"The America of today is an abomination and desecration... an unrecognizable mutation..."
by Peter Fisk - September 21, 2007
I have grown sick, embarrassed and, ultimately disillusioned with what has happened to my country. The United States of America- at one time those five magical words mesmerized both citizens and foreigners alike. The United States of America truly earned the Statue of Liberty. It had every right to throw its chest out when it proudly proclaimed authorship of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It was not lying when it fashioned itself ‘the cradle of democracy.” And it burrowed deep into the hearts of people around the world who had all but given up hope for a better life when it declared, according to poet Emma Lazarus, to bring, to its shores, the tired, the poor and the hungry.
The America of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton. James Madison and Patrick Henry, was given a violent birth because its pregnancy was filled with children who wanted to make the world a better place in which to live. These ingenious men, along with numerous others, created a radical experiment in their very idealistic vision of what true representative government could be. They knew that power unchecked spawned power abused. They realized that “change,” though always nerve-wracking, brought about the freshness of new ideas. They knew that freedom of speech and freedom of the press would likely result in conflict and disagreement. And they also knew that without such necessary controversy, Truth would be buried in the banality of platitudes and porous promises. Hence, dissension, difference and diversity were the inevitable offspring of a society in which, in theory, every person’s belief was as valid and important as everyone else’s.
The America of today is an abomination and desecration of the toil and selflessness of our Founding Fathers. We have become the bully of the world. We have become an unrecognizable mutation to those uplifting letters, now yellowing on our birth certificate. The checks and balances, so astutely placed in the structure of our government, have been trampled into anonymity. The sanctity of being able to speak one’s mind and the media truly feeling free enough to tell the truth to its readers is all but ready for the obituaries.
I believe President George W. Bush to be a despicable, little, intellectually impotent, heartless man. He represents the worst kind of leader; a head of state who hides under the beauty of American ideals while dispensing a complete disregard for permitting their implementation. He has callously sent young men and women to the other side of the world to fight a dubious enemy to gain control of oil fields while inarticulately telling an increasingly rejecting and infuriated audience that America is still the bastion of democracy. And he and his mindless flock are willing to enforce this notion through dropping tons of bombs on the designated enemy, torturing those who resist getting with the program and forever, maiming and killing the flower of America youth. We can only wonder what the sacrifices of these people will amount to, after all the oil is gone and new foraging grounds have captured our nation’s attention.
While I feel that George Bush is far and away the worst president America has ever produced, it is easy to place the blame solely on his stooping shoulders. Perhaps because of the criminal and lackluster leadership of our elected officials, today’s Americans, by and large, have replaced empathy with apathy, caring with callousness, welcoming the immigrant to building walls and fences, altruism with narcissism and helping others to “me” first. Our morality meter needs new batteries.
Franklin Roosevelt said that where there is no vision, the people perish. Eighteenth century British statesman, Edmund Burke, noted that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. And Thomas Paine wrote in his “Crisis Papers” that, “tyranny like hell is not easily conquered. But we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph!”
As Americans who were given a unique and magical gift by our Founding Fathers. We must resist the demagogues clothed as our leaders of today, who are galloping over our most precious and cherished rights. We must teach the bullies that have kidnapped our country a lesson that might does not make right and that every human voice, worthy of the smallest utterance, has value and the right to be heard.
I love this country with all my heart. But I detest what it has become. Power and money for the privileged few has become the norm. Living at peace and equality with the other nations of the world has become a joke. All the peoples of the world call Earth their mother. As a nation we once knew that. We once embraced it with outstretched arms. It is time to pull the plug on all our leaders who have forgotten that they have been elected by us to represent US! It is time to regain our personal and national dignity and throw our chest out with pride, not intimidation.
by Peter Fisk - September 21, 2007
I have grown sick, embarrassed and, ultimately disillusioned with what has happened to my country. The United States of America- at one time those five magical words mesmerized both citizens and foreigners alike. The United States of America truly earned the Statue of Liberty. It had every right to throw its chest out when it proudly proclaimed authorship of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It was not lying when it fashioned itself ‘the cradle of democracy.” And it burrowed deep into the hearts of people around the world who had all but given up hope for a better life when it declared, according to poet Emma Lazarus, to bring, to its shores, the tired, the poor and the hungry.
The America of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton. James Madison and Patrick Henry, was given a violent birth because its pregnancy was filled with children who wanted to make the world a better place in which to live. These ingenious men, along with numerous others, created a radical experiment in their very idealistic vision of what true representative government could be. They knew that power unchecked spawned power abused. They realized that “change,” though always nerve-wracking, brought about the freshness of new ideas. They knew that freedom of speech and freedom of the press would likely result in conflict and disagreement. And they also knew that without such necessary controversy, Truth would be buried in the banality of platitudes and porous promises. Hence, dissension, difference and diversity were the inevitable offspring of a society in which, in theory, every person’s belief was as valid and important as everyone else’s.
The America of today is an abomination and desecration of the toil and selflessness of our Founding Fathers. We have become the bully of the world. We have become an unrecognizable mutation to those uplifting letters, now yellowing on our birth certificate. The checks and balances, so astutely placed in the structure of our government, have been trampled into anonymity. The sanctity of being able to speak one’s mind and the media truly feeling free enough to tell the truth to its readers is all but ready for the obituaries.
I believe President George W. Bush to be a despicable, little, intellectually impotent, heartless man. He represents the worst kind of leader; a head of state who hides under the beauty of American ideals while dispensing a complete disregard for permitting their implementation. He has callously sent young men and women to the other side of the world to fight a dubious enemy to gain control of oil fields while inarticulately telling an increasingly rejecting and infuriated audience that America is still the bastion of democracy. And he and his mindless flock are willing to enforce this notion through dropping tons of bombs on the designated enemy, torturing those who resist getting with the program and forever, maiming and killing the flower of America youth. We can only wonder what the sacrifices of these people will amount to, after all the oil is gone and new foraging grounds have captured our nation’s attention.
While I feel that George Bush is far and away the worst president America has ever produced, it is easy to place the blame solely on his stooping shoulders. Perhaps because of the criminal and lackluster leadership of our elected officials, today’s Americans, by and large, have replaced empathy with apathy, caring with callousness, welcoming the immigrant to building walls and fences, altruism with narcissism and helping others to “me” first. Our morality meter needs new batteries.
Franklin Roosevelt said that where there is no vision, the people perish. Eighteenth century British statesman, Edmund Burke, noted that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. And Thomas Paine wrote in his “Crisis Papers” that, “tyranny like hell is not easily conquered. But we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph!”
As Americans who were given a unique and magical gift by our Founding Fathers. We must resist the demagogues clothed as our leaders of today, who are galloping over our most precious and cherished rights. We must teach the bullies that have kidnapped our country a lesson that might does not make right and that every human voice, worthy of the smallest utterance, has value and the right to be heard.
I love this country with all my heart. But I detest what it has become. Power and money for the privileged few has become the norm. Living at peace and equality with the other nations of the world has become a joke. All the peoples of the world call Earth their mother. As a nation we once knew that. We once embraced it with outstretched arms. It is time to pull the plug on all our leaders who have forgotten that they have been elected by us to represent US! It is time to regain our personal and national dignity and throw our chest out with pride, not intimidation.
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