7.17.2003
It is Important
Link fixed and draft edited for clarity this evening.
My Uncle is in his eighties, a sweet kind man that you would never assume was a highly decorated hero in World War II. You would never know it, he never spoke of the war. A fellow that killed folks behind enemy lines quietly, with his bare hands or some piano wire. The doctor says his leg needs to come off; a leg that has been black but functional since he was a commando in the big war, 60 years ago - risking his life and killing the enemy to save Democracy, to root out Fascism.
I see that the area near the Washington Monument where my years finest event is held is closed off to us. We pray for Peace and the continued integrity of all people, all life. Folks from about every faith tradition one can name. A monument glorifying World War II is to be built there, ideally to honor the fallen; not to glorify war itself I hope..
Ronald Reagan visited a grave site in Germany to honor fallen German Stormtroopers, fascist thugs from the same war. Both he and the first President Bush had Fascists from eastern Europe working in their re-election campaigns. Do a search on Bush + Fascist or Republican +Fascist... Or substitute the search term Nazi.
I see our soldiers, outfitted in WWII German style helmets following orders in a bedraggled nation in the middle east, killing and being killed. The people of Iraq are not strewing a path of flowers for us, their Occupiers. But Halliburton and Bechtel are doing well, the oil is flowing. The oil profits are not yet enriching the Iraqi people, nor is their country theirs yet. Our people are now told they may be there years...
I have seen Bush appeased in his relentless drive to end weapon inspections in Iraq, and against the will of a majority of humans on this planet lead America into the dishonor of a "pre-emptive attack", an action that saw Hitler's administration face the Nuremburg trials. Oddly enough using a bunch of "God rhetoric" to validate his ever shifting stated motives even as all the worlds major religions joined in speaking out against this affront to civilization.
Presently we are seeing his fatal web of lies unravel.
To honor our dead that fought to wipe out Fascism all those years ago we really need to stem its rise at home. To honor our dead that have died due to an unelected mans rise to power, the influence of his corporate backers and greedhead lackeys, his administrations disregard for all the ideas that define how we think of ourselves as American; the very qualities they extol while leading us to be a bully nation outside the international laws of decency and natural law- we need to call these folks to account.
Mussolini prophesied that the major idealogical war of the 20th century would be between a system of corporate/state government bound by nationalism and war while slanted to give a corporate elite dictatorial power versus a system that serves the majority of citizens based on progress born of rational man's innovations and fueled by justice and fair play.
Loud and proud, honest and decent, concerned, conscious and acting on it; I'm an American.
How can we be more effective in this medium? Cowboy Khalil has some thoughts. And you?
See you there...
7/17/2003
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