The Same Old

(Please click on the title for a reading aloud by the author.)

I love my country, but I am not proud of my country. The resources we continue to squander around the world out of greed and fear is atrocious. And the hurt we create in doing so is awful!

Now we are bombing the shit out of Libya, and once again while we can’t quite allow ourselves to be honest about it, our actions have everything to do with keeping the oil flowing. A few days ago I was having lunch in a local taco joint and a number of my fellow diners were U.S. Army personnel, dressed in camo. I couldn’t help thinking instead of wearing embroidered U.S. flags on their upper arms, more fitting symbols would have been logos for any one of the big oil companies.

In the mean time, people in Japan are in a world of hurt beyond our worst nightmares. Imagine the good will the United States could create if we took all the energy we are directing into violent control of resources and redirected it into rolling up our sleeves and helping the Japanese and many others.

We have a real potential to make peace in this world if only we could muster the political and spiritual will to set down the guns. I would be so proud of my country, and proud to be an American, if only I saw some genuine indication of this happening.

Gordon Bunker