THE ALMIGHTY ARROGANCE OF AMERICA

The American flag. Makes everyone proud, doesn't it? A sacred symbol of the progress of the "world's greatest democracy", the "grand experiment." So revered, so coveted by its citizens that we tied up sessions of congress on debates for a law against burning it. But what was a once proud symbol, and a once proud nation has lost its luster, lost its meaning in recent years.

What does our flag, and ultimately our country, stand for these days? Are we truly the greatest, or are we leaning on the courage and ingenuity of generations past in order to justify our bold speak, our arrogance, allowing us to flaunt that once proud flag in the faces of the world?

Yes, we run around, chest puffed out, claiming to be the greatest, the only "super power" left standing. We, as a nation still have the swagger of the returning American G.I's from World War II. But we don't liberate any more. We invade and attempt to force on that countries people a system of democracy that has seen better days back home.

We have created more anti-American sentiment than at any time in our history. We look in horror at the number of countries who currently have nuclear bombs (9), and are actively seeking to stop the other 40 who are recently, openly developing them. And why? The answer is out of fear. Fear that a nation might invade them and force their beliefs and principles upon them. They fear us. We have become like them. We swoop down and invade countries, we hold what we call "enemy combatants", give them zero rights to defend themselves, hold them in secret prisons and torture them. Yes, we torture. The VP actually defended the practice in print (and then turned around and denied it). Does he believe in torture? It's a "no brainer."

We are governed by an administration that is particularly adept at one thing, and one thing only. Making us fear. Fear terrorists. Fear getting on a plane. Fear having your phone wiretapped. Fear being named an "enemy combatant" and having your rights of habeas corpus taken away. Personal freedoms attacked and stripped away. Checks and balances of governmental power eroding.

Our country is a shell of what it used to be. Our people are involved in a class war. The haves' and have nots. A social and political way of life so entrenched in money and power that the poor and middle class have little or no chance of improving their standings. A country run by the haves, a class of people only interested in two things; getting more, and making sure you don't.

We used to be the leader in technology and invention, now the vast majority of our citizens are barely literate. Our nation, who developed vaccines that save lives from polio and HIV/AIDS everyday, is comprised of citizens who can't afford health care, and are one major illness from bankruptcy and homelessness.

Our once proud nation was once a leader in the entertainment, the arts and music. We now export sex and smut and violence, in our movies, and our music. We have replaced Jackie Gleason with Jack-EZ. We used to produce wonderful movies and plays. We were the gold standard. Now, our air waves are full of recycled English game shows and reality shows.

We are a nation of overblown, obese adults, hellbent on passing on the legacy to our children. We are the ultimate nation of overindulgence, in energy and all things luxury.

We produce nothing anymore. We farm out everything, and import it. Our balance of trade is appalling. The last decent thing we invented was the "Flobee" hair cutter and the morning after pill.

We used to be known for our statesmen, our leaders who did the right things, leveled with our electorate and answered to their consciences. We now have a two party system dedicated to keeping their jobs, rather than doing their jobs. We have less backbones in Washington than a jellyfish convention. We have strict partisanship, and a "tit for tat" voting system on the hill. We have hidden fine print in every piece of legislation, which frequently means billions of dollars in pork to get anything done. We used to hear the truth, and believe in our elected representatives. Now, we doubt if our votes are even counted. Two straight presidential elections with the filthy odor of election fraud. We have more people vote someone off "American Idol" than vote for their next leaders. Public ignorance and apathy is our new way of life.

We are lied to so often, it doesn't even make the front page of the newspaper. We are so used to being lied to, that when it was uncovered that the present administration deliberately sold us a pack of lies, a "bill of goods" in order to declare an unjust war, there was no public outrage, no public outcry, no marching in the streets.

We arrogantly think we are capable of saving two countries, and keeping their mutual neighbor in check, while our own citizens are left to beg for help during a national disaster? Katrina relief never was about FEMA, or anything else but the color of the skins of the citizens who needed the help the most. Racism is alive and well in America. So is discrimination. We have a majority of the country, the so called "religous right", who actively flaunt their mutual hated of gays, and the rights they should be accorded in our Bill of Rights. If one group of people is not free in America, then no one is free. The constitution is not selective. It was for a long time, after all it wasn't until 1965 that we could even pass the Voter Rights Bill.

If that wasn't enough, we have a lobbyist who was so deeply entrenced into our government he actually made 485 different visits to our leaders in Washington, including the White House itself. We have had the senator in charge of the caucus on missing and exploited children, lose his job for the perverted e-mailed messages he was sending to the very, very young congressional pages.

We are a debtor nation. A nation in debt up to its eyeballs to China, Japan and the Middle East. My gosh, we even owe money to Mexico for God sakes. A country we have forgiven debts to over and over in the past, a country who we now are in debt to.

I do not take particular pleasure in saying these things. I want to be proud once again. I want to look up to our leaders with the same confidence my parents did decades long ago. These are troubling times, for sure. But we can pull out of them, given the right leaders. It will take time, but we can, and I believe will, reverse the 6, soon to be 8 year spiral of decay, and despair we are experiencing under the incompetent leadership of Bush and Cheney.

But only if the American people wakes up. Only if they get involved in what is going on. Only if they start to reverse the prevailing Washington mindset that the American people are nothing more than ignorant sheep.

This next election will decide. Are we going to become the once proud nation we were, and are capable of being again? Or will we continue to flounder, to sink in an immoral cravasse that we will be incapable of extricating ourselves from?

I am but one man. A common man at that. In many, many ways, a member of the "have not's."
But I use this technology, and the rights I enjoy under our Bill of Rights (including the first amendment), to rise up and shout to my fellow citizens in protest. Please join me. Dear God, please, please wake up. Wake up before it is too late.