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CounterPunch
January
20, 2003
Bush's Ugly America
by JOHN STANTON
"The spirit was freedom and justice
and it's keepers seemed generous and kind. It's leaders were
supposed to serve the country but now they won't pay it no mind
'cause the people grew fat and got lazy ,and now their vote is
a meaningless joke. They babble about law and order but it's
all just an echo of what they've been told. Our cities have turned
into jungles and corruption is stranglin' the land. The police
force is watching the people and the people just can't understand.
We don't know how to mind our own business 'cause the whole world
has got to be just like us. Now we are fighting a war over there,
no matter who's the winner we can't pay the cost 'cause there's
a monster on the loose. It's got our heads into a noose and it
just sits there watching. America where are you now? Don't you
care about your sons and daughters? Don't you know we need you
now, we can't fight alone against the monster...Heed the threat
and awesome power of the mighty Pentagon...Which is wasting precious
millions on the toys of Washington...Just one time I'd like to
be somewhere where none of your clever lies fill the air. I'm
tired of your frozen smile and your voice of tin."
Monster by Steppenwolf, 1970.
Up until November of 2000, an American citizen
could have arguably maintained that the United States had become
a more tolerable society having, in some respects, tamed much
of its monstrous behavior and murderous history, and that there
would be no return to the wretched mentality thatt allowed some
of the greatest atrocities in American hisotry. And there's no
question about the human rights abuses that have become part
and parcel of that history.
President Thomas Jefferson made it the
policy of the US to wipe out Native Americans leading to what
would become America's Final Solution by stating in 1807, "And
if ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe,
we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated...".
Slavery and segregation of African Americans
began in 1619 in the North American continent, Virginia to be
precise, and lasted well into the 1970's in the USA. Open minded
American's like Princeton's Woodrow Wilson would declare that
"universal sufferage was the foundation of every evil in
the US" and that African American's were an "ignorant
and inferior race". As reported by John Gray in Straw Dogs,
in 1899 thousands of other open minded Americans--men, women
and children--in the US state of Georgia would assemble in the
town of Newman to watch the hanging of African American Sam Hose.
When eight-months-pregnant African American Mary Turner learned
that her husband met his end in similar circumstances, she protested
to the authorities. Her reward? She was hung upside down from
a tree and while still alive, members of the crowd cut open her
abdomen and the tiny infant fell to the ground. As hundreds of
bullets were fired into her body, someone from the crowd stepped
forward and crushed the infant's head as the onlookers cheered.
Add to that chilling tale, the grotesque treatment of American
women who suffered disenfranchised for 72 years until 1920, the
deadly anti-union policies that would result in events like the
Ludlow Massacre of mine workers in 1914, the internment of Japanese
Americans in the 1940's, the debasement of Chinese Americans
in the 1850's, the destruction of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
in the 1960s and 1970's, US eugenics laws and practices of the
1920's and 1930's that Adolf Hitler would later use in his Final
Solution, and the insidious US support of the former aparthied
regime in South Africa that would mercifully end in 1994 with
the election of Nelson Mandela. These are but a few instances
of America's sordid past that don't find their way into popular
accounts of mythic America.
And contrary to popular belief, Globalisation
and wars to ensure US market dominance were set in motion as
far back as 1898. On the Senate floor in that year Senator Albert
Beveridge of Indiana would maintain that: "Where shall we
turn for consumers of our surplus?... It is elemental. It is
racial. God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic
peoples for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-contemplation
and self-admiration. No! He has made us the master organizers
of the world to establish a system where chaos reigns. He has
given us the spirit of progress to overwhelm the forces of reaction
throughout the earth. He has made us adept in government that
we may administer government among savage and senile peoples.
Were it not for such a force as this the world would relapse
into barbarism and night. And of all our race He has marked the
American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration
of the world. This is the divine mission of America, and it holds
for us all the profit, all the glory, all the happiness possible
to man. We are trustees of the world's progress, guardians of
its righteous peace. The judgment of the Master is upon us: "Ye
have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over
many things."
In taming America's most noxious actions,
most US government and business leaders would proclaim that they
alone were responsible for the bright light of reason and the
courage to reddress the wrongs perpetrated by the US government
and its greedy counterparts in the corporate world, and their
enforcement arm--the US military. But the reality is that in
every one of these instances, the cure came as the result of
individuals joining together--sometimes sacrificing life and
reputation--and taking to the streets to stop the murderous and
prejudicial behavior that plagues that not just Americans suffer
but the entire species suffers. The horrible treatment of fellow
human beings is never the urgent motivator for most of America's
government and business leaders, and indeed world leaders. It
always was and remains to this day the fear of losing power and
prestige. And so again, as in every case above, it falls to the
true progressives, the American people--those who, shall we say,
have evolved far beyond protoplasmic entities that occupy the
US government--and their counterparts everywhere, to take to
the streets and stop a return to the hideous policies and practices
of yesteryear.
Kings of Pain
On January 18, 2003, as 100,000 plus
Americans rallied and marched in the "capitol of the free
world", Washington, DC, their weasily President and Vice
President and their 534 Representatives and Senators were nowhere
to be found. Only Michagan's John Conyers braved the elements
to energize the crowd. And while anti-Iraq war sentiments received
top billing, more was afoot than what was generally reported
by media outlets around the globe. All the speakers who took
to the podium, and the 100,000 plus individuals that made up
the crowd, were decrying the mentality and an environment that
led to some of the most sinister acts ever undertaken by the
US government. "Jobs Not War! and No Tax for the Rich!"
was a constant refrain. The "No racism, Stop Hate!"
theme could be found on thousands of posters and placards, as
could "No Death Penalty" and "Money for the Poor,
Not the Pentagon!" "No One Should Die for Bush".
Podium speakers and and the crowd were fearful of a return to
a US government and society that had, in its history, encouraged
some of the worst aspects of humanity. In short, this was arguably
more about anti-Bush II than anti-Iraq.
Participants were mindful of the type
of environment that breeds violence and suffering, and impoverishes
thought and debate. They know very well that if Bush II and his
government, and the US Congress, remain unchecked, an environment
in which greed and corruption and racism and fear will flourish.
An there's plenty to fear from this King of Pain who represents
the most callous elements of America. Few have commented on the
fact that every single business venture that Bush II has meddled
with--from failed oil companies to the now suffering State of
Texas--has ended up as either a public and commercial embarassment,
or in shambles with taxpayers, wealthy cronies and political
appointees having to spring for bail and create spin for the
alphabet-challenged President. Texas is now billions of dollars
of debt and battles horrid air pollution. The residents of Arlington,
Texas are still paying for Bush's stint as owner of the Rangers.
The US Air Force shamelessly puts the best face on Bush's Air
National Guard debacle--actions for which any other reservist
would have been swiftly court martialed. So now, it's the United
States' turn to suffer a similar fate.
If ever there was a practitioner for
ruthlessness, it's Bush and crew. Ruining people's lives seems
to be something in which this regime prides itself. Eliminating
billions of dollars for birth control programs, food disbursements,
benefits for the unemployed (10 percent out-of-work in the US),
environmental protections, and promoting what amounts to $2 trillion
in tax cuts primarily for the rich is hardly the way to maintain
a somewhat egalitarian society. Standing idly by while knowing
California's energy crisis was caused primarily by Enron, and
while many states-of-the-union approach bankruptcy is to court
further disaster. Giving the wacky Pentagon and the Homeland
Security Department budget which approaches close to $500 billion
while holding spending on infrastructure, education and health
care to a ludicrous $350 billion is close to criminal. Inserting
church into state through untidy faith-based programs, inserting
state into the home through the efforts of convicted criminals
like Admiral John Poindexter seems the work of madmen.
Attempting to criminalize affirmative
action by challenging the University of Michigan's affirmative
action program on the eve of Martin Luther King's birthday and
turning a blind eye to those great 20th century racists Trent
Lott and Strom Thrumond says much about Bush's and Beveridge's
God. Now American Muslims must suffer while their kin in the
US and the world over are fingerprinting and registered as if
they are cows to be branded. There's watch lists for American
citizens who are Greens or antiwar protestors. High school students
are suspended for criticizing Bush and his government. First
amendment zones are created for anti-Bush demonstrators and while
in them, police camera's record the process. Donnie Rumsfeld's
extraordinary statement that draftees lend little to the US military
must have come as a surprise to many veterans. On that note,
it's interesting to listen to Rumsfeld and other active duty
military-types who are fond of pointing out that without the
protections they provide, the demonstrations in the USA in January
18th, 2003, would be impossible. Yet, on that day in Russia,
Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Brasil, Japan,
Jordan, England, Australia, France, Syria, India and elsewhere,
tens of thousands exercised the same freedom displaying many
of the same banners as their brethren in the USA.
United States
of Anarchia
What it all adds up to is that Bush II
has led the way in tearing the fabric of America apart. He has
eased the ability of 15 percent of the US population to accumulate
further wealth, while leaving to the remaining 85 percent to
fight over what amounts to a pittance. He has mindlessly opened
the doors to racism and greed while at the same time he has closed
and locked the doors of accountability, openness and peace. 30
million people are out of work in the US and his government has
no solution but war and tax cuts.
From the jungles of Columbia and Indonesia
to the streets of Washington, DC and Portland, Oregon, America
is now at war with the world and itself. It seems that it hasn't
come all that far since 1970 when other ruthless human beings--Richard
Nixon and Henry Kissinger--were doing all that they could to
destroy America and Southeast Asia. But, perhaps, this time 'round
there may be a difference.
In 1688, German Quaker settlers in Germantown,
Pennsylvania--led by Daniel Pastorius--were the first to publically
protest US slavery by challenging Pennsylvania's Quakers. Their
efforts at the time were unsuccessful, but many in the community
of Quakers were moved to change and their actions would ultimately
contribute to Pennsylvania becoming the first state to pass anti-slavery
legislation in 1780, and in the 1800's their statements contributed
to the argument against slavery. Like the German immigrants to
America who had the foresight to see that injustice, the millions
who protested around the world on January 18, 2003 will be remembered
for raising the consciousness of people everywhere to the great
danger that George Bush II and the current US government pose
to America and the world. The greatest threat to American society
besides Iraq Oil Wars, is an unaccountable President, Congress,
Supreme Court and Military--that being the now well-established
fourth branch of the US government.
Americans and the world can only hope
that there will be more rallies and marches as occured on January
18th. If not, the US government, as it stands now, will destroy
or imprison its people and those of any other nation who dare
challenge the Bush and Beveridge God-given right to rule the
world.
The Monster is, indeed, on the loose
and no single individual can fight against him.
John Stanton
is a Virginia-based writer specializing in national security
matters. He can be reached at cioran123@yahoo.com
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