Dear America, I see who you are but don’t recognize you anymore.

[kpete]

Why haven’t we opened the book on enlightenment and asked more of ourselves?

An unrecognizable America
By Gary Simon
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Aug 8, 2008, 00:28

Dear America, I see who you are but don’t recognize you anymore.

There’s been a change in my world and it’s you. For nearly five decades, I watched over you, applauding the good and denouncing the bad. We’ve had our battles, you and I, but never have your actions offended and jeopardized so many.

The list of my complaints is exhaustive, but for starters: You’ve abandoned the majority of us, except for your financial friends. You’ve allowed industrial pollution to settle in and your nation’s rivers to die out. Some of this can be fixed but when you forget to govern, that puts a heavy burden on the rest of us.

Does it bother you that you’ve gone too far? It’s not I who should be running after you, but you who should be scurrying back to me. It’s true, we never did walk in step, but I was always in your shadow, following the dream, looking to catch that first ray of hope.

The change is fast, misdirected and off-course; it’s too blatantly wrong. Few of your actions are familiar and most of them are hostile. Even your cheerfulness is disingenuous. You’re openly disrespectful and your moves are counter-productive to rebuilding a new agenda, not of war, but of renewal and of strength.

I don’t always know what you’re thinking but the breach between us is alarming. You’ve turned away from where we started and I don’t know if you’ll be coming around. If you do return, would I know you? Would you know me?

..........................

Why haven’t we, America, wanted more from a leader who should invest in us, and not his corporatist friends? Why haven’t we questioned and then made this entire group accountable for its selling off and its piecemealing of our governmental branches? Why have we allowed industrialists to exploit our forests and waters and remain fully dependent on old fossil fuels instead of new technologies? Why have we permitted a war to continue, now that we know its full intent -- to privatize one country and allow government contracts (many no-bid contracts) to be handed out in the billions? Why have we permitted the Constitution to become besmirched? Why haven’t we held our representatives and senators accountable? Why haven’t we opened the book on enlightenment and asked more of ourselves?

When we start addressing these questions, when we put decency ahead of greed, when we restore our government back to its rightful role and not as a whore to special interests and lords of money, then America, I’ll walk with my head up by your side. When we can halt the abuses abroad, when we can put democracy before hedonistic economics, then I’ll salute you -- and this time mean it. When we can return to dignity and abandon the callous ways we treat our people and others outside our borders, I will then sit down with you, hat in hand.

But until that time, I’ll continue to watch over your shoulder, with both eyes wide open.

Sincerely,
One of your citizens

read the whole thing at:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3599.shtml

[sui generis]

1. Here's my take

The idea that we should compete for citizenship in any country is antique. Somehow we don't find it ironic that in a democratic society we are granted citizenship due only to the accident of birth in a geographic area. What that means is, you aren't TRULY an individual - if you are "American" or "Texan" or "Maineish" (:P) you could be called upon in a draft and pressed into war against your will. Supreme court says if you live in a place that would make a higher tax base as a strip mall, you are subject to eminent domain with no greater compensation than the fair value of your home, as decided by the people exercising eminent domain.

The fact is, as a productive resource and as a consumer, states should be competing for citizens. It is time, after you have paid your taxes, voted, obeyed the law, helped your neighbors, been a good citizen, to ask WHAT HAS YOUR COUNTRY DONE FOR YOU, and is it the best they could do.

Quite frankly, I think I'd rather live in Norway all other things considered.

The difference is not in reality, just in what we think of as our "values". Has anyone noticed every time you hear a journalist, a soldier, a coworker mention iraq they can't say "fighting" without justifying it as "fighting for our freedoms" and the occasional misspoken shorthand "freedom fighters".

Really. What freedom of mine are soldiers dying for in Iraq? I'll accept the short list, if there is one.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. "freedom fighters"

If fire fighters fight fire
and crime fighters fight crime
what do freedom fighters fight?

-- Carlin

[flamingdem]

2. Hey McCain & Neoconia don't think they've gone far enough! n/t