"Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country."
-- George Washington, charge to the Northern Expeditionary Force, Sept. 14, 1775
http://www.gallup.com/poll/118006/Slim-Majority-Wants-Bush-Era-Interrogations-Investigated.aspx
This poll shows the end of Humanity as we know it - and a shift to the "If it helps me it can't be wrong" national frame of thought.
We may all say this has been so for a while but when do you remember actually seeing people admit it to strangers?
55% of Americans beleive it is OK to torture. Don't try making yourself feel better by saying "under certain curcumstances" because that means you feel it is OK.
IT IS NOT OK! Even Jack Bower expected to be punished! and he is a fictional character...
It won't be long until this country has 2 new constitutions; One that begins "Me the Person" and another that says "We the Corporations".
The biggest shame is that we may already be there. People are complaining more about helping their neighbors than they are about helping corporations. People would rather kill the planet than take 15 min more to get somewhere. They would rather be at the mercy of other countries than have a wind turbine in their neighborhood. "Our" "elected" officials are more interested in getting elected again than in doing their job now so they have to bend over for the corporations so they can get the big $ donations...
Torture, Corruption, self serving policies, Red Tape so thick the average person can never run for office, and legalese so twisted only lawyers can read it and they can make it mean anything they want...
Please People... Take back your country... Stand up for what you think it is, not what it has become... Yes there should always be adjustments in the way the country works but there is no need to completely overhaul the system the founding fathers created, let alone their moral objectives for this country.
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Behind Blue Eyes
Just Pamela
gmgaston
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
I tend to think that the U.S. has had its day in the sun and that our economic and military influence will decline over the next few decades so that our place in the world is similar to what Great Brittain is now.
Our views toward torture and moral authority haven't really changed. We eschewed torture and stuck to our morals when they were economically and politically viable, but clearly when the rubber met the road - in the form of the 9/11 attack and subsequent follies in the middle east - our true colors were revealed.
Likewise, I don't think saving the planet really suits us. We - myself included - are a nation of consumers. We use our economic and political might to gather up the lion's share of the world's resources so that we can live more comfortably and frivilously.
But in our defense I'll also suggest that this is just basic human nature. We humans, at our core, have a clan mentality. We do what is best for ourselves and our families and work outword from there. And we accumulate as much as we can for as long as we can until it is no longer sustainable and then we are overtaken by some other group.
That's the way it works and that's the way it has always worked. Ideally, yes, it would be nice if humans functioned more as a collective, but I think that is a long, long way in the future since currently we're too greedy and we like killing off our opponents too much.
And truthfully, I don't even think this state of affairs is "wrong" per se, it's just a snapshot in the long journey that humanity began when one of our ancestors long ago first conceived of the idea that "Holy Crap! I exist". And I suspect that our evolution as a species is following some sort of plan that is far beyond our ability to understand.
It is hard to begin to see how this country can be prevented from self-destructing. It is the circle of life. Death is inevitable. I read the news today Oh boy... a world renown pianist said he would no longer perform in "the land of the free and the home of the brave." It's reported that most in the American crowd cheered.
How long can a nation survive when death and debt are it's number one export to the world.