For the past few months, it's been no secret the riled-up mobs of the right-wing have been disrupting town hall discussions on healthcare reform, shouting down Congressmen, concerned citizens, and even victims of the bastardization of a healthcare system without mercy. While I don't appreciate their tactics, their shameful methodology an American citizen once could not have thought imaginable, I do feel their pain now.
No, not their
astroturfed fear the United States is on some self-destructive path to Communism. No, not their media-inspired rage against some phantom progressive agenda to wear down their country one step at a time. And of course, not their vastly inappropriate, blatantly racist swipes at the President.
Something is happening to this country--has already happened--will still keep happening. I agree with the rightwing mob--the Republic is dying. The United States as we once knew it is even more rapidly descending on the path to irrevocable perversion not seen since the rise of imperialism in Rome, and if something extraordinarily drastic and dynamic isn't done in the next few years, a collapse comparable to the resultant Empire.
I could go into the countless examples I've screamed for the past few months--the enslavement of Capitol Hill by special interests, whose ability to sign checks has far outweighed the average American's ability to sign petitions; the resulting betrayal of the vulnerable, terrified American people by the most power-hungry of politicians so afraid of angering their corporate supporters they sell out their own consciences; the pathological lying and perversion of the truth by members of Congress to sell hate-filled, greedy agendas--but it would do no good. Far more influential and far more numerous Americans have tried to get this message across before I, and still to no avail.
Instead, I'll join with the rightwing mob in going after their focus of ire and fear--albeit for different reasons. That's right--President Obama, members of the Democratic Party--this is for you.
Your collective betrayal of any real progressive agenda in this country regarding overhauling this nightmare of a healthcare system has resulted in a perverted bill that actually makes the system worse--if anyone could fathom it getting worse--by refusing to establish a strong alternative to the corporate death panel that is the private insurance industry whose quest for profit will kill forty-four thousand Americans in 2010 and every subsequent year, you have failed to cause any real health reform or control of the inhumane insurance industry. Yet, the bill still mandates Americans to buy in--not into a strong public alternative, but into the private industry. In short, you have sentenced millions of Americans to poverty at the hands of hiked premiums and neglect under the system.
Your betrayal of the pursuit of peace and human rights here and abroad will make us a continued mockery around the world for years to come. Mr President, you can visit as many countries as you like, and deliver as many heartfelt speeches in as many capitals as you can visit, but it will mean nothing when we're still overseeing two wars and indeed escalating one of them. As one of the few sensible members of Congress recently said, sometimes there's no
just war, and it is
just war.
On top of all this, the betrayal of our belief in human and legal rights and our collective, passive surrender to the wishes of the extremists who seek to destroy our nation--yes, the still-operational detention center at Guantanamo Bay--remains a blight on our national conscience. Your promise to shut down the detention center and commitment to put key criminals on trial in New York is admirable--but far overshadowed by this is your refusal to prosecute the torture-justifying criminals in the previous administration, the transfer of still-possibly-maybe-innocent detainees to a maximum security prison in Illinois, and even more unimaginable than this, your mindless continuance of the previous administration's crimes--the revival of the Patriot Act, and the continued issuing of National Security Letters that wantonly disregard the Fourth Amendment and violate our rights as freedom-loving Americans in the name of "security" and "safety".
Worse yet, and this may indeed be the greatest harm and damage you could have possibly done to this country, your betrayal of our trust and our hope for change. You Congressional Democrats who ran in 2006 on a platform of opposing the Bush Administration's anti-American policies sat around and did nothing for two years as Guantanamo remained opened, the Iraq War escalated, and the economy collapsed. And in 2008, Mr President, you ran entirely on the hope for change and making a difference in Washington--stopping the betrayal of our values and beliefs through torture and the wars, providing reliable health insurance for millions of desperate and uninsured Americans--and have thus far, failed to deliver.
It's harder and harder to believe it will get better, or that it even
might stop declining. If the progressive party in America with a clear majority in both houses of Congress and one of the most popularly-elected presidents in recent memory can't even manage an ounce of change, what must be done?
I terrified myself tonight. After piecing together all of the above individual betrayals into one big picture, I temporarily lost my mind. I threw a duffel bag into the back of my truck, and turned on the engine. I was in the middle of entering an address into my GPS when I started to realize what I was doing. As if I had blacked out in the previous ten minutes, I took a look into the bag in the back--and pulled out a Remington 870 and boxes of ammunition. Then I looked at the GPS--I had plotted a course from Omaha, Nebraska to DC.
That bag is still in my truck. The GPS is still there, programmed. But I'm not. I nearly became one of them tonight. What scared me the most is that I actually thought it would work, that peaceful demonstration and action through Congress has been all-but fruitless in the past several years, and only the ones who advocate violence and who suffer a guilty pleasure through anarchy and chaos have a strong, influential voice in this country.
My service contract with the USAF runs out on July 17, 2013. After that--I'll be looking into the real estate market in Canada.
