I believe that We The People are in trouble, serious trouble

2004-04-19

Patriots Day Sermon: Like Lambs to Slaughter

We, The People, are in trouble, serious trouble. As I write this, we have a President with no military experience and pitifully little knowledge of the world about him, goaded on by a cadre of hawkish, doctrinaire neocons, virtually all of whom have avoided military service, embarked on what appears to be a self-serving, empire-building jihad in which our kids are being used as cannon fodder. We have an immediate past President who has set a dismal moral tone for our society, particularly our young, by maintaining an Oral Office and by literally renting historic White House bedrooms to sycophantic supporters with limitless funds who sought to curry his favor while he, at the same time, was guiding our country to be the primary supplier of arms to the world and pursuing a course of world trade with heartless rules that decimated viable American communities by shifting jobs overseas to slave labor exploiting manufacturing sites run by U.S. businessman-vultures who suck the economic blood out of their organizations while pocketing multi-million dollar payoffs, both legal and illegal from their business operations. Top that with a Congress that has supported, even participated in, all of this claptrap and a Democratic Party that collectively has acted like a bunch of wimps.

We have reached a very low point in our society. Apathy appears to have overtaken caring. The situation has become so bad that people now feel so incapable to cope that most of them don't even vote. I believe that it is time to either surrender to the impending Monarchy or get off the pot and do something.

There are many ways to serve our country. Being brave hasn't only to do with being a soldier in combat. It also has to do with facing up to the challenge of taking on your own government when it is wrong. That is what patriotism is all about. It is like being a parent and having children who stray from the ethical, moral path you would like them to follow. Presumably, you love them and try to help them. Presumably, then, if you love your country, you want to help it. You help it by making yourself heard when you feel that it is doing something wrong. Displaying the flag is not enough. Fastening yellow ribbons to trees is not enough.

Knowing when your government is doing something that you think is wrong means that you have to be aware at all times what the government is doing. Being aware of what is happening to your country, then, is a requirement of being a good citizen! It requires hard work, but it is the highest form of patriotism.

You also have to understand that your government doesn't always want you to know what it is doing. That goes for all governments, foreign and domestic, Republican or Democrat. Part of your job as a citizen is to read information and opinion from a wide variety of sources. The more viewpoints you read and understand, the better citizen you are. You have to find out what your government is doing. Being too busy to become informed is no excuse. Ignore what your government is really doing and you may find yourself surprised someday to find out that your government isn't yours anymore.

Having an attitude of "my country right or wrong" is not patriotism; it is stupidity. This isn't rocket science. You must remember from your sixth grade American history that some caring citizens who knew what was going on decided that they were being hustled by the King of England? They didn't sit around on their fat butts listening to the Town Crier giving out weather reports and the local social news while they gorged on chicken nuggets, swilled beer and cursed knee-jerk liberals. They questioned the King's authority and went out and did something about it. A democracy was born. A constitution was born.

Now, more than 225 years later, you have to be blind not to see what is happening. Has it occurred to you that you now are being hustled out of the very democratic form of government that your ancestors so valiantly fought for? Has it occurred to you that your liberties, your Constitution, your senses of decency and of right and wrong are being perverted by our present leadership? Has it occurred to you that it's your children who suffer and will continue to suffer because this leadership is behaving without a care about you, your jobs, your children's education, your environment? Has it occurred to you that your children and grandchildren yet unborn will continue to emerge from the womb only to be wasted as cannon fodder in illegal wars by an incompetent, intellectually impotent, messianic, doctrinaire leadership? Has it occurred to you to ask your leaders why it's the children who must always bear the brunt of the actions of their elders? Has it occurred to you to ask why we must continue to produce children only to have them led like lambs to slaughter? Finally, has it occurred to you that your government is afraid of your becoming informed and asking questions and that it prefers you tying yellow ribbons to trees, marching in Fourth of July parades, celebrating wars and keeping your mouths shut while it goes about depriving you of your children, your jobs, your freedom and your country?

On this Patriots Day, be a real patriot. Dedicate yourself to reading, to learning. Raise your voice. Question authority. Fight the real battle for democracy; get in the learning trenches. Arm yourself with knowledge. Find out what democracy really is all about, and then go into battle. The voting booth is your Stealth Bomber. There you can collectively show the bastards who steal your children from you what Shock and Awe really mean. Bring 'em on!