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When the Republic Fails

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I grew up as a “typical” American child. I went to public school and placed my right hand over my heart every morning to Pledge my Allegiance to the Flag. I am going to write the Pledge below; the pre-Eisenhower one:

I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

This wasn't so much to make a political jab at Ike as it was to make the point that we should be one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all; period. Every day I pledged my allegiance to the United States Flag, not the sitting president or majority party. I pledged my allegiance to the laws I grew up learning about, which without their existence, there would be no flag to salute. With God or without, personally or nationally, this nation was formed by our Founding Fathers not to be a utopia, but rather a serious attempt to form a more perfect union. Our Fathers were Christians, but they also knew from the annals of history that state-sponsored religion hand-in-hand with government does not work and, more so, prevents blind justice.

Laws were set in place—indiscriminate laws—that said if you murder someone, you are guilty of murder, no matter what your personal religion, if any. A Jew cannot murder a Muslim just for “existing” in the United States, or vice versa; the law is the law, and justice cares not your religion, sex or skin color. And our laws are not made for punishment; they are made to keep peace and order in our towns, cities, counties and the nation as a whole. If one breaks the law, they go to trial and, if convicted, are sentenced. If it's an unheard of crime, a jury decides innocence or guilt and sets a precedent for other similar cases.

So yes, this is a good flag to salute, if you live in ideal conditions... Unfortunately, we do not.

This flag has been desecrated, not by the “needle in a haystack” flag burners, but by the politicians who wrap themselves in it, hide behind it on their lapel, and drape several around them at every photo opportunity they can get. And, no, I'm not singling-out the Bush administration; I'm calling on the carpet every politician who has sat back and allowed this country to be exported, demoralized and bankrupted. I won't even name names because anyone with a computer and Internet access knows who I'm talking about, or can find the information in 60 seconds or less. The state of the Flag, while I still hold it dear to my own heart, saddens me, because it has become a convenient piece of political TP that all selfish, greedy politicians have wiped their asses with and then rubbed their waste in the American Peoples' faces. Violating everything the Flag stands for and then waving one to distract people who are too dumb to realize the criminal acts happening all around them, to me, is the worst form of Flag desecration.

I said I wasn't only bashing the Bush administration, and I meant it: the Democratic Congress has enabled the crime and corruption in D.C. to go on since their razor-thin majority took over in January. They promised us they'd “clean up” Washington, but the only thing they've seemed able to do is raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years, while they continue to receive annual pay raises unless they vote against it! The not-yet-elected Democratic “leadership” (namely, Nancy Pelosi) said beforehand that “impeachment is off the table.” Why, Nancy? How many more laws will have to be broken? How much more shredding and deconstruction will our Constitution have to endure? How many more young men and women will have to die in vain in the most unjust and illegal war, perhaps, this world has ever seen? And how are you going to get our economy going strong again when our entire manufacturing base is gone?

What is it going to take to get people to awake from their obvious slumber? Will it take a reinstitution of the military draft? Na; the Senators' sons and daughters still won't have to kill or be killed. The problem with that kind of thinking is that the very wealthy, and their children, are an extreme minority. So you, reader of this, will go to kill or be killed, or your son, daughter, niece or nephew will. An education? You won't need that, so long as you're able to fire a gun wherever “The Man” tells you to!

Don't people see what the man in the White House—or, more appropriately, the “freedom haters” behind him—and even the Democratic Congress is getting away with? If they ruin our educational system, bankrupt our economy, dismantle workers' unions and the once-middle class jobs they created, then what will be left for us? The answer to this question, in simplest terms, is we'll be at the point of Neanderthals with automatic weapons, and I'm dead serious. There will be the armed forces, or nothing; war will become peace, freedom will become slavery, and ignorance will become strength. Not for the “average person,” though, but for the few highly educated people left on earth who instigate the wars of the world and gain more control and power over the uneducated masses. This is the state of conditions in most African countries; there are the people who set the highly uneducated masses against other “tribes” who they're told “want” their land, and vice versa, and it's far easier to pull a trigger than it is to educate someone whose mentality consists solely of fighting for their mere existence.

When is it going to dawn on people that this kind of “Corporate World Utopia” is what the Bush, Blair, Howard (of Australia), Harper (of Canada), and all other “Neo-Conservative” administrations want? In their utopia, the working men and women will be fodder for all their desires; we'll all be too stupid in no time to know we shouldn't be treated this way...

What's it going to take? King George getting a “hummer” on film? 100,000 dead and 10,000,000 wounded-for-life service members? We cannot continue to support one party or the other, unless at least one of them starts to see that people—the vast majority—cannot stand what's been happening and will continue to happen to these United States under present conditions. Do we need to abolish this current form of government and try again to create a more perfect union? Only time will tell, and I hope, for God's sake, but more importantly for this country's sake, that the powerful will of the human spirit to be free will prevail.

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Mark Cady resides in sunny Florida, where he goes to college, taking classes here and there. Mark believes in the truth and, while he realizes it is painful, it is going to have to be faced; better sooner than later. He also has Tourette (more...)
 
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When the Republic Fails

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