Throughout my twenty-nine plus years on this earth I have known nothing but privilege. I grew up middle class (and still might be), I am white, I am a male, I am straight, and I am getting an education that most people will never get. When some Syrian my age woke up the other morning to learn that family members or friends of his were killed in an illegal bombing by the United States, the picture he got was probably of me (sans beard and tattoos). I was thinking about this earlier today and it made me wonder if people over there know that we aren’t all insane. Sure, most people either cheer or ignore when we do something like invade a sovereign nation, but there are some of us who are saddened. There are some of us that want to stand up and fight, who understand not only that what is going on is as wrong as it gets, but also that it is being done in our name without our permission. Iraqis and Afghans for the past 6 and 7 years know that the Americans are destroying their lives. Every country that has been taken over by US influence, US puppet dictators, and US sanctioned torture know that it is the straight white male Americans who are doing this to them. Despite this, most of walk around as if in a daze; we don’t care about the human beings who are being destroyed with our permission. When Ward Churchill made his comments right after 9/11 comparing the causalities of the World Trade Center with the German citizens in the 30’s and 40’s he was shunned and eventually fired from his job. Is that not the case though? Even though each and every Iraqi to die does not receive coverage in our media, there is not a single person in this country who does not know that at least hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died. There is no doubt that Iraq is an illegal occupation, the “Good War” title that we have given to our invasion of Afghanistan is slowly wearing out, and there are international laws that are supposed to stop a country from attacking another country without warning. Knowing any of this and not doing a thing to stop it makes us all guilty. People look back at the time leading up to the holocaust and even during the holocaust and they say, “if only a few people would have paid attention and stood up it could have all been avoided. What’s wrong with them?” And yet, here we are doing the same thing. We are getting our rights taken away while missiles that were paid for with our tax dollars are being dropped into the living rooms of people just like you and me. By not stopping what is going on, each and every one of us is as responsible as George W Bush, Colin Powel, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and every single Senator and House member who voted for this. I know there are some people who don’t believe this and there are some that choose to ignore it. It doesn’t matter whether you believe it or pay attention to it or not. When our country continues to fall and no one will throw us a hand, we will all suffer. When some of the “terrorists” that we have created over the past hundred years plan their attacks on us, they are not going to only focus on the “bad Americans”. When a child wakes up in the hospital to find that not only are her legs gone, but so are her parents and siblings, she does not differentiate between those of us who are against war and those of us for, she only knows that the Americans did this. I’m babbling, so I’ll stop now.
Archive for October, 2008
Be Afraid… just kidding, go back to sleep
I haven’t had a good idea for a blog in quite a few days; I’m getting kind of sick of talking about Obama and the need for a third party, the economic situation confuses me, and sports – while my first love – just don’t excite me enough to write. Then I woke up this morning; first I was reminded of something fucked up that happened a month or so ago and then I was smacked in the face with something brand new. I’ll briefly touch on both.
The first thing I read this morning was by Glenn Greenwald and it concerned an issue that I’ve known about for a little bit; in fact, I may have even written about it once or twice…who remembers? The United States Army now has a brigade – a brigade that has spent the previous four years in Iraq – stationed right here in the United States. We are a police state; almost every police department in the country has weapons originally intended for the Armed Forces, they teach their recruits to be almost as cold-blooded as the Armed Service, and they have completely separated themselves from their motto of “to protect and serve”. Despite this, the US Government still feels the need to station soldiers in our midst with the intention to “help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack. This is according to an extremely underwear browning article in the Army Times. I’ve been racking my brain for a few weeks now, trying to figure out a situation where the army is needed to control a crowd. This situation would mean that the town police, county police, state police, National Guard, and probably a Blackwater type group have all attempted and failed to keep a crowd under control. What could possibly be going on where this would be needed? I have plenty of what most people would call paranoid scenarios that I can imagine, and am even in the process of trying to form a “what if” group.
This is all shocking because this is the first time that there has been an active duty brigade stationed in our country without some kind a civil war going on. Even more shocking is the fact that no one seems to care. There was a part of me that envisioned John and Jane Q Public rising up if the government decided to postpone the elections or declare Marshall Law because of some random event somewhere in the world, but now I highly doubt it. This should be on the front page of every newspaper, reporters should be grilling the Defense Department for real reasons as to why this is happening, and anyone who gives half a shit about their freedom should be in the streets demanding answers. None of this is happening; there was a tiny article in some mainstream newspapers the day the news came out, and then nothing. Most not so mainstream papers are not even covering this on a regular basis; when I woke up this morning and read the Greenwald blog I was very surprised.
Just when my brain started spinning uncontrollably I clicked Chris Floyd on my favorite’s toolbar and came upon this. I get breaking news updates from the New York Times via email; I have been one of the first among my friends to know the winners of each and every primary, how much stocks have shot up or down, and the conviction of Ted Stevens. Yet when I checked my email this morning there was no mention that the United States has bombed Syria, killing innocent civilians; including children. This attack was not only unprovoked, but according to the BBC we did not even inform Syria (a sovereign nation) that we were sending helicopters in to drop bombs on their population. The US thinks that we can do whatever we want to whomever we want and totally get away with it. Chris Floyd listed three possible reasons as to why this happened. The first is that Syria – long time an “enemy” of Israel, and therefore an enemy of the US – has been beginning peace talks with its neighbors. This is unacceptable to the people who decide our foreign police (read: the weapons manufacturers and other war profiteers). Even if Syria is not too much a grave threat, it is still a monster in the closet that can turn evil at the drop of a dime. Because of this, we must continue to pump more and more money into our military industrial complex. Without ‘enemies’ how would the war profiteers maintain the scaring the general public enough to continuously add zeros to their (probably oversees) bank accounts? Floyd’s second reason is that Bush is a second grader. It is looking more and more like – if we have a fair election – Obama is going to win the presidency. With someone willing to negotiate in office, other countries may back off a little and try the diplomatic route. George Bush thought (or whoever thinks for him told him to think) that this would be a perfect time to get a good kick to the ribs in before disappearing into the hall of shame forever. Finally, another plot involving Bush: how bad would it look for Republicans if, over the next few years, things actually begin to improve in the Middle East? Angering a country that so far hasn’t really been involved is the perfect way to assure things don’t improve.
Personally, I think all these things are tests; the government is attempting to find out how much exactly they can get away with. In the span of a couple weeks troops have been stationed in the United States and we have killed innocent civilians in a sovereign nation; the reaction has been nil. The elections are a week away and – thanks to the above mentioned events combined with the taking away of our rights for the past eight years (all of which also were met with little to no resistance) – our government knows what they can (everything) and cannot (nothing) get away with. I know my writing isn’t the clearest, nor do I get many readers, but maybe in a couple years someone will stumble upon this and put me on the list of people who lost their voices screaming about what is so obviously about to happen.
What Scares Me
I know I talk about my dislike for Obama a lot; I do this because I assume everyone knows McCain is an insane old puppet and therefore is not even worth talking about. Also, I do it because all these people getting so excited about Obama scare me; they scare me because most of them assume all they have to do is work for a few months before the election to get other people excited as well, go to the poll on election day to vote for their candidate, celebrate when it is announced that he won, and then go home and watch TV for the next four years. Even though I believe Obama has blood on his hands and – if given the presidency – will eventually become a war criminal, I am still hoping with all my might that he destroys John McCain in every single state. I hope that he is what people think and hope he is. I hope that he has been saying a lot of the stuff he has been saying in order to get elected. I hope the people who help get him elected stay organized and put pressure on him for the next four or eight years. I truly hope he changes the world for the better and we look back at the past 20 or so years in embarrassment. I don’t know if this will happen though.
I’ll tell you what scares me (in a short post) more than Obama killing towers full of people on a daily basis, and then I’ll leave you alone. Most Independents who are not going with a third party will vote for Obama, a lot of Republicans have decided to jump ship and either vote for a third party or Obama, and a ton of people who usually sit on their couch and play video games on election day will be heading to the polls this year to vote for Obama. It is my opinion that there will be no need for any recounts; Obama’s margin of victory will be too big. The Democrats will also take over a number of seats in the House and Senate that have been Republican safe seats for the past few decades. There will be no more time for excuses; the Democrats will rule all three branches of government and will be able to basically do whatever they want; what they’ve been claiming to want to do for the past two years. They will come up with a better health care plan, education will make an improvement (not too much because Democrats still don’t want children to grow up and question the system), we will be killing less people overseas, unions will be stronger, wages will be higher, and a bunch of other social issues will take a turn for the better. However, the hatred that the rest of the world feels for this country will continue to rise, the rich will get even richer, all the corporations who have been giving a shit ton of money to Obama and then Dems will see their profits grow tenfold, the poor will get poorer, inflation will cause staple items to be unaffordable for a growing percentage of the populations, and – most importantly – our economy will collapse. Most of this will not be Obama’s fault; most of it will be because of the decisions that have been made since the days of Reagan (and probably before). However, the majority of people in this country do not understand how these things work; they will forget that the economy was on the way down long before Mr. Obama came into power; they will fail to see the improvements made in areas that Obama actually had control over, and they will blame the Democrats for destroying this country. 2012 will roll around with our country in shambles, and then what will happen? The Republicans will run psychopaths who will make Bush and McCain look like model citizens; not just for the White House but also for every other position available. Next thing we know we will have a bunch of little Hitlers controlling our government and blaming China or India for the mess that we’re in. What happens next I don’t even want to guess, although reading history gives me a pretty good idea.
Maybe An Economic Collapse Wouldn’t Be All That Bad
Welcome back to me; once again I will make an attempt to write a blog at least three days a week. I am taking eighteen credits, doing two internships, working as a core member of Students for Peace and Justice in Boulder, and earning money at a real job, so I don’t know how long this will last or of what quality they will be. I apologize in advance to my three or four loyal readers.
Before I even begin to talk about what I want to talk about, let me just say that I really don’t have a full understanding of what I’m about to reference. What I’m talking about is this financial crisis these United States are facing. I know that the bankers gave out a lot of loans that they shouldn’t have; I know that the government sat back and did nothing because we are (or were) a free-market system; and I know that things are going to effect people from the bottom up. I know – from listening to and reading smarter people who know more than me – that this 700 billion dollar bailout is going to (possibly) save the rich people (and maybe some middle class) while doing absolutely nothing to alleviate the suffering of the poor. I know that this is only a temporary solution; that even during the great depression the stock markets would have record gains from time to time. I know that neither McCain nor Obama (whichever of whom gets elected will end up being a one term president anyway) will fix any of these problems. I also know that there is a big part of me rooting for a complete economic (and other) collapse in these here United States.
I know that an economic collapse will result in people like myself (and probably most of my friends and family) losing jobs, standing in bread lines, and possibly ending up homeless. It doesn’t make me happy to think about my mother riding a bike to the local church because she can’t afford to eat dinner, but this is something that has been going on for hundreds of millions of people throughout the world for hundreds of years because of our countries’ need to consume, consume, consume without caring about anyone else on earth. The fact that we have been in Iraq for five and a half years and will spend literally trillions of dollars is not on people’s minds anymore. The fact that our country is still occupying Afghanistan (and it’s getting a lot worse) is not even on the list of the top twenty concerns of most of our citizenry. The fact that our educational system is teaching our children to be obedient, unhappy, robots only concerns a very small part of the population. Maybe this is because neither mainstream candidate is talking seriously about these issues or maybe neither mainstream candidate is talking seriously about them because no one cares. Either way, there is probably not one person on your block who doesn’t have an opinion – an opinion that has almost certainly been voiced repeatedly – on the financial crisis. Maybe the downfall of our economic system will get people angry enough to elect third, fourth, or even fifth party representatives to Congress and the Presidency. Maybe it will get people angry enough to – gasp – realize that we don’t need a government to take care of things for us; that we can do bad all by ourselves.
I admit that all of this is probably a pipe dream; our country is way to stupid and lazy to overthrow the government or even change the system. What is more likely to happen is this.
