From those to whom much is given, much is
expected. We are certainly blessed as citizens of the United
States, and we like to believe that we share, somewhat, the
fruits of our good fortune with the rest of the world. But
history, as it is written by the victor, is bound to contain
some fairy tales. We sort out the truth from fiction the best we
can, given our moral fiber and common sense.
It is curious that in William Rutledge's
Jan. 31 Soapbox condemning Kevin Cross' Jan. 17 call for
restraint instead of a belligerent foreign policy, Rutledge
ignores Cross' call for police action rather than military
action to prevent crimes against the people of the United States
and to bring the perpetrators to justice. And equally curiously,
Rutledge articulates historic military achievements in defense
of our new "Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto US" military
policy. Not so curious, perhaps is the underlying fear betrayed
by this attitude, a fear born of 9/11, a fear that usurps the
moral force that, in our hearts at least, underlays the
defensive campaigns of our past.
Again, we slog through the rationale that
9/11 has changed everything - and for some, perhaps it has. We
believe a fairytale as the gospel of 9/11 because we cannot
accept even the idea of the complicity of our own government:
the government that has spent more energy preventing an honest
investigation of the event than it spent preventing the event
itself; the governors who agreed to testify only if they didn't
have to tell the truth.
The tale we accept defies the laws of
physics, as well as the protocols of the FAA and Air Force, but
it keeps the fantasy of American innocence intact.
It is truly unfortunate that we can be so
easily led, that a few simple lies, oft repeated, can so
completely overwhelm our moral compass and our common sense,
that we now justify being the aggressor nation we have
traditionally fought against. Enough lies have been exposed by
now that the snap-back to a reasoned reality should be possible
without undue consternation, and a new path charted. Foremost,
our government must be accountable, lest we find that the enemy
of our freedom actually runs our own government.
Fortunately, our Constitution contains the
means for rectifying this. Do we have the moral strength to
insist on it?
There is irony in a democracy that cannot
control its leaders. While espousing free markets, the Fed
maintains central control of the one thing most basic to markets
- the cost/availability of money. We suffer as our economy
finally responds to continuing trade and budget deficits
encouraged by an ever more inflationary monetary policy cloaked
by a fictional CPI. We borrow from China to engage in perpetual
war against terrorists, yet half our annual military budget goes
to corporate producers of submarines, jets and warships that
cannot target a terrorist without also terrorizing local
civilian populations - justifiably feeding the terrorist
membership drive and ensuring perpetual war.
In an era of corporate-financed,
media-influenced elections, our sense of democracy has been
mis-focused on government - can we actually be split 50-50 on
Democrat-Republican lines when the differences between them
ignore our primary concerns? There is no peace without control
of rapacious corporations. Visualize that control.