Like mother, baseball and apple pie,
American traditions have always held sacred this value: honest,
transparent government, accountable to a probing press and an
informed electorate. The media should counterbalance against
corruption.
On Oct. 27, there were anti-war protests
involving at least 100,000 people in Fort Collins, Denver, and
across the country; our own Coloradoan printed nothing of this
public outcry. During the Vietnam era, public opinion forced
policy - eventually. Today, we find ourselves mired in another
immoral war for corporate control of Iraq's resources, and I
wonder: Where is the probing press? Where is the informed
outrage?
Perhaps there's no protest because we now
have a "volunteer" army. Or because we're told to go shopping
instead of to sacrifice for the war effort. Or is it because we
have an invertebrate media? We're told that tax increases aren't
necessary and deficits don't matter; we'll borrow (or print) the
money for perpetual war. Our stock market ostensibly hits new
highs, but it does not keep pace with the declining value of the
dollar.
The bodies of fallen soldiers are hidden
like the falling value of our assets. To our great detriment,
the Coloradoan is complicit in the deception. It abets the
immoral imperialism of the Bush Administration with feel-good
stories and smokescreens.
An ignorant democracy cannot stand. As we
hurtle toward the unholy partnership of corporation and
government (fascism), if the media won't keep the electorate
informed and government accountable, our democracy is in peril.
R. Russell Jones,
Fort Collins
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originally published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan |
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