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By Lonna Gooden VanHorn (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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In Argentina Bush talked about leaders who do not provide for their people. But the people he lectured recently witnessed on television how the richest nation in the world could not or did not rescue thousands of poor people stranded in New Orleans. In New Orleans, also, the usually hidden face of Americas own poor was exposed to the shock of self-satisfied Americans and foreigners alike. Chavez, while autocratic, is improving life for the poor of his country, while Bush is clearly intent on helping only the rich in America. The poverty rate in the United States has increased every year he has been in office, as has the number of people without health insurance.

In Panama, Bush insisted America does not torture. But the entire world saw the images from Abu Ghraib, and they know about Guantanamo. A documentary on torture and murder in Afghanistan was screened around the world as well, although it was not shown in the United States.

Bush assured the people of Latin America we have their best interests at heart. But they know from experience that that is not always the case. If they have something America's government wants, they know we are likely to come in and try to take it.

If they ever doubted this, our invasion of Iraq has erased that doubt. They know we went into Iraq because Iraq had oil, and they know we have Venezuela in our sights. Indeed, Venezuela, along with Syria, is listed as a rogue nation in the Pentagons war planning schedule. They are in the second tier of enemy. The first tier consists of Iran and North Korea.

As Molly Ivins said, The hypocrisy of this administration is going to kill irony. Willfully delusional Americans may still believe, but the people of Latin America see their former good neighbor to the North for what it is becoming. Under the Bush administration America, widely perceived as the savior of the world during my childhood, is fast becoming the aggressor nation, the secretive nation, the repressive nation, the exploitive nation, the thug nation we once accused the U.S.S.R. of being. A nation that kills to advance corporate interests.

It breaks my heart. And it scares me to death!

This administration has achieved extraordinary power. Even Colin Powel's former Chief of Staff says the Bush administration was hijacked by madmen with their own secret agenda.

Fascism is defined in the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary as:

"A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

They have already come for immigrants. Will they be locking up dissenters next?

America, you have lost your way.

As E. L. Doctorow wrote so eloquently in his beautiful piece Our Unfeeling President

Millions of people...around the world...marched against the war... the cry of protest was the appalled understanding that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future

I want my country back! The World wants the dream my country was to them, back!

The media has not done its job (although it has recently gotten a little better) so it is up to us. I, my friends and my information truck are demonstrating in my conservative town almost every weekend.

As Martin Luther King said Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. As Michael Parenti said, When the people lead, the leaders will follow.

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Bio: Lonna Gooden VanHorn was born and raised on a small farm in Minnesota. She is the mother of 6, a grandmother, and the wife of a Vietnam veteran. Formerly a person who did not "get involved" in controversy, the constant lies and deceit of (more...)

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