I'm afraid, very afraid for the future of our country.

Voice of outrage
/
by * Carol Rawle*/,
/Unknown News
http://www.unknownnews.org/041025a-cr.html
/October 25, 2004
angry woman
I'm afraid, very afraid for the future of our country.

In all my 62 years, I've never been political in the least, living
confident that, while we might have different ideals, we all share the
same basic moral values. Now something very ugly is taking hold, and it
is as evil and corrupt as it can get.

I'm surrounded by Republicans and George Bush-supporters who are
perfectly comfortable with what this administration is doing. There is a
small enclave of John Kerry supporters here where I live, and we huddle
together for safety and mutual comfort. It is the consensus that our
friends and neighbors are Republicans because it is fashionable and some
kind of "status symbol", and they support Bush because they are afraid
the Democrats might take away their cushy existence.

I haven't been silent. I wear my "Regime Change" button everywhere and
speak out against Bush until someone hears it once too often and screams
at me.

I've been watching the people around me become brainwashed by mindless
propaganda that plays to our fears, prejudices, and ignorance. For four
years I've watched this government boldly loot our country of both its
treasure and its soul. Our leader has told us he is just a simple man,
that he's a good Christian, he wants only what is best for our nation.
Because he jokes and smiles while he says it, people believe him, even
though his actions speak otherwise. How is it possible to deceive so
many of our citizens so that they willingly support this full scale rape
and pillage of our democracy?

The mainstream media plays a huge role in this brazen assault.
Information is key to an informed electorate. By taking over most of the
mainstream media by right- wing interests, the information is now
selected to further their agenda. Television is especially suited to
dispensing propaganda. Its visual nature ensures that "style" will trump
"content", and that by pitting an affable imbecile against a serious,
informed challenger, (i.e. the recent presidential debates) people may
be impressed short term by content, but will remember longer the empty,
one sentence "talking points" continually hammered home by Bush in his
flawed, yet entertaining manner.

The American public is starving for real news. Instead, we are served up
a shallow, insipid, anti-intellectual diet of empty sensationalism and
marketed politics. Long gone are the days of "fair and balanced"
reporting. All we get now are short, incomplete news reports and an
overdose of biased commentary designed to tell us how we should think.
I'll never forget how during Al Sharpton's passionate Democratic
convention speech, MSNBC cut most of it out to serve us Chris Matthew's
snide comments on it instead. It's little wonder that the internet news
"blogs" are fast becoming the place where people go to find out what is
really going on in politics.

This used to be a country of endless varieties of boundless wealth. We
cared about our freedoms, our natural wonders, and our people. It was a
country that the rest of the world looked up to, where many aspired to
come to have a chance to fulfill their dreams. It was a country founded
on principles of equal opportunity and freedom to think, believe, and
live according to each individual conscience. We took care of each other
when the need arose, and we aspired to greatness of spirit.

We believed that the truth was one of the most important virtues, and
that trust was a sacred thing. Many still refuse to believe that our
leaders could deceive us while making decisions that are very bad for
the country but benefit only themselves and their rich friends. That
couldn't happen in America. But it has. It's happening now. And soon
there won't be anything left.

Wake up, America*/!/* No thief has come in the middle of the night*/!/*
The looting of this country has happened in broad daylight with our
consent. We've been flattered, tricked, and lied to. We've been
frightened and bullied and brainwashed into giving up our principles and
our freedoms. We've been sold one bill of goods after another while
these scoundrels have been cannibalizing our nation. It's not too late.
We must stand up now and throw them out. It's time to take our country
back*/!/*


© 2004, by the author.