4th and 40th Anniversary of STOP THE WAR! NOW!
I knew, 4 years ago, that our President was leading us into a war for profit. An eager, hungry demand to control the spigot of the world’s energy reserves. As in a dream, I could foresee the privatization and profit of the corporations engaged in the supplying of and stealing from Americans, made possible by the corruption of war.
And it has come to pass. Fat, bloated portfolios of the uber wealthy, earned on the skimping deprivation of our volunteer military. Like a share croppers overseer, they collect, their cash while ignoring the rotting ceilings, devastated lives, and offer up the simplest of reasons. "Well, they volunteered didn't they?"
I knew my neighbors would turn away from and deny the horror that has befallen the Middle East. That they would paint over truth with patriotism. Patriotism fed on hate and intolerance.
I knew that 3165 flag draped cardboard cartons would be an abstract number with no real body inside without a grieving family. And they would still insist on holding on to some vague but fervent belief in an empty promise by a leader with no conscience.
I've been tortured daily with the reports of each new outrage. I have participated in what I once believed was my republic, my democracy. I voted, wrote my Senator, wrote my Congressmen, wrote my newspaper. I signed petitions, on-line and off. I even helped deliver a few thousand of the stupid things directly to Cliff Sterns Office.
I protested on the corners of Gainesville, and Tampa, and Orlando, and Tallahassee, and shook my fist many, many times, at the indifferent authority in Washington DC.
To what effect? NONE. To what end? No end in sight. For what? My name on a terrorist list somewhere? My civil rights erased before my disbelieving eyes?
My income halved, my children struggling to get by, having already been robbed of their future? My health compromised, my house lost. My, MY grandchildren HUNGRY? How can this BE in my America?
This WAR, this Administration, this Government, this INSANITY, is beyond rational belief.
I've come to the sorry conclusion that being "polite" and "framing" my message is a waste, a total waste of time, energy, and what little resources I have left.
I for one am ready to set something on fire. Even if it is me.
I have never, NEVER, been so embarrassed, so downright ashamed to be an AMERICAN. And I am not alone in this.
And before you tell me to love it or leave it, keep in mind that I can no longer LEAVE the US without a passport, without permission. And international treaties make it impossible and in some cases illegal for me to seek residency anywhere else.
I would gladly leave, tomorrow, if I could.
Knowing that I had done my all as an American Citizen to stop all of this…, this, holocaust of a war on terror.
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