this is the summer of my discontent. all around me the flag is flying. red, white and blue adorns my favorite pub. a neighbor put a huge "old glory," in her main window. my city is decked to the hilt for the festive holiday bash complete with concert and fireworks on july 4th evening. and me? i feel like i can't even speak my mind. disparage america, (or god,) and watch how quickly countrymen turn on you.
why? is it from reciting the pledge of allegiance as children? is it just that our world is scary enough without having to question our nation and our leaders, past and present?
america, you lied to me. you said you were great but everyday you play small. you are the sum of your people: 4% evil, 25% good and 71% lazy. you talk about american exceptionalism as if american imperialism was a myth, as if hegemony was a false notion, as if to claim a moral high ground?
how in the world could you ever claim moral high ground dwelling in the gutter as you do. if your government was by the people and for the people what the hell is citizen's united?
when i was a child i was taught that america only engaged in war when it was on the side of righteousness. when i grew up and opened my eyes i learned that our leaders told us lies to gain a semblance of support for the war in vietnam. i learned that america lied and bombed laos and cambodia. i learned that vietnam, like iraq and afghanistan was fought to create wealth in the military industrial complex, (at the expense of taxpayers.)
in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of
unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
we must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. we should take nothing for granted. only an
alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
- president dwight d. eisenhowser, farewell address, 1961
i learned that america supported despots such as pinochet or suharto for our own financial well being, (which of course really only means the financial well being of our wealthy, ruling class.) america was friends with and educated: noriega, hussein, bin laden's family members, bautista, and so on, but easily turned on them when their demise was secured.
what happened to you america? what happened to the america of jefferson, washington, lincoln and franklin roosevelt? (hell, what happened to the america of eisenhower?)
in my adolescence i considered america the greatest country on earth, and myself of the lucky few for being an american. i slept well at night knowing we had a public safety net. if i should become crippled or otherwise unable to support myself, welfare and disability would help me to survive. when i reached retirement, social security and medicaid would help me to survive. today there is a gathering roar to dismantle these programs within you, america. even as you cut taxes on the wealthiest, even as you protect loopholes for mega-corporations, even as the wealthy and the corporations prepare to move to china and beyond for the next great wave of production, sans occupational safety and health, sans environmental protections, sans a living wage, the growing faction within you plots to disassemble these programs by any means necessary. your mean spiritedness dismays me, america.
your capitalism has run amok, america. your people, lazy and listless,repose beneath the false notions of the past, believing your leaders are not bought and sold, teaching your children to discount so many murdered citizens of other countries or worse, to disregard the unknown and unimagined living in those places, questioning nothing. questioning nothing. america, you are a people who question nothing.
i am sad this independence day at the pomp and circumstance about me. i saw a flag unfurl atop a building this morning down on main street and i recalled the feelings of pride and patriotism i once knew. i remembered how good it felt to learn about fdr's new deal in school, or to read about our involvement in world war II and how we ended hitler's reign of terror. i remember a teacher explaining to me the writers of the constitution knew there were some bad laws in place when it was written and so they made it malleable. and so it changed to abolish slavery and allow women to vote and so on.
how do we celebrate america when america, the idea, is so ill it is nearly dead? how do we celebrate america when 'bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,' has turned to 'get your immigrant-looking ass out of my country?' how do we celebrate america when common sense medical reform is demonized in the face of overwhelming statistics illustrating how truly horrible our for profit system is? how do we celebrate an america that tortures? how do we celebrate america?
how is angelo mozilo not in jail? how do corporations get away with murder in america? why does america care so much about eliot spitzer and anthony weiner but hold no one accountable for credit default swaps or the abolition of the glass steagall act? how did america become the land of manufacturing consent?
i am not feeling it. i am not feeling like celebrating my country because i love my country and the ideals it once represented. i love my friends and family and countrymen too, but i don't want to celebrate with them especially if they think nothing is wrong. decry, decry, the 4th of july...
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