[CC] [stuff-it] this is worth reading (fwd)

[Alan Sondheim]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:18:29 -0800
From: Craig McKie <cmckie at dowco.com>
To: pquick at uniserve.com, stuff-it at vancouvercommunity.net
Subject: [stuff-it] this is worth reading

Shame
by georgia10
Tue Mar 21, 2006 at 03:51:32 PM PDT

I am ashamed. I am ashamed of this President.  Aren't you? After
watching his press conference today, a sense of shame overtook me. I'm
ashamed that he took to the podium today as if he emptied out a
container of laughing gas.  I'm ashamed of a President who has the
temerity to laugh when asked a question about war. I'm ashamed of the
whores of the fourth estate who care more about having the honor of
being the butt of one of the President's jokes than about exposing the
truth to the American people. I'm ashamed that millions of my fellow
Americans are so scared and so desperate for leadership that they
believe the President's bullshit.

I am ashamed. I'm ashamed of this President, this megalomaniac
hellbent on leaving his assprint on the map of the Middle East, no
matter how much destruction is wrought and no matter how much blood
flows in the streets of lands that never threatened us.  I'm ashamed
that when I see the American flag waiving, images of flag-draped
coffins flash in my mind.  I'm ashamed of Freedom's MarchTM.  Ashamed
when I see villages reduced to rubble. Ashamed when I see the tiny
little corpses. God, they're so painfully tiny--lined up in a row,
little angels wrapped in colorful blankets that starkly contrast
against their gray-tinged faces.  Ashamed when I see wailing Iraqis
slam their hands against plain, unvarnished coffins, over and over,
asking "Why?  Is this democracy? Why?" When I see those image of
funerals, of broken families, I want to crawl into my TV, I want to go
to them and grab their slumped shoulders and scream "I'm sorry, good
god, I'm so sorry.  I want to leave, I want us to leave, believe me.
But they won't listen...No one listens anymore."

I'm ashamed that the word "massacre" is even uttered in connection
with our actions in Iraq. I'm ashamed it's not just one massacre that
is alleged, but two. I'm ashamed it's gotten to the point that I can't
even tell this little voice inside of me to shut up, that little voice
that says maybe, just maybe it could be true. That the impossible may
be plausible.  Before this war, I would have rejected such claims
outright. But that voice of plausibility is the consequence of those
black hoods. It's the consequence of those leashes, those snarling
dogs. It's the consequence of those detainees chained to bedframes. Of
naked pyramids. Of forced sex acts. Of beatings and blood-streaked
floors.

I am ashamed.  Ashamed that Justice is no longer blindfolded, but
gagged. Ashamed that in America, in AMERICA, I can only protest in
"free speech zones" the size of postage stamps. Ashamed that by the
time I'll take my oath as an officer of the court to support the
Constitution,  I'll be swearing to uphold a tattered document that has
managed to survive over 200 years only to be shredded by this
President in less than eight.

I am ashamed.  Ashamed that in America, I see bearded men panhandling
in the street, holding cardboard signs that read "U.S. Vet, can't
work, need food.  God bless."  Ashamed that somewhere, in our America,
a grandmother is sitting alone at her kitchen table, crumpled bills
clutched in her thin hands, agonizing over the choice before her:
medicine for her pain, or food to keep on living. Ashamed that there
is a child who will go to sleep tonight on a cot in an orphanage, with
no one to read him a story, no one to stroke his hair and kiss him
goodnight, because the American Taliban thinks gay Americans can't
love, can't parent, can't provide.

I am ashamed of my fellow Americans.  Ashamed that they haven't
flooded the streets. Ashamed they care more about Brangelina than the
Bill of Rights.  Ashamed that they're seemingly ok with the subtle but
steady transformation from democracy to dictatorship.  Ashamed that
they are so gullible.

I am ashamed of myself.  For not having the courage or the strength to
do anything else but sit here and blog. I write. I protest. I vote.
And yet, I'm impotent. Stuck in a unrelenting cycle of hope and
despair and hope and despair. What a curse it is to be 23 and want to
change the world. What a curse to be so disillusioned so early in
life. What a curse to want to change a world that will not
change...that cannot change? That cannot change as long as we sit and
wait for others to change it.  That cannot change as long as our
elected Democrats refuse to take a principled stand. That cannot
change until they--until we--appreciate the gravity of the situation
before us: we are losing America.

This is not America.  I refuse to accept it.  America doesn't torture.
America doesn't jail people incommunicado for years.  America doesn't
sit idly by as an entire people are exterminated in Darfur.  America
doesn't stifle science. America doesn't conduct massive, secret spying
on innocent citizens. America doesn't believe the individual is an
annoyance, an impediment to supreme government power.  This isn't the
greatest democracy on earth.  This isn't the nation that pioneered
human rights. This isn't the America that leads the world, that leads
humanity towards a greater good.  No, I refuse to accept this America
of shame.  This is not my America.  It is an America perverted by
Republican stewardship. A nation that under GOP rule has abandoned its
founding ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.  True
Americans--coast to coast, young and old--now bow their heads silently
in collective shame for a nation that has lost its way.