If you are not with us you're against us!
Or, how to divide an already divided people.
By Dale G. Cox
Forgive me, but that has to be the stupidest thing an American
President
has ever said. Don't get me wrong, I do not condone the murder of
innocents.
I send my sincere condolences to the victims and family's of those
killed
in the 911 attack. Their murders were senseless and completely
unnecessary.
But I think I need to take a moment here to murder some innocence.
First thing, the men who commandeered those airplanes,
subjugated sixty
some odd people, then crashed them into the world trade center towers
were
NOT, i repeat NOT cowards. Time to lose the naiveté. Those guys
had balls bigger than George Bush and I guarantee you they probably
don't
stutter like he does. At least not anymore.
This mood takes me back to my grade school playground,
remembering the
day Billy Marshall stood up to Josh Miller. Josh was the school bully
at
that time. After months of humiliation and general oppression, one day
Billy walked up to Josh after school and smacked him across the face
with
his social studies book. The biggest book we had to carry. A full two
handed
swing that left the right side of Josh's face beet red, but Billy
didn't
stop there, while Josh was still in a state of shock at even having
been
struck, Billy followed up with another roundhouse smack with the book,
causing Josh to fall down. Billy jumped on top of him and pinned him
down
and began to punch his lights out. For at least a minute before Mr.
Johnson,
the PE teacher, grabbed him and hauled him off to the principals
office.
That had to be the most shocking and exhilarating day of my grade
school
life. Our school would never be the same after that. On the walk home
me
and my friends relived over and over the first smack, then the second
smack.
Social studies was our new favorite subject. We were elated, through
Billy
we had all finally gotten a piece of Josh, all our frustration melted
away
in peals of laughter as we replayed the role of our hero Billy. The
only
problem was that the next day, we discovered that Billy had been
suspended
for three days, and Josh had a black eye you could see from three
classrooms
away in a busy hall. He was like a Bear woken up in mid winter, hungry
and angry. He strolled down the hall with renewed hostility to every
guy
he went past. We got shoved and pushed, our books slapped out of our
hands,
kicked in the butt, etc., etc. Where was our new hero? It seemed a
cruel
injustice that Billy had been suspended not Josh. It was like Josh
could
get away with untold amounts of oppression, but as soon as anyone
smacked
him, that kid was history. That became the worst three days in all of
grade
school history.
The moral of this story being, we all want to feel like the
victor when
we've been oppressed. We all want to see the Josh's in the world get
what
they deserve, Joanie Meyers. Not really, Joannie was the ugliest girl
in
school, sorry Joannie, I'm sure you grew up to be quite beautiful. But
really, we all want to see the bad guy get his just deserts.
Unfortunately,
this time, turns out we were Josh. We've been oppressing the world and
getting away with it for a long time. We finally got our black eye and
our bloody nose. Now we're pissed and we're chasing around the school
punching
every kid who doesn't look like us.
I know the 911 attack on the world trade center was a bit more
serious
than a school yard scuffle. I know it killed children. But I also know
that every time I write to my Congressman or Senator saying I want the
military budget cut, or I want the School of the America's in Fort
Benning
Georgia, where our tax dollars are used to train assassins for third
world
country's so they can kill unarmed civilians, closed, or I don't want
war
with people I don't hate, or I want America to ban land mines, or I
want
America to ban chemical and biological weapons, or I want America to
participate
in the Kyoto treaty, or I want America to send a top level delegation
to
the International Conference on Racism, or I wanted America to condemn
the Apartheid government of South Africa, or I wanted America to
participate
in the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, all I get back is a polite form letter
thanking me for my participation and my taxes. Now all of a sudden they
want me to give money, give blood, give support, stand in the line of
fire,
and be united with them, when they made poor choices, presumably in my
behalf. Well pardon my French, but FUCK them. Who the hell is the
American
President anyway saying stupid shit like "If your not with us your
against
us". Who the Fuck is us? Cause us hasn't condoned a foreign policy that
in the last thirty years, count them folks, thirty years, has managed
to
fuck over almost every little country on the planet. Usually in the
interest
of Oil or capitalism or drugs. While getting a lot of innocent
Americans
killed in the process. Will we all suddenly be eligible to receive
dividends
on the oil profit? Or are we just supposed to die for Nationalism? A
lot
of Germans died in WWII for the battle cry of nationalism. Do you think
they're watching us right now wondering if we will fall for the same
trick
Hitler pulled on them. Because Hitler's propaganda machine said alot of
the same things our American media is saying today. These people are
supposed
to be working for us, and most of the time it appears the term "us",
doesn't
even pertain to the American people.
During the Reagan years we broke every International Law in
Central
America, and we're breaking those same laws today bombing the Afghan
people.
Starting in 1980, we fed the Afghan people over $3 billion in arms to
fight
the Soviet Union, then as soon as they won we left them with nothing
but
more guns and ammo to kill each other with. We call them Proxy wars,
where
we pay other people to fight our wars of Imperialism. Panama, Grenada,
Honduras, Guatemala, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Cambodia,
Vietnam, East Timor, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and a host of
others. We've brutalized people from every continent on this planet
including
our own. Racism in America is alive and well and looking for
volunteers,
preferably brown, to play cannon fodder for its latest white vengeance
campaign. So who the hell is a Republican President to say "If your not
with us, your against us". Is Bush prepared to unilaterally
eliminate
racism, homophobia, and all other forms of ultra right wing terrorism
in
America, including the economic terrorism we live with every day? Or
are
those of us who are oppressed automatically not included in "Us",
unless
we want to become cannon fodder. Is he prepared to have America say its
sorry and stop acting like the global assholes we are, bring U.S.
foriegn
policy more in line with the wishes of the American people? Josh
Miller didn't. He continued on to become the high school bully, the
local
drug dealer, and eventually strong arm robbery ended him up in
jail.
Top
|