IT’S THE FOURTH OF JULY IN THE SKY WHEN WE DIE.
7/4/07
I use to enjoy the Fourth of July. I looked forward to it. In my past patriotic fervor I would wear my flag tee shirt and have a grand old day with plenty of beer and burgers and the national anthem. That was when I was much younger and dumber, and deeper in debt.
Today as I reflect on the spirit of the United States, the recent release of Scooter Libby, the attack and insult on American pride and spirit and the spilling of American blood in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other ongoing imperialistic conflicts around the world, I am saddened and sorry that I allowed myself to be so duped into believing that my country was the greatest in the world. I always wanted to believe, that America was a great society and filled with noble ideals. I always wanted to believe that we as a people could overcome all adversities and enemies and had the potential to truly be the greatest society, that has ever existed in the history of the world. I always wanted to believe that.
I don’t believe that anymore. I now believe that we are no better or worse than any other industrialized society. We are no better or worse than any other people. The fourth of July is just another day of the year in the empire. As long a we still have the criminals G.W Bush and Dick Cheney in the White House and hundreds of traitors in the Congress, and thousands in government service,a corrupt judicial system and hundreds of thousands of our troops illegally invading and occupying other countries, the people of the United States have nothing to be proud of, nothing to celebrate.
Last night I could hear the BOOM,BOOM,BOOM, AND RATA-TAT-TAT of a string of large and small fireworks, that sounded like bombs dropping and machine gun firing . I thought of how unnerving the sounds were. I thought of what the millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan are enduring, because of U.S aggression towards them. The deadly noise and bombing and murder every minute of every day . Seeing dead and ripped apart bodies on every street corner. Enduring fear and poverty and oppression, because of the U.S troop invasions of their countries. I imagined the horror of seeing children raped and murdered,depleted uranium bullets ripping apart their skulls and flesh. I imagined the constant sound of low flying American made military planes and helicopters, and the sound of American made explosions of missles and bombs. The sounds of American boots and rifle butts kicking in the front and back doors of houses, the screams and moans of thousands of innocent victims being slaughtered for the sake of empire, and the oil that lies miles under the vast expanses of desert sands.
I will not watch any Fourth of July festivities this year, live or televised. I will not grill hamburgers, or wear my old flag tee shirt. I will try not to think about the United States today. I will have a beer or two. I will take a walk, without fear of being killed. I may take a ride, without fear of being stopped and shot, or imprisoned. I have written this article without fear of being arrested, and without fear of being tortured. I will host my radio show tonight and tomorrow night and Friday night without fear of being shut down , or censored, or having my home broken into and my being renditioned to a secret torture chamber in an eastern european country. I will be at peace today without great fears of sudden death by a bomb or bullet, or being grabbed off the street, or driving over an IED, or seeing my neighbors and friends bodies, or body parts, strewn throughout the neighborhood, or their homes being bombed or looted, and the men being shot, and their wives and children raped and brutalized. I know that I am relatively safe; because I am an established white male, in a small town, living legally in the United States of America, but with the constant erosion of American liberties under G.W. Bush’s Administration and the current congress and Patriot Act, how much longer will Americans have their freedoms and safety?
L.A. STEEL
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