Thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."
The United States has killed Osama bin Laden. President Obama, in his announcement last night, [the link is to the transcript] told us everything we should be feeling about this recent assassination: justice, safety, unity, and the blessings of God on our amazingly powerful country.
I couldn't care less about this kind of patriotism.
I want to to see justice served, but to all the species the industrialized United States (and other countries) has killed in its mission to expand without end.
I want to see justice served to all the descendants of freed slaves, the end of oppression, the end of discrimination.
I want to see the justice of traditional lands returned without question to the north american tribes from which they were stolen in bloodshed.
I want to see justice served to the residents of and workers in this country who have been fed pollution so toxic their babies die and their children develop leukemia, including genetic pollution controlled by corporations whose end goal is to control our food and water from seed to table.
I want to see the justice of actual persons living actual lives free from harm, with the right to organize their communities for the benefit and compassion of all, not just the elected or the wealthy.
I want to see the free reign of love, true pervy blinking teary meaty down-and-dirty swishy and boring love, waving its pink handkerchief at me as I tie up my boots and tickle the beard of my manly man.
I want justice for all the indigenous populations around the globe whose lands have been stolen and handed to the oil and mining corporations, leaving nothing but unsafe jobs, a depleted and toxic land base, and no legal voice with which to demand justice.
I want justice served for the water - all the rivers, lakes, streams, springs, ponds, bogs and oceans.
I could go on.
Obama's closing words made me check my calendar: was it 2011 or 2001? Who was sitting in the comfy White House chair, Bush or Obama? Really, when the president continues to claim that "we" are powerful and wealthy and somehow special enough to be blessed by an all-powerful sky god (at the exclusion of all other gods, or any god), and that somehow this relationship has anything to do with celebrating the death of a wealthy psychopath hunkering in Pakistan, and that our right is to continue hunting whomever "we" like however the president sees fit, I have to disagree.
"...America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place."
Perseverance does not mean we are all blessed by God; commitment does not mean we are somehow deserving of special dispensations from the holy of holies; rather, the words of a man in power ruling one of the poorest, most incarcerated, corrupt and unhealthiest industrialized nations in the world ring everywhere but true. That is the "story of our history."
As the United States continues to build and protect the pipeline in Afghanistan and bombs Libya, as Scott Walker sits in the governor's office in Madison, as electric companies rub their hands anticipating renewing nuclear power plants in many states around the country, as residents of Japan hope they will be able find safe food and water for their elders and families for the next 100 years, I would ask you: Do you feel safer?
My observations are not meant to be merely cynical, but rather an attempt to prompt the inspired to actions and thoughts full of light and water, the kind of things that grow sharp minds and clever actions. Sparkly words full of empty praise for the brave dead do not compel warm feelings toward my land base or my neighbor (I refuse to call it my "country").
Guess I'll have to take a walk and listen a little bit to the frogs for that.
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| Frogs-to-be |
1 comment:
So true. So true.
If God is on your side, everything you do is good, even killing in God's name. Osama and Obama apparently adhere to this vision. Both are responsible for killing many many thousands, just employing different methods of killing.
We will continue killing and invoking God's name. But the reality is God has nothing to do with it, as far as the US is concerned. The US kills for resources and consolidation of power over those resources. It bowls all who oppose it to one side in dead and dying heaps. This is what God is supporting if what Obama, and every other president has said before is true. Is this really your God? Is this what you believe is true about where you live? Or do you love and support the land in a different way?
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