Good-bye, Homeland

WAKE UP, AMERICA!
Nap time is over!

I never thought I’d see the day the American press would enslave itself to the corporations, thereby becoming completely corrupt and irrelevant to its faithful readers.

I never thought our government would wire-tap its own citizens for over a year before they would find out (with the complicity of the media, who made sure we didn’t find out during the 2004 elections).

I never thought our government would build files on Internet habits of fellow Americans: not activists, not terrorists…fellow Americans.

I never thought I'd see my fellow Americans so willingly give up our nation's dearest values of justice, common decency, and fair play.

Or enslave themselves to fascist overlords, as if to concur that only the obscenely wealthy deserve to make money while working Americans starve in their struggle to make ends meet.

I never thought I'd see the day when so many of my countrymen would be deceived by shouting-head media figures who owe no allegiance to the public and who therefore are not accountable for the facts they promulgate (remember the Fairness Doctrine? I do. If you don’t, check out http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/fairness.html, which is linked at the title of this post).

I never thought I’d see such media figures discourage free and fair debate, squelching dissent in all forms because they are too insulated by their own massive wealth to care about the harm they are doing.

I never thought I'd see my own friends and family would unthinkingly call me unAmerican and unpatriotic because I still hold dear those old-fashioned values of justice, common decency, and fair play.

I never thought that I would look to Great Britain for news regarding latest plans being cooked up for us by this evil administration (a la the second Downing Street memo).

Or that intelligence and facts would be fixed to match plans to invade a sovereign nation (a la Iraq in the first Downing Street memo).

I never thought I’d see a CIA operative deliberately outted by her very own government.

Or that my country would be responsible for disappearing people.

Or learn that my country used napalm on innocent Iraqis. (That’s the trouble with napalm: it can’t distinguish where it should go.)

Or witness continued tax giveaways to the wealthy at the expense of plans to rebuild a great American city...New Orleans…whose less wealthy residents suffered inordinately more than their wealthier counterparts.

I never thought my government would destroy volumes of electronic evidence to hide its evil doings.

Or that a male prostitute with the initials Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert (same guy, different alias) would have access to the White House 196 times. Who needs honest media when gigolos are ready, willing, and able to serve up all the news that the right-wing wants you to hear?

Or a U.S. company, Enron, would bilk every last dollar from the American worker while leaving the taxpayer holding an empty wallet. This is what fascism is all about, people: transferring the private burdens of the corporations onto the backs of the American taxpaying public. Wake up and smell the coffee!

I never thought I’d see the CEO of Enron, Ken Lay, resurface to preside over Bush’s coronation – oops, I meant inauguration – party!

Or innocent American voters become unwitting enablers to a corrupt party masquerading as Republicans.

I never thought my America, with its warm, inclusive arms, would devolve to become judgmental and exclusive.

Or see my beloved Statue of Liberty clutching a list of excuses telling us why some immigrants are no longer welcome.

Or CNN/Time-Warner hire a man indicted for Enron malfeasances, as if to say well done!

Or hundreds of American businesses incorporate in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes to the country from which they make money. If America had an unbiased press, it would have investigated this story as vigorously as Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadillos.

I surely never thought I’d tell my fellow Americans to go to al Jazeera for a fair and balanced look at what this administration is doing in our name. I also tell them watch and listen to “Democracy Now!” with Amy Goodman. If only CNN had maintained the standards of its inception – the very standards now held dear by al Jazeera.

And, lastly, I will never forget the icy chill that overcame me as I watched a wildly cheering crowd at Bush coronation festivities amid tons of confetti floating dreamily from above at Madison Square Garden…reminiscent of a Hitler rally as seen on the History Channel.

Peace.