- While most of America goes blindly about their daily
routine of numbing their minds with lies and false feelings of complacency,
the crisis deepens. While the masses dream of that new car , or the 60'
plasma screen TV with the hip new surround sound system, we sink deeper
into the muck of endless war and poverty.
-
- I had an amusing conversation with a so-called "normal"
American the other day. It was like déjà-vu from all the
other conversations and arguments I have had with the mainstream middle
class Americans. The topic was how bad it has become in America and the
fact that the situation is not improving.
-
- This well to do and very contented yuppie made the comment
that it really wasn't all that bad when you looked at the entire picture.
I had to wonder what picture he had been looking at, and what amusement
park had it on display. The facts he was quoting were in no way based on
any current facts or figures on the plight of America. His facts painted
a rosy picture of economic recovery, a winning trend in the war in Iraq,
a victory over terrorism, and happy times for all Americans.
-
- I was presenting him with the current figures on how
bad it really is on all the issues he mentioned, and he acted like it was
something he had never heard before. I realized that maybe he never has
heard how bad it has gotten, and maybe he didn't want to hear it. His shock
and anger were immediate and vitriolic in nature. He denounced me as a
liar and a bullshit artist, and claimed I was making these things up out
of thin air.
-
- The fact that most of the figures and facts I gave him
were from US government agencies and the newest reports did not even slow
him down in his attacks. I repeatedly pointed out that the facts were coming
from his oh so loved government and he almost physically attacked me. I
even showed him the printed reports from various agencies and he accused
me of fabricating them completely.
-
- It just did not seem to sink in to his head that the
bare facts from his own government were so stark and awful that I had no
need to make anything else up. I did not even go into the reports from
private research groups and public interest groups. If he did not believe
the facts I had already presented to him, I saw no need to even waste my
time trying to prove the validity of other resources that I have access
to.
-
- The ignorance and unawareness so prevalent among the
mainstream 9-5 sheeple constantly amazes me. People that are supposed to
be our best-educated and most responsible workers and thinkers seem to
never even think for themselves anymore. When they come across an idea
that challenges their safety and comfort they attack it violently as lies
and left wing propaganda. Any idea that deviates from their narrowly defined
version of reality is met with scorn and sarcasm. You would think that
these people would be the ones trying to figure out where America is going
wrong.
-
- When you bring up the cold hard facts of how bad it had
become under George Bush there is usually a bunch of blank stares or outright
hatred and anger. Sometimes they will actually engage an informed person
in conversation, but it is rarely an intelligent or rational discourse.
On the rare occasion that they admit that one of the facts sounds reasonable,
they have twenty more arguments against the other facts presented.
-
- These people seem to be totally oblivious to the fact
that homelessness has risen by 40-50% on a nationwide level and that poverty
has reached an all time high. They don't know that the US is last in education
levels among first world countries, that the deficit is greater than ever
in recorded history, that the unemployment rate keeps climbing despite
Bush claiming otherwise, or all the other grim facts of life in America.
-
- It is like they live in an alternate universe and just
can't quite see the world around them clearly. This is a great form of
defense when you try to protect your assumed worldviews, but foolhardy
in the end. By their unwavering refusal to accept how bad it really is,
these people are helping the government perpetuate the crisis, if only
by their complacency and nothing else.
-
- It really sickens me when they spout the government rationality
and reasoning like so many pre-programmed robots. The hand of the Bush
regime is firmly implanted in these people's buts, making them all giant
puppets. They are like a squadron of zombies parroting Bush's current speech
and lies like blind men refusing to believe it if they cannot see it in
living Technicolor images. An abstract ideal or outside thought is treated
like a virus and exterminated with extreme prejudice.
-
- I see some of the mainstream waking up and smelling the
lies and corruption, but a very sad, small number. It is usually only after
they have been hit with a layoff or spending cutback that they start to
examine the real reasons and wonder why it happened to them. One of the
statements I hear most is " Oh we're doing fine, it won't hurt us."
More and more middle class Americans are feeling the pinch and squeeze,
but often too late to make a difference in the overall scheme of things.
-
- By the time most of the brain washed or self deluded
get hit with a layoff or economic setback, it has usually affected millions
of Americans that were not so well off. The idea and myth of "It can't
affect me" is a powerful illusion that many use to insulate themselves
from the real problems we are all facing in America.
-
- I am director of a community homeless outreach organization.
I am seeing more and more Americans that were very well off just a year
ago need services that are often no longer available. These people are
joining the poor and destitute that have already been hit with government
cutbacks to social programs and support. Only when someone who never faced
it before is in the situation firsthand do they truly begin to get a real
picture of our country's desperate and dire plight.
-
- I have personally seen some of the people I argued with
and tried to explain the growing crisis show up looking for services they
simply assume will be there. When they realize that many of the programs
they were told are their safety net have been cut off, they become enraged.
I see a rage and anger that was directed at me turn towards their beloved
government.
-
- It is sad that it takes something that tragic and harsh
to wake them up to the reality of our self-serving leaders enriching themselves
at the expense of our own people.
-
- Many well to do and prosperous Americans are losing jobs,
homes, and all material possessions in the wake of the current budgetary
funding boondoggle of Iraq and other wars. The poor and needy were already
well aware of the loss of many vital and important social programs.
-
- In the aftermath of the government's recent privatization,
many programs and funding sources were eliminated completely, with the
promise of a private agency picking up the slack. It did not happen that
way, and I can tell you that from many hours of frustrated searching for
someone, anyone, to help our poor, homeless, and underprivileged.
-
- Many times I am unable to find shelter for families left
homeless, or find food for the hungry children in enough quantity to prevent
malnutrition. I am outraged on a daily basis by how many Americans can
turn a blind eye to these very scary problems. I see people turn their
head and get a look of disgust when they see a homeless person or family
on the streets. It is so easy to ignore it, until you or your family are
the ones in jeopardy.
-
- I recently wrote an article about single family women
sinking into poverty with their children. Living on the Edge of Disaster:
Being a Poor Working Mother in America. Also see US Homelessness and Poverty
Rates Skyrocket While Billions are Spent Overseas on Occupation
-
- I see these women trying to keep a roof over their family's
heads on a daily basis, and the desperation they endure is heart breaking.
I feel helpless and desperate myself when I realize that I cannot help
them, or even refer them to someone whom can. There is often no source
of help or support available to them anymore, and this is a new type of
problem many support agencies are experiencing. I talk to many agency workers
who have gone through these problems and you can read their desperation
in their faces.
-
- We are supposed to be the last line of defense for America's
poor and needy, and now we are facing the fact that often we cannot help
the people relying on us for a safety net. There simply is not any available
assistance, funds, or shelter to give these people who are counting on
us to meet their needs. I am unable to find help many times and have to
admit defeat on a daily basis. To have to look into the eyes of a child,
and know there is nothing you can do to help is enough to tear any feeling
person's soul apart.
-
- I get very angry and hostile when I hear one of the well
fed and happy Americans tell me there is no problem, or that I am making
it sound far worse than it can possibly be. I would like to force them
to be the ones who have to tell a mother with three kids that because of
budget cutbacks and lack of funding, there is no shelter or food for their
children.
-
- I wish I could make these blind or unaware Americans
be the ones who watch as a family is ripped apart by child welfare because
the parents lost their job and now have no house. I wish they could be
there when the power is cut off to these families' houses, and they cannot
even heat up a decent hot meal for their children.
-
- I see some people waking up but a vast majority are still
blissfully oblivious and does not want to know about how bad it really
is. It might cause them to have to rethink every aspect of their morals
and belief system, and they avoid that at all costs.
-
- Anything to avoid having to think for themselves and
possibly question their own government. It's easier for them to keep on
believing and regurgitating the mass of lies and deceptions than to think
things through to the only possible conclusions.
-
- There have been almost 300,000 US veterans who have lost
their health insurance benefits under the cuts to the VA budget since Bush
took office. House Republicans passed a resolution to cut $28 BILLION out
of the Veterans Administration budget on March 20th just after the ground
war in Iraq started. The cuts were later reduced to $14 BILLION, twice
the $6.4 billion in cuts that the Bush FY 2004 Budget called for. Bush's
budget cuts are going to occur over 10 years, just as the much bigger House
cuts are supposed to be enacted.
-
- The final budget cuts still have not been totally finalized.
One thing is clear, the veterans will pay the price no matter what.
-
- On the same day the House passed the resolution, Bush
went on TV and made a speech asking all Americans to support their troops
in the war. Bush showed a huge amount of nerve and callousness by making
the cuts in his FY 2004 budget, and then telling America that if they did
not support the troops they were unpatriotic and un-American.
-
- Bush completely supported the House budget cuts, and
even praised them. I guess he does not have to comply with the same standards
that he excepts the rest of the country to go by.
-
- There are now over 250,000 US veterans who are waiting
at least six months to even see a doctor because of all the recent health
care benefits cuts. Here are some comments by the Senate minority leader
that were made on Veteran's Day.
-
- "I cannot recall a time when the gap between the
demands we place on our soldiers and the thanks we offer them once they
return home has been wider," said Sen. Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota.
-
- "Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom will join 250,000
veterans, who must wait six months now just to see a VA hospital doctor,"
said Daschle, who is a former Air Force intelligence officer. "This
wait will be lengthened by the closing of seven veterans' hospitals in
a budget that underfunds veterans' health care by $1.8 billion."
-
- In August 2003, the Bush administration announced they
were closing seven VA hospitals despite the increasing demand for care
and the long waits to be seen by doctors. The closings were announced as
part of an effort to "restructure" the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
-
- On January 16, 2003, the Bush Administration cut health
care benefits to 160,000 middle class veterans. The cuts were explained
away by referring to the so-called budget constraints. The veterans affected
are all in the middle class income bracket and have been denied the right
to VA healthcare that they earned by their faithful service to our nation.
Bush, all the members of Congress, and the high level Pentagon officials
are guaranteed free health care for the rest of their lives, and they all
have an income much greater incomes than the veterans that have lost out.
-
- Let me tell you who Bush considers to be well off veterans
who can manage just fine without the VA. His cuts affect any veteran making
over $24,500 a year. That is barely a living wage for anyone with a family,
but according to Bush they are the "well to do" veterans who
do not need the support of the VA health care system.
-
- Here is the statement Bush made the very next day after
cutting the benefits:
-
- "Seeing the care that these troops get is comforting
for me and Laura. We should and must provide the best care for anybody
who is willing to put their life in harm's way." ~~ President George
W. Bush, 1/17/03
- The Bush administration also opposed a Senate addition
to the Iraq supplemental funding bill that would have added $1.3 billion
to veteran's healthcare. Bush also proposed doubling the cost of prescription
drugs for veterans. His plan called for a new $250 enrollment fee and a
co-pay increase from $7 to $15 for veterans making over $24,000 a year.
Thankfully the House Appropriations Committee decided to reject the Bush
fees increases and fund the $264 million cost by ironically cutting administration
funding costs for the VA.
-
- Bush doesn't ever have to worry about filling a prescription
and having to cough up the co-payment. He is assured full payment of his
medical expense for the rest of his life by the taxpayers. Many of those
taxpayers are the very same veterans who make a "middle class"
wage and pay the most amount of taxes.
-
- Not only have the military families and veterans been
affected by Bush administration budget cuts, the military children have
also been helpless victims. Bush's 2004 budget cuts $200 million from Impact
Aid, a program that is designed to help military member's children to receive
a quality education. Bush tired to cut $3 million from Impact Aid in the
2003 and when that didn't happen he made the new cuts.
-
- I have brought this up many times in an argument with
the right wingers and they all try to deny Bush would do this after promising
to "Leave No Child Behind". They just can't imagine that Bush
would go back on the promise of quality education for all of America's
children.
-
- Perhaps the greatest outrage the Bush administration
committed against our troops was blocking Reservists and National Guardsman
from receiving full benefits. In July, 2003 Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld sent a letter to House and Senate leaders stating that the Bush
Administration would not support any legislation that included full benefits
for part time troops. A July 26th Pentagon memo stated that Bush would
veto any Defense appropriation bill that included the full benefits.
-
- Most people you talk to are not aware of the cuts or
double standards Bush is going by. I have had people tell me there is no
way Bush would do this to America's soldiers and veterans. When presented
with the facts on paper it is still hard to get them to believe it. I have
the facts in black and white from several sources including the VA and
even then I am called a liar when I show them to people. The story of the
cuts to benefits has never really hit the mainstream press in any large
scale coverage, and I meet hundreds of people a week who are outraged and
shocked when they find out.
-
- If you want a true record of all the various veterans
health care cuts, take a look at the record the DNC has complied on Bush's
policies.
-
- Even though this record is kept on the Democratic Committee
website, I could not find a better source that had such meticulous facts
so thoroughly cross-referenced.
-
- Going into the validity of the Iraq war is a battle for
rational thought that I rarely win with the "Patriotic", "right
thinking " Americans. I have been spit on, had things thrown at me,
been called every name in the book and then some, and had my life threatened
on many occasions. The ones who are convinced that the Iraq war is justified
simply refuse to hear any facts to the contrary. You can tell just by the
opening comments from some people that they are diehard, dedicated FOX
(FAUX) NEWS viewers.
-
- President Bush admitted that Iraq had no connection to
the 9/11 attacks on national television on September 17th 2003. Just six
days after the remembrance of this country's biggest, but also most misused
and misappropriated tragedy, G. W. admitted that the claims of Saddam's
involvement were not true.
-
- If you are one of the many Americans who did not hear
this, and are among the over 60% that still believe Iraq was involved in
9/11, here is a quote directly from Bush. "
-
- We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved
with the 11 September attacks " President George W. Bush 9/17/03
-
- US President George Bush has said there is no evidence
that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.
-
- Bush wasn't the only government official to retract the
false statements about 9/11. Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense,
also admitted he did not feel Iraq had any connection to 9/11. Wolfowitz
made his statement on August 1st, well over a month before Bush came clean.
While Wolfie did not say outright that the claims were false, he did make
it obvious that the connection was just another smoke and mirrors game
to make the drive to invade Iraq easier.
-
- Many Americans were never even aware of the statements
retracting claims to the 9/11 connection. Those that did see it in the
news did not ever see it on primetime US news. I have tried to find one
US television station that did any real coverage of the statements Bush
made. I searched over 20,000 pages of information on Google and found not
one link to a major US media installation that did any kind of coverage.
The story is on many progressive and left wing web sites, but Reuters,
The Guardian UK, and the BBC were the only major news outlets I could find
that covered it with any detail.
-
- I won't even go into the inability to find any weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq. Just a few weeks ago when Bush was interviewed
by Diane Sawyer on ABC, he still stuck to the claim that there will be
WMDs found in Iraq. They will likely turn up somehow, by whatever miracle,
in the weeks before the Presidential election. I see it coming and so do
a lot of other people whose job is to analyze the current events of the
US. I have been called a conspiracy nut when I bring this up to most people.
-
- When you get into discussing the Iraq war, the death
toll of US troops is one subject that is sure to hotly debated. We lose
an average of one soldier a day and at least 5-10 soldiers are wounded
each day. There is no end in sight to the loss of US and Coalition forces
lives, and the resistance attacks are getting more sophisticated and increasing
every day.
-
- For a list of all killed and wounded soldiers in Iraq,
see here.
- I have had many arguments where the supporter of war
makes a really terrible statement about the military deaths. "It's
their job to die for this country, that's what we're paying them for."
This statement has been repeated over and over in the many discussions
I have had with pro war Americans. It is such a tragedy that the lives
of our troops have come to mean so little to so many people.
-
- In the midst of holiday shopping I brought up the topic
of all the recent US casualties and the truly blind and crass nature of
most Americans became all too clear. I had three or four people agreeing
with me on what a waste of life the war was. That made my day until the
other forty or fifty people in the store started loudly pronouncing our
lack of pride and lack of support for the troops.
-
- It almost turned into a violent confrontation, and security
had to step in to stop a veteran from punching out one of the "let
em die" crowd. The four of us that had been talking peacefully were
escorted from the store and told to stay off mall property.
-
- One security guard was a Vietnam vet, and he was definitely
not in agreement with the pro war crowd. He quietly gave us some words
of support and encouragement, and then played the role of a pro war man
when his boss showed up. He explained that he couldn't afford to lose his
job, and that his company had a policy against hiring anyone opposed to
the war. He said that one of his friends had been fired from the company
after putting an anti-war sticker on his car.
-
- One man who had been in the store came out while we were
walking over to a nearby restaurant. The four of us were going to get some
coffee and talk about issues for a bit. Suddenly we were being charged
by a huge, very angry man who made his threats to hurt us quite plain.
He kept screaming that we should go back to Iraq if we thought the US was
so bad. This is a commonly made statement, but the idiocy of it still confuses
me. It makes no sense for someone to scream this out, but it is one of
the most often heard taunts at any protest or rally.
-
- Once again security saved the day and I got another lesson
in how blind and oblivious mainstream Americans can truly be.
-
- I don't know what it will take to wake up the sheep,
or even if it is possible after so many years of brainwashing. I lose more
hope every day, and my faith in the future getting better is at an all
time low.
-
- Something needs to happen in America soon. I hope it's
not going to be four more years of Bush, and long years of war and occupation.
This country has not been able to take the first four years of Bush. Four
more years would definitely spell the end of any chance to pull this crumbling
nation back from the brink of complete breakdown.
-
- Is today the day you wake up and try to stop the madness?
Is today the day you say NO MORE? I hope so, for all of our sakes.
-
- Here's one more thing to wake you up if you are sleeping.
This is our current national debt- $6,937,966,948,177.28. Yes that is $7
TRILLION, or will be by the time you read this. Your eyes do not deceive
you, although the government wishes they would.
-
- If you are already wide awake and smelling the stench
of corruption, please try to wake up your fellow Americans. You are not
alone, it just feels that way sometimes.
- *Jay Shaft is the Editor of Coalition For Free Thought
In Media. Reprint permission is granted if it includes name of author and
Axis of Logic designation.
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- © Copyright 2003 by AxisofLogic.com
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