heard or saw. The father talks about his son trying to get help but being unable to afford the costs. The police record of the young man is lengthy and full of violence and yet he only spent time in jail but was never hospitalized for his psychotic thinking.
Maybe I've reached the end of my compassion for the almost weekly shootings that go on in this nation by people who should never have had access to weapons. Maybe I've become desensitized to the violence of our culture. But you know the first thing I begin to think when the shootings are at a school and I see the mad rush of parents to the scene to make sure their children are safe? I wonder why they are so panicked about the safety of their children when they're in school but think it's normal and quite ok when their children are sent off to one of our incessant wars of aggression. I wonder why they aren't as protective when at age 18 or 19 their children are sent into combat with a much more likely chance of death and irreparable harm?
Call me cruel and heartless if you want but this has become my thinking because I believe we live in a time where the nations of the world are interconnected so closely that the violence of a culture in North America can result in the violence against a culture in Iraq or Afghanistan.
I can't help but wonder why parents are shocked when violence comes to their local schools when their kids are frequently mesmerized by games of war such as Call of Duty I and II. War games are prevalent in the market of games our children play on X-Box and other gaming systems. I even had my younger son, who very well knows my hatred for war, tell me he knows it's not cool but the graphics of the latest war game are so realistic he feels he's right there in the middle of the war.
I tell my son there will never be a game that can simulate the true feeling of combat. But, I sadly realize all across this nation there are young men who are obsessed by the games of violence. They will argue they're only games and they would never lead them to real violence. Some argue the games actually help relieve their aggression.
I won't argue the vague psychology of violent video games being causative factors of real life violence. What I will argue is the acceptance of violence in our daily lives has reached the level we should not be shocked when our children become targets in real life. The violence of our words and interactions with one another have a ripple effect. All across the blogoshere it's become totally acceptable to belittle one another with racist, misogynistic and threatening responses that are so easy when they remain anonymous.
Almost weekly the media of television and movies seems to find newer and more violently graphic forms of human carnage. NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds, etc. are favorite forms of entertainment. Hollywood continues to churn out the bloodletting of horror movies so graphic that the idea of a "snuff" film seem tame. We don't need snuff films when we can watch real life events of violence on programs documenting car wrecks, near death and death experiences and attacks by animals.
And yet the Pentagon and Presidency worries about showing dead American soldiers, the return of their caskets and the graphic nature of the wars we're involved in out of "respect". Mainstream media outlets continue to censor film or photos of the aftermath of drone attacks on innocent civilians in remote Afghan villages or the aftermath of 500 pound bombs on neighborhoods in Baghdad during the start of the war in Iraq. Are they seriously worried about the American people being unable to stomach what they might see if they showed the true nature of the wars they send their sons and daughters to fight?
It's more likely the censorship of the true reality of war has more to do with the fall out of media showing such scenes during the Vietnam war. If the true nature of war is allowed to be seen it might cause some Americans to start thinking about the reasons we're in these wars.
I believe there are connections between the costs of war and the spiritual health of a nation. I believe there's a connection between the costs of war and the collapse of the economy, the failure of government to maintain a safety net for Americans most in need, adequate housing and schooling, healthcare for all and the way the people of this nation are perceived around the world. I beleive there is a connection between the accidental killings of innocents and the continued number of insurgents and groups of people who hate America.
I believe there's a connection between the shooting of two students at a middle school here in the Denver area to the culture of violence we've allowed to fester and infect so many of our people. There is a connection of an American to a Palestinian to an Israeli to an African to a Chinese to all other people of all other nations. Our reliance on violence affects all humans. It diminishes us all.
Saturday, January 30
The Sad Failure to Seize the Moment
I try to like Barack Obama but every time I give in to that particular feeling he reminds me he is first of all part of the cabal of the rich and elite ripping this nation apart.
In his recent State of the Union message Obama once again displayed his great oratory skills. A few times he actually challenged the system he is so much a part of. He commented on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to grant "personhood" to giant corporations, effectively opening the door for even more money of special interests being able to buy the American elections. Justice Scalia was seen vigorously shaking his head "no" and mouthing the words, "you're wrong". Of course Scalia is one of the intellectual giants in his own mind.
Then Obama noted it was George W. Bush's presidency that brought the disaster of the financial collapse to the people of the nation and that he, Obama, was left the task of cleaning up the mess. There's a certain cruel irony that the first black President would have to clean up the huge mess of a white man whose policies were among the most damaging to blacks in America since the 60's and 70's.
Obama even made note of the lock step obstruction of the Republicans in the Senate making 60 votes necessary to pass any bill. He scolded them for their obvious attempt to destroy his presidency without giving a damn about the American people. And, he put the burden of governing back on their shoulders if obstruction of his policies was to continue.
Obama didn't let the Democrats off easy either when he reminded them they had the biggest majority in Congress in some time and now was not the time to "head for the hills". Of course, it's obviously clear, both parties are pretty much the same in their lack of courage. All elected officials play to the polls and the big money financing their campaigns. The people can clearly be inundated with talking points and sloganeering that will make them accept anything the rich bastards decide they should accept.
So, Obama did make me like him for some of the things he said but his actions and the rest of his speech just fortified my outrage for his failure to seize the moment in history to make changes that will actually push the agenda of those most in need. His continued failure to look at the excessive spending on the military industrial complex continues my lack of respect for this man who has so much potential that's been wasted.
Obama talks about a freeze on spending to bring down the national debt but excludes the spending on the military and all the ancillary funding that's involved in keeping the military going. The exclusions from spending freezes amount to 70% of all spending by the government with tax payer dollars! All that's left to freeze are programs that could actually bring positive changes to the lives of everyday people.
All around this nation schools are facing huge budget problems that will result in closing schools and laying off teachers. Higher education budgets are being cut so drastically the tuition for a state university is prohibitive for most citizens' children. Community colleges are being touted as the "new" way to get a college education. Of course after getting an associate degree most students won't be able to go any further in pursuing higher education.
Homelessness, mental health and substance abuse treatment, treatment for the disabled young and old, child care, early education, hunger and all the many problems faced by more and more Americans will be more and more ignored in state and local budgets. Already cities and states are telling the poor, the newly foreclosed and unemployed they can't help. Already schools and programs meant to help the at-risk students are being chopped from budgets.
But, never fear, Obama is here. We can still send our children and grandchildren to war! The wars will continue on and more and more young people will be needed to do the bidding of the masters of war. As Smedley Butler so correctly stated, "war is a racket". We manufacture little in this nation except the tools of war and the equipment needed to keep wars going. In Slidell, LA there's a company making Bradley armored vehicles. That's the major industry of the town. All over America there are these types of companies dependent on the wars continuing. Just today there was a story that the US sold 7 billion dollars of arms to Taipei. Imagine how much we are selling Israel!
Obama can make nice speeches and tell us he's for the common citizen but his actions refute his words. And, watching the mostly white contingent of Republicans in Congress, I can't help but think many of their leaders would be wearing white sheets and robes and burning crosses just a few decades ago.
The hatefulness and obvious distaste shown by their faces and body language are telling. These are the looks of the racist whites who beat down and hosed civil rights workers in the 60's. These white elected officials of the Republican Party are the descendants of the KKK and those who lynched blacks. They'd deny they're racists and accuse anybody who called them racists as being anti-white and using the race card. They will rail against the burden placed on white men with the use of equal opportunity laws and affirmative action. And they will never get it. These are the representatives of the deluded who can't accept the US will become a nation in which the majority will not be white.
It's been clear Obama would encounter the racists as the first black President. But, the extent of the Republican obstruction in Congress is unparalleled. And, the coporate media refuses to comment on it. In America, we don't talk about racism, sexism, homophobia and anything diferent from the Euro-centric "norm".
I live in a neighborhood where the residents were almost completely Anglo. Over the 26 years I've been here I've seen the neighborhood change to one that is at least 50% Spanish speaking. A large influx of immigrants has come to this lower middle class neighborhood. No doubt many lack proprer "papers". Many live with more than one family in a single family dwelling. Many park their cars on their lawns and don't necessarily believe growing and watering grass is absolutely needed.
I like my neighborhood except for some of the old-timers who have talked with me in the local stores griping about how the neighborhood has "changed". They ask me how I like living next door to "them". They talk about the number of cars or people that live in some of the homes. What's really clear to me is the innuendo of these neighbors. They're talking code. Racist code. They don't talk with "them". They only assume about "them".
This is America today and try as I might to like Obama I can't. I can't like him because he has sold us out to the very people who would have gladly lynched him 30 years ago. He has sold us out to the robber barons and gangsters who have oppressed the poor, the people of color and the worker for a century or more. And they will not change simply because we now have a black President. They'll eventually make Obama the scape goat for all that has happened since Ronald Reagan's disastrous reign. They'll point to the first black American President as proof the black man can't govern. Nor play quarterback.
In my sixty years on this planet I have seen much. But the one unshakeable truth has always been the racism that prevails in far too many minds of Americans.
In his recent State of the Union message Obama once again displayed his great oratory skills. A few times he actually challenged the system he is so much a part of. He commented on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to grant "personhood" to giant corporations, effectively opening the door for even more money of special interests being able to buy the American elections. Justice Scalia was seen vigorously shaking his head "no" and mouthing the words, "you're wrong". Of course Scalia is one of the intellectual giants in his own mind.
Then Obama noted it was George W. Bush's presidency that brought the disaster of the financial collapse to the people of the nation and that he, Obama, was left the task of cleaning up the mess. There's a certain cruel irony that the first black President would have to clean up the huge mess of a white man whose policies were among the most damaging to blacks in America since the 60's and 70's.
Obama even made note of the lock step obstruction of the Republicans in the Senate making 60 votes necessary to pass any bill. He scolded them for their obvious attempt to destroy his presidency without giving a damn about the American people. And, he put the burden of governing back on their shoulders if obstruction of his policies was to continue.
Obama didn't let the Democrats off easy either when he reminded them they had the biggest majority in Congress in some time and now was not the time to "head for the hills". Of course, it's obviously clear, both parties are pretty much the same in their lack of courage. All elected officials play to the polls and the big money financing their campaigns. The people can clearly be inundated with talking points and sloganeering that will make them accept anything the rich bastards decide they should accept.
So, Obama did make me like him for some of the things he said but his actions and the rest of his speech just fortified my outrage for his failure to seize the moment in history to make changes that will actually push the agenda of those most in need. His continued failure to look at the excessive spending on the military industrial complex continues my lack of respect for this man who has so much potential that's been wasted.
Obama talks about a freeze on spending to bring down the national debt but excludes the spending on the military and all the ancillary funding that's involved in keeping the military going. The exclusions from spending freezes amount to 70% of all spending by the government with tax payer dollars! All that's left to freeze are programs that could actually bring positive changes to the lives of everyday people.
All around this nation schools are facing huge budget problems that will result in closing schools and laying off teachers. Higher education budgets are being cut so drastically the tuition for a state university is prohibitive for most citizens' children. Community colleges are being touted as the "new" way to get a college education. Of course after getting an associate degree most students won't be able to go any further in pursuing higher education.
Homelessness, mental health and substance abuse treatment, treatment for the disabled young and old, child care, early education, hunger and all the many problems faced by more and more Americans will be more and more ignored in state and local budgets. Already cities and states are telling the poor, the newly foreclosed and unemployed they can't help. Already schools and programs meant to help the at-risk students are being chopped from budgets.
But, never fear, Obama is here. We can still send our children and grandchildren to war! The wars will continue on and more and more young people will be needed to do the bidding of the masters of war. As Smedley Butler so correctly stated, "war is a racket". We manufacture little in this nation except the tools of war and the equipment needed to keep wars going. In Slidell, LA there's a company making Bradley armored vehicles. That's the major industry of the town. All over America there are these types of companies dependent on the wars continuing. Just today there was a story that the US sold 7 billion dollars of arms to Taipei. Imagine how much we are selling Israel!
Obama can make nice speeches and tell us he's for the common citizen but his actions refute his words. And, watching the mostly white contingent of Republicans in Congress, I can't help but think many of their leaders would be wearing white sheets and robes and burning crosses just a few decades ago.
The hatefulness and obvious distaste shown by their faces and body language are telling. These are the looks of the racist whites who beat down and hosed civil rights workers in the 60's. These white elected officials of the Republican Party are the descendants of the KKK and those who lynched blacks. They'd deny they're racists and accuse anybody who called them racists as being anti-white and using the race card. They will rail against the burden placed on white men with the use of equal opportunity laws and affirmative action. And they will never get it. These are the representatives of the deluded who can't accept the US will become a nation in which the majority will not be white.
It's been clear Obama would encounter the racists as the first black President. But, the extent of the Republican obstruction in Congress is unparalleled. And, the coporate media refuses to comment on it. In America, we don't talk about racism, sexism, homophobia and anything diferent from the Euro-centric "norm".
I live in a neighborhood where the residents were almost completely Anglo. Over the 26 years I've been here I've seen the neighborhood change to one that is at least 50% Spanish speaking. A large influx of immigrants has come to this lower middle class neighborhood. No doubt many lack proprer "papers". Many live with more than one family in a single family dwelling. Many park their cars on their lawns and don't necessarily believe growing and watering grass is absolutely needed.
I like my neighborhood except for some of the old-timers who have talked with me in the local stores griping about how the neighborhood has "changed". They ask me how I like living next door to "them". They talk about the number of cars or people that live in some of the homes. What's really clear to me is the innuendo of these neighbors. They're talking code. Racist code. They don't talk with "them". They only assume about "them".
This is America today and try as I might to like Obama I can't. I can't like him because he has sold us out to the very people who would have gladly lynched him 30 years ago. He has sold us out to the robber barons and gangsters who have oppressed the poor, the people of color and the worker for a century or more. And they will not change simply because we now have a black President. They'll eventually make Obama the scape goat for all that has happened since Ronald Reagan's disastrous reign. They'll point to the first black American President as proof the black man can't govern. Nor play quarterback.
In my sixty years on this planet I have seen much. But the one unshakeable truth has always been the racism that prevails in far too many minds of Americans.
Wednesday, January 27
The Sorry State of Obama
Obama will give the "state of the union" address tonight, hoping to pacify and appease all sides of the political spectrum but will likely please none. He'll mouth platitudes toward the "middle class" and "mainstreet" but not once offer a realistic plan to help the families facing foreclosure on homes or joblessness. Does he seriously feel the general public living in the US gives a damn about his meager proposals in the face of the massive bailouts and handouts to banks and Wall Street racketeers?
Here's the state of the union Mr. President. The banksters, gangsters and racketeers have your testes squeezed tight and you'll do whatever they say if you want to stay in office another term. You and your cronies, along with George W. Bush and his cronies, perpetrated the biggest theft from the American tax payers in history when you gave away money to the failures of the banking and investment systems without conditions or regulations.
Mr. President, the state of the union is you plan on pumping billions of dollars into the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon budget and fighting terrorism but are allowing schools, social safety nets such as Medicare, mental health, addiction treatment, healthcare for all and housing for the poor to go to hell in a hand basket.
The question is how in the hell do you expect to put Americans back to work this way? Are we all supposed to join the military to get a job? Don't tell us you're giving a few hundred million to some job programs or educational initiatives while you continue to pour billions after billions into wars unwarranted and unwinnable.
The state of the union is Americans are sick and tired of a Congress that obstructs any attempt to change things despite a majority number in both houses of Congress held by the alleged party of change, the Democratic Party. Why aren't 51 votes enough to pass a bill in the Senate? It's enough to elect a Senator but not enough to pass a simple bill giving Americans needed health care.
Why isn't the Republican Party called out by you, President Obama, for the un-American tactic of opposing any and all legislation proposed by a Democrat? Why did the Republicans, when they controlled Congress, jam bill after bill down the throats of Americans taking away basic rights, undoing years of social programs to protect the poor and needy and providing massive handouts to the already rich?
The destructive policies of greed continue and will only worsen once the Neocons retake the Congress in the near future. They will bring fear to the idiots willing to listen to their lies in the next elections and only the rich will benefit.
The state of the union is my son will lose his home soon, my wife and I will never be able to pay off our debts in our lifetime and we will join the millions of other families destitute and angry. We will be like the scenes we see in Haiti following the deadly earthquake. People will be in the streets hungry and angry. More so than the thousands upon thousands already at that point.
The truth is, Mr. Obama, there isn't a middle class left in this nation. Your bankster and racketeer friends speculating the wealth of this nation have made sure of the destruction of the middle class. Families can't send sons and daughters to college. They can't get needed health care that will prevent illness. They can't afford their homes.
Get out of the DC Beltway and really look at this nation, Mr. President. If you aren't outraged by what you find, then you have sold us all out.
Here's the state of the union Mr. President. The banksters, gangsters and racketeers have your testes squeezed tight and you'll do whatever they say if you want to stay in office another term. You and your cronies, along with George W. Bush and his cronies, perpetrated the biggest theft from the American tax payers in history when you gave away money to the failures of the banking and investment systems without conditions or regulations.
Mr. President, the state of the union is you plan on pumping billions of dollars into the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon budget and fighting terrorism but are allowing schools, social safety nets such as Medicare, mental health, addiction treatment, healthcare for all and housing for the poor to go to hell in a hand basket.
The question is how in the hell do you expect to put Americans back to work this way? Are we all supposed to join the military to get a job? Don't tell us you're giving a few hundred million to some job programs or educational initiatives while you continue to pour billions after billions into wars unwarranted and unwinnable.
The state of the union is Americans are sick and tired of a Congress that obstructs any attempt to change things despite a majority number in both houses of Congress held by the alleged party of change, the Democratic Party. Why aren't 51 votes enough to pass a bill in the Senate? It's enough to elect a Senator but not enough to pass a simple bill giving Americans needed health care.
Why isn't the Republican Party called out by you, President Obama, for the un-American tactic of opposing any and all legislation proposed by a Democrat? Why did the Republicans, when they controlled Congress, jam bill after bill down the throats of Americans taking away basic rights, undoing years of social programs to protect the poor and needy and providing massive handouts to the already rich?
The destructive policies of greed continue and will only worsen once the Neocons retake the Congress in the near future. They will bring fear to the idiots willing to listen to their lies in the next elections and only the rich will benefit.
The state of the union is my son will lose his home soon, my wife and I will never be able to pay off our debts in our lifetime and we will join the millions of other families destitute and angry. We will be like the scenes we see in Haiti following the deadly earthquake. People will be in the streets hungry and angry. More so than the thousands upon thousands already at that point.
The truth is, Mr. Obama, there isn't a middle class left in this nation. Your bankster and racketeer friends speculating the wealth of this nation have made sure of the destruction of the middle class. Families can't send sons and daughters to college. They can't get needed health care that will prevent illness. They can't afford their homes.
Get out of the DC Beltway and really look at this nation, Mr. President. If you aren't outraged by what you find, then you have sold us all out.
Tuesday, January 26
And So it Goes
I've been gone from blogging since June of 09. Not much has changed personally since the blog of June about myself. Depression and all it entails remains pretty much the same. Or worse.
Much has changed since the election of Obama. Or has it really just stayed the same? There's an argument to be made for both thoughts.
Obama the new fresh face of democracy has turned out pretty much as I expected. He's really like Abu Jamal Mumia suggested; just a black face doing the bidding of the masters at the plantation. He'll be tagged with all the political and economic disasters of the Neo-Cons and then they'll return espousing a "new" direction for America. It's already happening as shown by the election of a neocon in Massachusetts to replace the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy.
Obama came into the Presidency with the hopes of the world that thngs would change but quickly showed it would be the same old thing of the banksters and corporate icons running the show. He continued and expanded the war in Afghanistan while making believe we have reduced our presence in Iraq. Whenever someone asks why we are in either place the terrifying reply starts out with terrorism.
But does terrorism really justify us bombing and strafing villages thought to have the Taliban or the ever elusive Al Queida roaming around in them? How does the drone rocket attack on a wedding party or the home full of children endear the American people to the people of these nations we occupy?
Just as Dubya continually raised the level of risk everytime his ratings seemed to fall, Obama has continued to use terrorism like we used to use the term communism during the war in Vietnam. And just like that war turned out, so too will these wars turn out. We might as well start the memorial wall for the dead Americans duped into thinking they were protecting democracy when in fact the mission they were given has had the opposite effect.
I know a little about being duped by my government. I am coming up on the 42nd anniversary of the 1968 Tet Offensive this weekend on January 30-31. I learned one month after my arrival in Vietnam as a combat infantryman in the Marines what insanity I had volunteered to be part of. JFK and his charismatic oratory along with his martyrdom at the hands of an assassin made it seem I must give up my life to "protect" our country from the scourge of communism.
Instead, what we did in Vietnam was occupy a nation that really didn't want us there except for the Westernized dictators who ruled the South. We terrorized by day and night with the mightiest display of weaponry the world had ever seen. We kicked in hootch doors and insulted and bullied villagers from Saigon to the DMZ. We did all this in the name of democracy. We insisted the Vietnamese wanted our democracy. Like Iraq and Afghanistan, what the Vietnamese people wanted was security from the insanity of war so they could live in peace, work in peace, take care of their kids in peace and live free of violence. We provided none of this for them. Nor did the armies of the other side. What we did was put the general population of Vietnam in the middle of a violent game of power. They couldn't win if they supported the Americans or the North Vietnamese and NVA.
Sure this is a simplification of Vietnam and the current wars but we still must ask ourselves why we were ever there and why we are still there (in Iraq and Afghanistan)? What have we accomplished by importing violence to nations already overwhelmed with violence? C'mon, the truth is we went to these nations to demonstrate our power and to have strategic control of areas in the world we could exploit for natural resources and the fear we could bring to our perceived enemies such as China, Russia and Iran.
Our presence on their doorsteps and the control of oil fields, deep water ports and other vital resources was meant to intimidate. We have become the class bully and in classic Orwellian terms classified our actions as fighting for freedom and democracy.
Why is it we Americans trail all the other industrialized nations in literacy and the knowledge of languages other than our own? Why is it the rest of the industrialized nations have better infant mortality rates and can manage to give all their citizens decent health care? We have slowly descended into the depths of stupidity and ignorance while all around us see our emperor has no clothes while he marches in his pompous parade of oligarchic power.
Just this past week another Orwellian twist has occurred. The justices of the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to designate corporations as being individual people, having the same rights as an individual. This concept has been fought against for over a hundred years to prevent coporations from further buying off our elected officals. Now that the justices appointed by Reagan and the Bushes have opened the door to this personhood of big businesses we are offically without true democracy. Money talks, poverty walks. If we close our eyes and imagine Wal-Mart is a person do we see a predominately American or Chinese person? Where will the campaign funding come from, American tycoons or the centralized government of China, a nation once called our greatest enemy?
If we have become sickened by the lies, the innuendoes and distortions of campaign ads in past years, wait until this election season. Big money willl flood the airways with attack and counter-attack ads. And ignorant Americans will buy into the lies and distortions without finding the truth for themselves. Any attempt to hold a conversation of original thought will be difficult to find. Buzz words and talking points will be used to counter any rational argument against the lies of America, Incorporated.
So, yes, the more things change the more they stay the same. Who will break the cycle? Certainly not the "greatest generation" of my father who have gotten theirs but don't want anybody else to have the same. Certainly not my generation who claimed they would change the world but instead copped out and cut their hair and became "the man". My progressive friends like to believe the coalitions of the Vietnam moratorium movement changed the course of the war but conveniently forget after 1968, the bombing and deaths increased rather than decreased. Nixon used the war for four years to ensure his reelection. The genocide in Cambodia occurred because Americans refused to stop the war.
Who will break the cycle? I don't think my sons' generation will do it because they are the result of my generation's pampering and infantilzing. They became self absorbed and so materialistic they couldn't escape the debt trap of the corporations. They failed to understand the death trap of the military.
And so it goes. Welcome back to my cynical and disparging blog about the country I try dearly to love but become repulsed by every day. Like the old folk song asks, "when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?". I ask myself that almost every day and can't come up with a hopeful answer.
Much has changed since the election of Obama. Or has it really just stayed the same? There's an argument to be made for both thoughts.
Obama the new fresh face of democracy has turned out pretty much as I expected. He's really like Abu Jamal Mumia suggested; just a black face doing the bidding of the masters at the plantation. He'll be tagged with all the political and economic disasters of the Neo-Cons and then they'll return espousing a "new" direction for America. It's already happening as shown by the election of a neocon in Massachusetts to replace the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy.
Obama came into the Presidency with the hopes of the world that thngs would change but quickly showed it would be the same old thing of the banksters and corporate icons running the show. He continued and expanded the war in Afghanistan while making believe we have reduced our presence in Iraq. Whenever someone asks why we are in either place the terrifying reply starts out with terrorism.
But does terrorism really justify us bombing and strafing villages thought to have the Taliban or the ever elusive Al Queida roaming around in them? How does the drone rocket attack on a wedding party or the home full of children endear the American people to the people of these nations we occupy?
Just as Dubya continually raised the level of risk everytime his ratings seemed to fall, Obama has continued to use terrorism like we used to use the term communism during the war in Vietnam. And just like that war turned out, so too will these wars turn out. We might as well start the memorial wall for the dead Americans duped into thinking they were protecting democracy when in fact the mission they were given has had the opposite effect.
I know a little about being duped by my government. I am coming up on the 42nd anniversary of the 1968 Tet Offensive this weekend on January 30-31. I learned one month after my arrival in Vietnam as a combat infantryman in the Marines what insanity I had volunteered to be part of. JFK and his charismatic oratory along with his martyrdom at the hands of an assassin made it seem I must give up my life to "protect" our country from the scourge of communism.
Instead, what we did in Vietnam was occupy a nation that really didn't want us there except for the Westernized dictators who ruled the South. We terrorized by day and night with the mightiest display of weaponry the world had ever seen. We kicked in hootch doors and insulted and bullied villagers from Saigon to the DMZ. We did all this in the name of democracy. We insisted the Vietnamese wanted our democracy. Like Iraq and Afghanistan, what the Vietnamese people wanted was security from the insanity of war so they could live in peace, work in peace, take care of their kids in peace and live free of violence. We provided none of this for them. Nor did the armies of the other side. What we did was put the general population of Vietnam in the middle of a violent game of power. They couldn't win if they supported the Americans or the North Vietnamese and NVA.
Sure this is a simplification of Vietnam and the current wars but we still must ask ourselves why we were ever there and why we are still there (in Iraq and Afghanistan)? What have we accomplished by importing violence to nations already overwhelmed with violence? C'mon, the truth is we went to these nations to demonstrate our power and to have strategic control of areas in the world we could exploit for natural resources and the fear we could bring to our perceived enemies such as China, Russia and Iran.
Our presence on their doorsteps and the control of oil fields, deep water ports and other vital resources was meant to intimidate. We have become the class bully and in classic Orwellian terms classified our actions as fighting for freedom and democracy.
Why is it we Americans trail all the other industrialized nations in literacy and the knowledge of languages other than our own? Why is it the rest of the industrialized nations have better infant mortality rates and can manage to give all their citizens decent health care? We have slowly descended into the depths of stupidity and ignorance while all around us see our emperor has no clothes while he marches in his pompous parade of oligarchic power.
Just this past week another Orwellian twist has occurred. The justices of the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to designate corporations as being individual people, having the same rights as an individual. This concept has been fought against for over a hundred years to prevent coporations from further buying off our elected officals. Now that the justices appointed by Reagan and the Bushes have opened the door to this personhood of big businesses we are offically without true democracy. Money talks, poverty walks. If we close our eyes and imagine Wal-Mart is a person do we see a predominately American or Chinese person? Where will the campaign funding come from, American tycoons or the centralized government of China, a nation once called our greatest enemy?
If we have become sickened by the lies, the innuendoes and distortions of campaign ads in past years, wait until this election season. Big money willl flood the airways with attack and counter-attack ads. And ignorant Americans will buy into the lies and distortions without finding the truth for themselves. Any attempt to hold a conversation of original thought will be difficult to find. Buzz words and talking points will be used to counter any rational argument against the lies of America, Incorporated.
So, yes, the more things change the more they stay the same. Who will break the cycle? Certainly not the "greatest generation" of my father who have gotten theirs but don't want anybody else to have the same. Certainly not my generation who claimed they would change the world but instead copped out and cut their hair and became "the man". My progressive friends like to believe the coalitions of the Vietnam moratorium movement changed the course of the war but conveniently forget after 1968, the bombing and deaths increased rather than decreased. Nixon used the war for four years to ensure his reelection. The genocide in Cambodia occurred because Americans refused to stop the war.
Who will break the cycle? I don't think my sons' generation will do it because they are the result of my generation's pampering and infantilzing. They became self absorbed and so materialistic they couldn't escape the debt trap of the corporations. They failed to understand the death trap of the military.
And so it goes. Welcome back to my cynical and disparging blog about the country I try dearly to love but become repulsed by every day. Like the old folk song asks, "when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?". I ask myself that almost every day and can't come up with a hopeful answer.
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