a nation divided
Since a young age I really believed that there were no differences between presidential candidates in this country. When a friend handed me a copy of Propagandhi's cassette, I fell in love with them instantly, especially loving their idea that in America you had a choice - Coke or Pepsi. The idea is simplistic, that the choices are a little different but overall still just bubbly brown sugar water: they are fundamentally the same. And don't get me wrong, in some ways I still believe that politicians are the same, especially those that actually get elected into power. The notion that Americans are free because they are freer than other countries has always been one I grappled with. I could lie to you and say that I still believe it doesn't make a difference who we vote for - and, in large, it's true that there's not going to be much change either way. But in our current position we are in a particularly unique and dangerous case in which our entire way of life is being threatened. It is why, for the first time in my life, I voted. It is perhaps the reason there was a record turnout of voters in this country - some would say that Bush won. Many would point out that it's no coincidence that the turnout was so large, because 13 states were voting on whether or not gays could marry... I disagree. The turnout was too huge to mean that people wanted things to be exactly the same. I have one word on this subject: Diebold.
But truly, Americans as a whole failed by not fighting from day one, when a president was announced before the votes could be counted and it was just accepted. There was never a recount, and the general consensus (believe it or not) is that Gore won. Many people didn't like Gore, but many more people still were outraged at the way Clinton was publicly eviscerated and dethroned for lying about his personal sex life - something that, to this day, has not cost a single person their life, unlike the war in Iraq. Had we the people demanded that there was a recount and things happen differently... well, there isn't much point talking about a has-been, especially after not using our power to remove Bush instead of just letting it happen again. The first time, we got 9/11. The second, we got Katrina. Is it possible that these things would not have happened under Gore? Unlikely. But is it possible that the outcome would be phenomenally different in both cases? Absolutely. To be sure, there most certainly wouldn't be the two things people are complaining the most about these days: The war in Iraq, and skyrocketing gas prices (and record oil company profits).
The first few pages of America Betrayed (you can read some of it at Amazon.com) read as if it is talking about Adolph Hitler, yet it is talking about George W. Bush. The parallels are shocking. What am I saying? Perhaps you should be the judge yourself, and I will just leave you with the world would be a better place, had we fought for the democracy we say we believe to be the greatest in the world. Instead, by the time Bush leaves office, so much power will be given to some of the richest and most evil people in the world that undoing it will not come easily or without a price. Of course, a lot of price has already been paid in blood but that is not the point... it is going to take a lot more to get back where we were, and realistically we may never do that. This country may never be the same, and the true freedom that many of us had hoped to one day see will be even further out of sight.
After 9/11 we were supposed to be "a nation united." It is this feeling that, in part, gave Bush the power to start a war on people who posed no threat to us. But Americans were not united, and nothing proved that more powerfully than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where Americans sat on their rooftops starving to death and dying of thirst for days as no one came to their aid or did a damned thing about it. And now, homosexuals are being vilified, but I assure you that homosexuals are not the enemy. The enemy must be dismantled, the people must take the power back before this truly becomes a theocratic, Orwellian world.
United we stand or united, we fall.
But truly, Americans as a whole failed by not fighting from day one, when a president was announced before the votes could be counted and it was just accepted. There was never a recount, and the general consensus (believe it or not) is that Gore won. Many people didn't like Gore, but many more people still were outraged at the way Clinton was publicly eviscerated and dethroned for lying about his personal sex life - something that, to this day, has not cost a single person their life, unlike the war in Iraq. Had we the people demanded that there was a recount and things happen differently... well, there isn't much point talking about a has-been, especially after not using our power to remove Bush instead of just letting it happen again. The first time, we got 9/11. The second, we got Katrina. Is it possible that these things would not have happened under Gore? Unlikely. But is it possible that the outcome would be phenomenally different in both cases? Absolutely. To be sure, there most certainly wouldn't be the two things people are complaining the most about these days: The war in Iraq, and skyrocketing gas prices (and record oil company profits).
The first few pages of America Betrayed (you can read some of it at Amazon.com) read as if it is talking about Adolph Hitler, yet it is talking about George W. Bush. The parallels are shocking. What am I saying? Perhaps you should be the judge yourself, and I will just leave you with the world would be a better place, had we fought for the democracy we say we believe to be the greatest in the world. Instead, by the time Bush leaves office, so much power will be given to some of the richest and most evil people in the world that undoing it will not come easily or without a price. Of course, a lot of price has already been paid in blood but that is not the point... it is going to take a lot more to get back where we were, and realistically we may never do that. This country may never be the same, and the true freedom that many of us had hoped to one day see will be even further out of sight.
After 9/11 we were supposed to be "a nation united." It is this feeling that, in part, gave Bush the power to start a war on people who posed no threat to us. But Americans were not united, and nothing proved that more powerfully than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where Americans sat on their rooftops starving to death and dying of thirst for days as no one came to their aid or did a damned thing about it. And now, homosexuals are being vilified, but I assure you that homosexuals are not the enemy. The enemy must be dismantled, the people must take the power back before this truly becomes a theocratic, Orwellian world.
United we stand or united, we fall.