Recently I watched a documentary movie on dvd.  It shows marvelous film shots from places around the world, even very remote places.  No voices or commentary.  You get to view it without someone forcing an interpretation on what you are seeing.  I was amazed at some of the sites, perhaps most when strange religious practices were shown.  I became keenly aware how much of my own Christian background I was bringing to judging what I saw.  I wondered if what I thought was very strange would seem normal to some people in other cultures and religions.  When it comes to religion we overlook our own judgmental attitudes as we watch others in strange worship activities.  Christians are very adept at seeing faults in others, and seeing their own strange practices as "normal."

Currently we are ready to blame Muslims for just about everything.  Indeed, Islamophobia is rampant.  We know nothing of the holy writings of Mohammed, yet we judge the actions of terrorists as exemplifying Islam.  How soon we forget those who for 2,000 years followed the founder of the Christian faith --or at least say they follow Him-- have been far more war-mongering and ready to fight for the Prince of Peace than Muslims.   War-practicing Chrisitans love to label Muslims as war-mongers.

We have had the 100 Years War, the 40 Years War, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Catholics and various Protestant groups in almost constant wars against each other and among themselves.  Rarely have we witnessed for the Nazarene who told us to "turn the other cheek."  Immediately, war-like Christians will jump in to tell you that only applies to this or that; but the admonition was very clearly stated in the Holy Bible as coming out of His mouth without the many exceptions.  If you were to pick out the most peaceful nations or peoples in world history, you would be hard-pressed to find a Christian nation at the forefront.

In the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus clearly spells out his hopes for all mankind, He states: "Happy are those who make peace, for they will be known as the sons of God!" [J.B. Phillips translation of chapter 5 in Matthew...but clear in any translation].          

We Christians, especially we American Christians, have difficulty with a peace-loving Jesus.  We contort the Scriptures to mean what we want them to mean.  As we pound our chests around the world as though our might makes us right, we stand as examples contrary to the Sermon on the Mount.  Scriptures are always taken out of context.  Passages are always isolated to support some hostile action.  The Prince of Peace is clearly spelled out in the Scriptures, but that is too wimpy for our Pentagon, our military juggernaut, our killing machine.  A favorite argument states that all of our military adventures are somehow tied to the U.S. simply protecting itself.  What would Jesus answer?

Do you think that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, meant his admonition to be people of peace only to Canada or Switzerland or Norway or Sweden or Tahiti?  Some of those peace-loving nations are hated by many Americans because of their social democracy or "socialism."  We can find a reason to hate any and every nation and people.  It is as though we don't want to waste our military arsenal.  The sabre-rattling by the United States represents the antithesis of the Prince of Peace.

As for strange practices by "other" religions, what do you suppose "others" think of us eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Founder of Christianity?  And to have Christians hold this up as the ultimate in witnessing for Jesus?  Yes, I know we interpret HIs words as meaning that we should do this in remembrance of Him.  My, how we follow his admonitions so selectively!

Any holiday is good for us to take time and reflect on ourselves and our nation.  This Labor Day is no different.  Major national movements are not started in one or two years, there has to be a longer time period to see "trends" or "tendencies" or "changes in course."  Reflecting back on what has taken place in the United States over the past 30 years, do you see any tendencies?  Any trends?  Anything quite different from the years since the founding of the U.S.?

Some quotes to reflect upon:

"[Jesus speaking in Luke 2:14] "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towward men."

"But I say unto you: That you resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."  -[Jesus speaking in Luke 5:39]

Read the parable of the good Samaritan.  Luke 10:30-37

"War, like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few . . . The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit." -General Smedley Butler [Medal of Honor twice]

"War hath no fury like a non-combatant." -C.E. Montague

"If we justify war it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed." -Ruth Benedict

"They told me it would disrupt my life less if I got killed sooner." -Joseph Heller

"But in modern war . . . you will die like a dog for no good reason." -Ernest Hemingway

"Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it." -Anne O'Hare McCormick

"War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace." -Thomas Mann

"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." -David Ormsby Gore

"In time of war the first casualty is truth." -Boake Carter

"Instead of the government taking over industry when the war broke out, industry took over the government." -Charles Gillis

"Very little is known about the War of 1812 because the Americans lost it." -Eric Nicol

Need we still to be reminded how the mighty U.S. military machine was brought to its knees by a tiny, undeveloped nation like Vietnam.  Critics will say it was because we were not allowed to unleash more of our killing power upon North Vietnam.  And Reagan's heroic invasion of tiny Greneda?  And George H.W. Bush's invasion of the sovereign nation of Panama to arrest its leader?  And Reagan's use of Iran to help us secretly to use the Contras to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicaragua?  And using our military to take away huge geographic areas from Mexico?  And using our military to annihilate American Indians?  And putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps?  And newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst having the battleship Maine sunk in Havana harbor so we could start a war with Cuba?  And our unprovoked invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq?  And how our warships stood off-shore as we encouraged Panama in seceding from Colombia so we could build "our" Panama Canal?  There is no end to our war desires.  All while heralding the Prince of Peace.  Have we no shame?  Do we continue to remain silent as this corporate war greed takes our men and women, our money, our dignity, our international reputation?  When will it be enough?  How full do war corporations have to fill their coffers before we change ...if ever?  How many dead Americans are enough to fill these coffers?  Are the destruction of small nations, the killing of large numbers of minorities, the rape of small nations' natural resources the  way we defend our borders?  Have we no conscience when it comes to supplying war corporations profits?  When do we stand up and say, No!" to war corporation propaganda that gets us in war after war after war?  We owe it to the men and women who are called upon to fight and die for the U.S. to be certain the war is justified and not just another profit-center for greedy corporations.

And now finally to the plain and clear words of Jesus of Nazareth.  You can try to twist them or bend them to fit your own prejudices.  But His words in the sixth chaper of Luke are extremely clear:

"Treat men exactly as you would like them to treat you.  If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do that.  And if you lend only to those from whom you hope to get your money back, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners and expect to get their money back.  No, you are to love your enemies and do good and lend without hope of return.  Your reward will be wonderful and you will be sons of the most high.  For he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked!

"You must be merciful, as your Father in Heaven is merciful.  Don't judge other people and you will not be judged yourselves.  Don't condemn and you will not be condemned.  Make allowances for others and people will make allowances for you.  Give and men will give to you -- yes, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will they pour into your lap.  For whatever measure you use with other people, they will use in their dealings with you."  [J.B. Phillips translation]

There it is, folks,  Not a liberal statement.  Not a progressive statement.  Not a statement of socialism.  It is the word of Jesus of Nazareth.  Do what you will with it, but don't look to cast blame on others.  And remember, it comes from the Prince of Peace.

Glen Beck and Sarah Palin didn't start it.  They are just the latest example of right-wing extremism, and it has been present in the U.S. for well over a century.  But it has learned to hone its presentation to sound more acceptable to the American people.  Henry Ford wrote in his "Dearborn Independent" that Fascism, Nazism, and Hitler were all preferable to growing left-wing power.  Greed capitalism saw in labor unions and voices of the people a danger to their protected place in American society.  Actually, since the Industrial Revolution there has been an ongoing struggle between greed capitalism and left-wing movements.  Child labor, tax breaks, slave wages, etc. were the expressions of greed capitalists.  Forced equality and socialism were expressions of extreme left-wingers.

However the right-wing political movement in the U.S. has refined its approach.  They have had to mask their intentions in order to sell the American people on right-wing extremism.  Terms like Fascism and Nazism were seen as foreign and enemy sounding.  Cloaking it in God and patriotism worked better here.  And so at least since Ronald Reagan's presidency, right-wing politics has tried to present itself as God-fearing, patriotically American, etc.  It has snuck under the radar until now it feels comfortable openly challenging minorities and left-wing thought.  Unless it is forced to unmask, it will survive and thrive.  The Tea Party movement is tailor-made for God and patriotism.

"Many studies have discovered a close link between prejudice and 'patriotism' . . . Extreme bigots are almost always super-patriots."  -Gordon W. Allport

"The standardization of mass-production carries with it a tendency to standardize a mass-mind . . . The worst defect of patriotism is its tendency to foster and impose . . . and so to stifle . . . liberty." -J.S. Hobson

The current brand of right-wing extremism left the use of child labor and slave wages behind, and sent that business to foreign countries, often Third World countries.  Today it has turned to God.  And Beck is adept at calling on God to sanction his brand of right-wing extremism.  He is the personification of 21st century Fascism and Nazism ...but doesn't he sound pure and wonderful?  Lets look at other attempts to replace democracy with God.

"God had a divine purpose in placing this land between two great oceans to be found by those who had a special love of freedom and courage." -Ronald Reagan [if they were white; American Indians and other minorities need not apply]

"Who says I am not under the special protection of God?" -Adolf Hitler

"Why would we have different races if God meant us to be alike and associate with each other?" -Lester Maddox [leading Georgia politician and defender of racism and separation of races]

"God ordained segregation." -Reverend Billy James Hargis

"God has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world." -Senator Albert J. Beveridge

"All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those toward whom it intends to direct itself." -Adolf Hitler

"The great masses of people...will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one."  -Adolf Hilter [Obama is a Moslem!]

"The Divine Law is against communism." -Earl F. Landgrebe

"Fascist rule prevents worse injustice, and if Fascism goes under, nothing can save the country from chaos: God's cause goes under with it." -Arthur Cardinal Hinsley

"Naturally the common people don't want war...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought tothe bidding of the leaders...All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism." -Hermann Goering

"One of the great attractions of patriotism -- it fulfills our worst wishes.  In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat.  Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous." -Aldous Huxley

"No other factor in history, not even religion, has produced so many wars as has the clash of national egotisms sanctified by the name of patriotism." -Preserved Smith

Be careful in what you wish for in America.  Those shouting loudest about God and patriotism may be the real devils in disguise.  Look what happened to other nations that took God and patriotism as their guides.

I have spoken to large and small audiences across Europe from east to west, and throughout North America on the subject of right-wing Nazism and fascism, and the American corporations who lifted Hitler to power.  Further, I played my interviews of politicians and other leaders from the Nazi time on my radio talk show.  It is near impossible to reduce this subject to the space here, but here is my best, condensed attempt...

"We stand for the maintenance of private property...We shall protect free enterprise as the most expedient, or rather the sole possible economic order." -Adolf Hitler

From the teacher's guide to "Nazi Fascism and the Modern Totalitarian State":  "Fascism is a form of right-wing totalitarianism..."  "Nazi fascism's ideology included a racial theory which denigrated 'non-Aryans,' extreme nationalism which called for the unification of all German-speaking peoples, the use of private paramilitary organizations to stifle dissent and terrorize opposition..."  Anti-immigrant.  Against minorities.  Against liberals. 

"Fascism, which was not afraid to call itself reactionary...does not hesitate to call itself illiberal and anti-liberal."  -Benito Mussolini

"Right-wing totalitarian regimes (particularly the Nazis) have arisen in relatively advanced societies, relying on the support of traditional economic elites to attain power."  "Nazism and Fascism which evolved from 'right-wing' extremism." -http://remember.org

From "Profits uber Alles!  American Corporations and Hitler" by Jacques R. Paulwels:  "When Americans landed in Normandy in June 1944 and captured their first German trucks, they discovered that these vehicles were powered by engines produced by American firms such as Ford and General Motors.  Corporate America, it turned out, had also been serving as the arsenal for Nazism."

"Some high-profile leaders of corporate America, such as Henry Ford liked and admired the Fuhrer at an early stage.  Other precocious Hitler admirers were press lord Randolph Hearst and Irenee Du Pont, head of the Du Pont trust, who according to Charles Higham, had already 'keenly followed the career of the future Fuhrer in the 1920s, and supported him financially.  Eventually, most American captains of industry learned to love the Fuhrer."

"The Union Bank was intimately linked with the financial and industrial empire of German steel magnate Thyssen, whose financial support enabled Hitler to come to power.  The bank was managed by Prescott Bush, grandfather of Geroge W. Bush.  Prescott Bush was allegedly also an eager supporter of Hitler, funnelled money to him via Thyssen, and in return made considerable profits by doing business with Nazi Germany; with profits he launched his son, the later president, in the oil business."

"Most, if not all firms in Germany, including American branch plants, eagerly took advantage of this situation and cut labor costs drastically.  The Ford-Werke, for example, reduced labour costs from fifteen per cent of business volume in 1933 to only eleven per cent in 1938.  Coca-Cola's bottling plant in Essen increased its profitability considerably because, in Hitler's state, workers 'were little more than serfs forbidden not only to strike, but to change jobs,' driven 'to work harder [and] faster' while their wages 'were deliberately set quite low.'   In Nazi Germany, real wages indeed declined rapidly, while profits increased..."

"In the 1930s, the anti-Semitism of corporate America likewise revealed itself to be the other side of the coin of anti-socialism, anti-Marxism, and red-baiting.  Most American businessmen denounced Roosevelt's New Deal as a 'socialistic' meddling in the economy.  The anti-Semites of corporate America considered Roosevelt to be a crypto-Communist and an agent of Jewish interests, if not a Jew himself."

The following is excerpted from a report by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 1974:

[Refering to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler] "The substantial contribution of these firms to the American war effort in terms of tanks, aircraft components, and other military equipment is widely acknowledged.  Less well known are the simultaneous contributions of their foreign subsidiaries to the Axis powers.  In sum, they maximized profits by supplying both sides with the materiel needed to conduct the war."

From http://rationalrevolution.net/war/american  "Ford was also active in Nazi Germany's prewar preparations.  In 1939, for instance, it opened a truck assembly plant in Berlin whose 'real purpose,' according to U.S. Army Intelligence, was producing 'troop transport-type' vehicles for the Wehrmact.  That year Ford's chief executive received the Nazi German Eagle (first class)..."  ...from Hitler!

I could go on and on about how right-wing industry in the U.S. loved Hitler and his right-wing programs against communism, socialism, labor unions, minorities, Jews, ad infinitum.  In 1940, Graeme K. Howard, v.p. of General Motors published the book, "America and a New World Order" blaming FDR for starting World War II, and saying that fascists should be supported as the better alternative to the spread of Communism.  IBM helped to set up the Nazi databases that could more efficiently get the Jews to the gas chambers.

When you hear U.S. corporate-sponsored hatred against Muslims, immigrants, etc., and telling you that we have to have war to protect America, please-please-please read the accurate history of American right-wingers and corporate giants who supported Hitler.  These are an echo today of that horrible ideology that wants to make you a puppet to support unnecessary wars [Iraq], take away any regulation of U.S. industry, and keep the government out of our lives [except when it bails out corporations].  They will tell you that lawyers are filling up our courts, but never tell you how much court time is used by one corporations suing another.  You are a dupe for greed and war corporations.  They supported Hitler and they now support the Tea Party and any other hateful, bigoted organization that will get them what they want.  The right-wing in America has been taken over by corporations and groups that closely resemble those that put Hitler in power and the workers who were his slaves.

Our religous arrogance and confusion come forth every time we show our rush to judgment about someone else's religion.  The world is loaded with self-proclaimed members of a wide menu of religions.  The actions throughout history by religious people have left millions of dead bodies scattered around the world.  Religion and war have become regular bed partners.  We judge, therefore we kill. 

One measure of the honesty and truth of religious self-proclaiming is in the continuing number of people around the world who go to bed hungry, have no access to clean water, have no health care, etc.  Yet the wealth, the clearly measured wealth of the world has increased immensely.  Where is there religion put into action?  Why are there still billions of people in the world living is such squalor?  It is easy to simply toss it off as, "there fault." 

What especially bothers me are those people who like to proclaim their ethics and morals through their religion ...and then act much differently in actuality.  Think John Edwards and Newt Gingrich.  This is NOT a partisan issue!  This is a human issue.  And we all are to blame.

We judge other religions without having a clue about it.  It was easy for us to immediately condemn the terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center as "those damn Moslems."  Interestingly, we overlook our own sordid history.  Christianity should be blamed for pedophilia?  Burning people at the stake?  Charging witchcraft?  Hundred Years' War?  Colonialsim?  Our lack of morals and ethics is showing.

Why do so many people seem to find "joy" in condemning others?  Is it fun to paint with a wide brush based upon information we only know in part?  How much do we know about "the other"? 

Because the terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center proclaimed themselves to be a part of Islam, is no more to the point than the clergy who sexually abused little children called themselves Christians.

Should we be more enlightened about world events and actions?  How much do we owe something other than war to solve our problems?  That includes those who follow The Prince of Peace.

We are already well into campaign rhetoric, TV ads, mailings, press releases, speeches, etc.  The political party out of office always seems to know much better how to run the nation.  But this time there is no question who got us into the mess we find ourselves today in the U.S.  The Republicans showed they do not know how to run the nation and even more obvious is their misuse of power.

While the Democrats do not represent the common man, though I wish they did, the Republicans have definitely been taken over by war and greed corporations.  There is no room for honest democracy in either party.  While the conservatives attempt to unify their party behind a mantra of lower taxes, reducing the debt, limiting government, stopping illegal immigration, and flying the U.S. flag all over the world, the liberals, as usual, are fighting among themselves.

We drank the war-drug tea served to us by the war corporations.  We confused patriotism with militarism.  We blew up the national budget during the Bush administration and now want Obama to wave a wand and make it all better.  In our "I want it now!" world, it was easy to invade Iraq and Afghanistan because of the emotion of the moment after 9-11, and we were promised a quick-fix by the right-wing.   "Mission Accomplished."  It definitely did not happen, and now we are stuck with the rubble of the war, the debt, the loss of face, and the hatred toward America at its highest point ever in the Middle East.  One of the reasons there has been a growing violence in Iraq very recently is because the best recruitment item they have is if the Americans stay.  That's how bad is the mess that the Bush gang inflicted.  The terrorists benefited from America's presence in Iraq.  They want us to stay.

I'm not some johnny-come-lately in lambasting the Bush administration and the horrible mistake of invading Iraq.  Immediately, at the very moment of the invasion of Iraq, I stated clearly that it was a huge mistake.  Most of what has happened in Iraq was as I predicted.  There is no democracy in Iraq, and there also is not much running water, oil production, stability, etc.  After a Spring election, they still have not formed a government.  And the splinter of the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds is building for a full-blown civil war.  Make no mistake about it, the Bush-backed Shiites are very, very cozy with Iran.  I also wrote and spoke about that, but the Bush gang never saw it coming.  Now what?  When we leave, it will slowly slide into a civil war.  Watch out!  Iran will use its ties to the Shiite government in Iraq to increase their power and leadership in the Middle East.  Iran will vie for concessions from the West and have its power increased and its likelihood of nuclear power increased.

Now it is too late to realize what Bush has done by invading Iraq.  He created a problem without a satisfactory solution.  Our former allies have left Iraq.  We have been there holding the bag.  Leaving will not mean the U.S. pulls out of a stable nation.  It means we leave to allow Iraq to implode or become a cozy ally of Iran.  In any case, the situation in the Middle East is worse than it was in 2001.  And our presence in the Middle East has made Pakistan more unstable than ever.  If you didn't like the terrorists flying into the World Trade Center, imagine them with nuclear weaponry.  And the terrorists that we chased out of some of Afghanistan have simply re-deployed in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and elsewhere.  And while the terrorists were an unpopular fringe group in the Middle East, after the U.S. presented itself in the Middle East, these fringe groups are gaining support among Arabs and others in the area.  I wrote and spoke out that all of this would happen back in 2002-2003 and foreward.

Stop!  Think!  It was the Republican leaders since 2001 who created this mess.  They did not know how to balance the budget, they did not know how to regulate banks and other financial institutions, they should not have invaded Iraq, they alienated tremendous numbers of people in the Middle East, they drove up the debt, and they left the U.S. in shambles.  Now they want Obama to suddenly correct things, and do it with less funds.  We should be holding the conservatives responsible for this mess.  And we should call to account the failures of the Democrats and the Obama administration to make more positive actions to turn around an ailing America. 

Conclusion: what a mess!  A likely Republican victory in November: what a worse mess!  Instead of thinking people like the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich [ugh!], etc. have the answers, call upon your own intelligence instead of your hatred to make decisions.  If you want to "thrown the bums out" that is fine, but don't replace them with Tea Party hatred and bigotry.  You should know better than that.  What have the conservatives proven they can do since 2001?

[Note please: may I call on the liberal/progressive readers of my blog to stand back and remain silent for awhile.  I want to learn what the conservative/right-wingers have to comment without their feeling the necessity to respond to others who leave comments.  I want to have a chance to hear them clearly.   Therefore, be considerate in only making comments pertinent to this specific blog post. Thank you.]  

The furor over a Islamic community center being built somewhat near the site of the 9-11 terrorist bombing in New York City is confusing to behold.  I understand the deep feelings of the victims families, but once again we have others who are patriotic "posers" speaking up with insane comments.  Please stop and think.  When we limit one person or one group from equality, we are on a slippery slope.

Americans have forever been insensitive to others as we paraded across this continent.  How many sacred places of American Indians did we plunder and mar?  The Black Hills, a sacred place of the Lakotas and other tribes has been turned into a souvenier shop, a camera-toting bunch of insensitive American tourists, over-run with shops, parking spots, roads, carved monuments to the "white man's" presidents, etc.  Have you given any thought to that?

What about the prejudice and bigotry faced by Jews, certain Christians, etc. when they came to this country?  German immigrants after World War I and World War II?  Asians?  Latinos?  Hindus?

Look what we Americans did to the slaves we brought here.  They were legally regarded as property.   We literally stole land from Mexico.  After stealing the land we desecrated huge pieces of Indian land in the Southwest.  We literally forced death marches of Indian tribes from their fertile southeastern U.S. land to barren prairies.  We slaughtered huge populations of American Indians.  The discrimination against Asians who were brought here to build our western railroads was enormous, and they were forced to live in squalor for decades and decades.  We put Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.  And we seemed to think it was all OK.  We never gave it a second thought.  Equality?  Democracy?  Freedom [for whom?]?  The original Americans were treated like unwanted immigrants, while it was European immigrants who desecrated the land and killed the people here.

We hanged innocent black people.  Today we treat every Moslems as though each of them somehow had something to do with 9-11.  The terrorists who brought the World Trade Center buildings down committed a crime, not totally unlike what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City.  This was not an act of Islam.  The overwhelming majority of Moslems abhorred what was done on 9-11, just as the overwhelming number of Christians and Jews in America were horrified by the bombing in Oklahoma City.  We are so lacking in our understanding of Islam that our bigotry does not allow us to make rational decisions.  When we  take a horrible incident like 9-11 and make all kinds of bigoted decisions, it is not unlike the person who knows a few black people and draws all of his/her conclusions about that race based on tiny anecdotes.  Fortunately,  non-white Americans are not as harsh in drawing bigoted conclusions about we Caucasian Americans.  They suffered, we did not to that degree, yet they forgive.

Can we somehow begin to think rationally about the Islamic center proposed in Manhattan?  If you were to study Islam you would find many, many examples of a loving, peaceful, considerate religion.  Placing the Islamic center in-between huge skyscrapers, almost impossible to see from a block away, is hardly "forcing" something on the special site of 9-11.  We should embrace peace, understanding, tolerance, respect for Islam and the proposed center for those believers.  Hateful attacks on Islam are not only counter-productive, they are expressions of the worst in America.  Let us keep our dignity, honesty, and understanding alive, and let the prejudice and hate of too much of our past be put to rest.  Let's move on in the truest and best of what the United States of America can offer.  If we do not acknowledge our bigoted past, we will continue to make the same prejudicial, horrid mistakes.  We must finally learn what equality really means.

"Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?" -Lillian Hellman

"I think the first duty of society is justice." -Alexander Hamilton

"A prejudiced person will almost certainly claim that he has sufficient warrant for his views." "Gordon W. Allport

"Prejudice is the reason of fools." -Voltaire

"National injustice is the surest road to national downfall." -William Ewart Gladstone

If you cannot see that restricting one group from equality in a democracy restricts us all, then I strongly suggest you read the U.S. Constitution and dig into the papers related to the Nuremburg trials.

Do you wholeheartedly support the U.S. Constitution?  Are all American citizens guaranteed equal rights?  Should any one person or one group be able to foist their beliefs on another?  Do gays have just as many rights as straights?  Do gay people have the same rights in marriage as others?  Do you believe the definition of marriage is a religious or legal responsibility?  Do you believe gay people choose to be gay?  Or are they born that way?  If you think people make a choice to be gay, how do you explain that there are gays throughout the animal kingdom?  Science has proven that people are born with an attraction to the same sex, so why do you differ?  The majority of people in the world are not Christians, so why should we force a certain type of Christianity on others in the U.S.?  Should the majority be able to restrict the rights of minorities?  Only a small minority of people are born with red hair; should we restrict them in any way?  Only a minority of people are born left-handed; should we restrict them in any way?  In your mind, did God create people who are left-handed, with red hair, or gay?  Who determines what restrictions, if any, should be placed on gay people?  In a democracy, what equal rights do gays have with others?  Why would you limit rights to just certain, specific minorities?  Should a minority be protected from a majority?  In your mind, what, specifically, is different about two gay people marrying?  Would you be opposed to two gay people marrying if they were of different sexes?  What is it about gay marriage that is different in your mind?  Just because you use a religious book to make your point about gay marriage, should that legally be interpreted that way for non-believers?  Who gave you the right to decide in a democracy?  Do you know that one of the main characteristics of a democracy is the protection of the rights of minorities?  What, in your mind, is worse: gay marriage or pedophilia?  If you prefer civil unions instead of marriage for gays, what restrictions would you put on the individuals in a civil union?  Are nations that give legal approval to gay marriage any more immoral than nations that do not?  What actual statistics can you show to indicate gay parents are anymore less fit to raise children than straight parents?  With the divorce rate in the U.S. now over 50%, are you still saying that straight marriage is better than gay marriage?  Would you treat your gay child any differently than your straight child?  How deeply have you researched this subject?  Would you treat a gay married couple living next door to you differently than a straight couple?  How many straight couples do you know who stay together in marriage for convenience, or because of social pressures, or for religious reasons?  Have your religious leaders given specific evidence to support their contention that straight marriage is better than gay marriage?  Should a gay partner be kept from making final decisions concerning a committed partner's last rights and other last-moment decisions?  Should a gay teacher hide his/her sexual orientation from his/her students?  Should a straight teacher do the same?  Should a gay person be given all the rights of a straight person to serve in the military to defend this country?  Have you ever had a deep conversation on this topic with a gay person?  Or are you uncomfortable discussing such things with a gay person?  Does it make you at all uncomfortable that gays have certain restrictions placed on them in the U.S. that are not placed on straight people?  Do you think that gay people are a threat to children?  Do you think that gay people are more immoral than straight people?  Where would you go to have a serious discussion on this subject with someone else?  Are you ambivalent on this subject, choosing to ignore it and hope it goes away?  How many gay people do you know...well?  If you draw your conclusions on this subject from the Bible, do you follow some statements in the Bible that children or parents should kill family members who do not follow antiquated biblical principles?  Why is this different?  Why do you select out certain biblical passages and not others?

More criticism of President Barack Obama is motivated by prejudice than we care to admit to ourselves.  We are prone to take snippets of information and see each snippet as a support to our already-decided prejudices.  Of course we cannot admit them to ourselves because we are uncomfortable seeing ourselves that way.  We all do it, to a certain extent.  But those with the strongest feelings on most subjects are often the most bigoted, the most patriotic, and the most hateful.  It is an extension of how "perfect" we see ourselves, and how threatened we are when our "facts" are proven to be wrong or full of prejudice.  We need only to look to the "biblical" defense of slavery, or the savage religious wars that have gone on between Christians and Jews, Protestants and Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics, Christians and Muslims, Jews and Muslims, and the absolutely "certain" actions by missionaries to others.  How about a dose of reality?

"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion." -John Adams (1735-1826)

"Doctrines get inside of a man's own reason and betray him against himself.  Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines." -William Graham Sumner

"Goose pimples rose all over me, my hair stood on end, my eyes filled with tears of love and gratitude for this greatest of all conquerors of human misery and shame; and my breath came in little gasps.  If I had not known that the Leader would have scorned such adulation, I might have fallen to my knees in unashamed worship, but instead I drew myself to attention, raised my arm in the eternal salute of the ancient Roman Legions and repeated the holy words, 'Heil Hitler!' " -George Lincoln Rockwell, an AMERICAN right-wing extremist

"What is the new loyalty?  It is, above all, conformity.  It is the uncritical and unquestioning acceptance of America as it is. . .It rejects inquiry into the race question or socialized medicine, or public housing. . . . regards as heinous any challenge to what is called the 'system of private enterprise,' identifying that system with Americanism.  It abandons evolution, repudiates the once popular concept of progress, and regards America as a finished product, perfect and complete." -Henry Steele Commager

"He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth, will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all." -Samuel Taylor Colerridge

"The big majority of Americans, who are comparitively well off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery without almost noticing them." -Gunnar Myrdal

"I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian." -Mohandas Gandhi

"We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can't have both." -Justice Louis D. Brandeis

"We have among us a class of mammon worshippers, whose one test of conservatism or radicalism is the attitude one takes with respect to accumulated wealth.  Whatever tends to preserve the wealth of the wealthy is called conservatism, and whatever favors anything else, no matter what, they call socialism."   -Richard T. Ely

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.  It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities.  The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building for the poor." -John K. Galbraith

"Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences.  No one can eliminate prejudices -- just recognize them." -Edward R. Murrow

"The First Crusade . . . set off on its two-thousand mile jaunt by massacring Jews, plundering and slaughtering all the way from the Rhine to the Jordan.  'In the temple of Solomon,' wrote the ecstatic cleric, Raimundus de Agiles, 'one rode in blood up to the knees and even to the horses' bridles, by the just and marvelous Judgment of God!' " -Herbert J. Muller  [ah, those marvelous Christians showed those terrible Moslems!]

If you own a small business and have invested your life savings in it, if it fails you are stuck to deal with the bills and costs of ending it.  If you are the chief executive officer of a large corporation and it goes down the tubes, either the government steps in to help or you are given a multi-million-dollar golden parachute.  And yet there are conservatives and right-wingers who tell you that they want to help small businesses by giving tax breaks to the richest 5% of Americans so miraculously this will help them.

Conversely, if you are an executive with a big corporation and your employees ask for improvement in working conditions, you may pull out and move to a more friendly state or foreign country.  If you own a small business and are faced with shrinking sales you have the option of closing shop or cutting back staff and service to customers...perhaps bankruptcy.

Something is wrong with the economic climate we have constructed.  Every corporation depends on customers buying their product, but none of them want to pay a living wage so people can buy products.  The threat looming over American business and industry today is against the little guy and in favor of the big guy.  This is democracy? 

The American economy is built more and more on the U.S. consumer's spending.  And at the same time, corporations and big business do everything possible to not pay a wage adequate enough to support a family and purchase products. 

This conundrum is of our own making.  Competing against American corporations are businesses in Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Finland, etc.  Workers in those nations have national health insurance, earlier retirement, better retirement income, a more generous welfare system, etc.  You are being sold a bill of goods that if corporations do not get what they want, they HAVE to move to India, Thailand, or some Third World nation where they can pay workers far less with many fewer benefits.  That is simply pure and unadulterated garbage!  The threat to move to these nations is to maximize greed profiteering off of the backs of workers.  Succesful corporations in the above-listed nations can profit nicely and maintain the dignity of life for their workers.

Since 2001 things have gone a step further.  If huge corporations fail because of their own mismanagement and for making lousy decisions, the federal government will use your money, the undercompensated American worker, to bail them out.  First you are threatened by the corporation to leave the country if you do not accept the company's demands of you, and then when the company mismanages, your tax money compensates them for their mistakes.  AND the executives who failed you and the company are given golden parachutes.

How about changing this around?  How about developing an economy like the nations mentioned above, and have a general population healthier, more relaxed and not fearful of the future, national guranteed health care, earlier retirement, a far better welfare system, a longer life expectancy, etc.?  And how about preventing CEOs from getting a golden parachute if the company fails?  After all, that is what every small business executive is faced with constantly...bankruptcy with no parachute.

Yes, I know there has been some tweaking in recent years in Switzerland, Germany, France, etc.  But the basic difference still exists, and basically those nations have people who live longer, live healthier, live happier, retire earlier, have a far better welfare system, etc.  The difference between a worker in the U.S., and one in those nations is undeniable. 

Conclusion: let's not be led around by greedy corporations in the U.S. who want to continue to convince you that they need special privileges, not available to successful corporations in other nations, and tax breaks, not available to successful corporations in other nations, and lower wages and benefits for workers, not true in other nations with successful corporations.   One additional item: and be cautious when the U.S. starts a war; be sure it is a necessary one and not to profit corporations that are not only greedy corporations but are also war corporations.

Hats off to conservative talker Glenn Beck for not having a knee-jerk response to the early, partial release of the speech given by Ms. Sherrod of the Agriculture Dept.  She was fired in a stupid and hasty reaction by the Dept. and the Obama administration.  Mr. Beck's reaction when the highly "edited" speech was released by a right-wing blogger: "Whoa, let's hold on before judging  this woman."  Oh, how that sort of maturity, patience and intelligence are needed among today's political commentators.  Ms. Sherrod showed how her earlier feelings on racial questions had to be overcome in order for her to deal in a balanced way when matters of race entered her workplace and her job.  Kudos to Ms. Sherrod AND Mr. Beck.

The new Republican Governor of New Jersey indicates some lauditory actions for dealing with the overwhelming deficit facing his state.  While I might disagree with some of his actions, he has jumped into the task at hand and actually made some DECISIONS that were not only politically motivated.

While many Americans are prone to want to call the resignation and re-assignment of the CEO of BP a "golden parachute," it isn't nearly as atrocious as some of the "going away presents" given to some U.S. CEOs whose actions were economic diasters here.  The immoral and unethical actions by some of American CEOs in the financial and Wall Street world were given far more lucrative packages.  We have not come anywhere near to actually dealing with what was sleazy and greedy by U.S. financial businesses that helped cause the economic melt-down that started back in the last 7 years or so.  We have to wake up!  Wall Street and other financial places may still steal and rob the American people and get away with it.

While the thousands of pages of material that was released recently show some glaring information about the Pakistani collusion with the Talliban, it should be cautioned that much of that material was several years old.  The U.S. has always had a precarious relationship with Pakistan.  Somewhat reluctantly, Pakistan has improved its cooperation with the U.S. in fighting terrorists in that nation and neighboring Afghanistan, but much more is needed.  However Pakistan is faced with a very conflicting situation regarding powers inside its own borders, and its historical problems with Afghanistan. 

The more our U.S. "democracy" falters and develops its own schisms, polarizations, economic manipulations, power of war corporations, inability to listen to each other, and seems hell-bent on developing our own fundamentalist take on the world, the more difficult it is for us to attempt to present ourselves as a shining example of democracy.  The old saw that we have, with all of our mistakes, the most democratic nation in history is becoming less and less true.  Listen to the screamers in the U.S.; they hardly sound like voices of tolerance, maturity, intelligence, etc.

The threats by the right about "wait until November" turn my stomach.  Yes, the Democrats are in trouble and may very well lose those elections nationwide.  Very few in elected office today are pure or deserving of re-election.  But threats about re-election should never be the major guideline for voting.  Unpopular political decisions have often been correct, moral, and ethical.  The people have been known to be wrong.  One has to look no further than slavery or denying the vote to women to see how the majority of American voters were wrong for many, many years.  It is often more popular to be wrong.  Being correct on moral or ethical issues is often not popular.  Think of how many people hated Carrie Nation, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Franklin D. Roosevelt, etc.  We only have to look to our own various religious leaders to see how unpopular they were: Abraham, Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Gandhi, etc.

It is easy to sit on the sidelines and be a hero from the bench.  Experiencing the guts of war and having an objective mind to evaluate what you've experienced is quite another.  I'm not refering to men like George W. Bush, who used his father's pull in Congress and the Pentagon, to avoid going to Vietnam ...he protected Texas from the Vietcong air force.  Or Dick Cheney who several times found some contrived reason to be exempt from the draft.  Those two men PLAYED soldier, and paraded around like a great hero, and got mavelous contracts to foster wars that made huge profits for their buddy corporations.  I'm not talking about George W. Bush and Karl Rove debasing the actual facts about John Kerry's heroism in Vietnam.  No, I AM refering to men with real battle courage, men who fought in actual wars, knew what war meant and what real war means.  I'm talking about men who truly can wear the mantle of HERO.  What do they have to say?

"War, like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few . . . The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit." -General Smedley Butler, twice awarded the Medal of Honor

"There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword." -General Ulysses S. Grant

"War will exist until that day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." -John F. Kennedy

"The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution." -John F. Kennedy

"The necessary and wise subordination of the military to civil power [must] be sustained." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"IN THE COUNCILS OF GOVERNMENT WE MUST GUARD AGAINST THE ACQUISITION OF UNWARRANTED INFLUENCE, WHETHER SOUGHT OR UNSOUGHT, BY THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.  THE POTENTIAL FOR THE DISASTEROUS RISE OF MISPLACED POWER EXISTS AND WILL PERSIST."  -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of the way and let them have it." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

The men quoted above knew both the realities of being in war, being truly heroic, and also serving as President of the United States.  The exception being General Smedley Butler, who not only was awared the Congressional Medal of Honor twice, he wrote books and testified before Congress about how war has become a racket in the U.S.   And they are/were from both major political parties.  This is not a partisan question, it is a question of how much we want to allow war corporations to run our country.  It is a question of how heavily we want to be taxed to support a bloated military.  It is a question of how much is enough when it comes to starting wars and reaping astronomical profits.  It is a matter of thinking for oneself and not being duped by war corporations who buy their wars, purchase political men and women, control the media, and get the American people to march to their orders like lemurs over a cliff.

It is disgusting to watch and read the so-called super-patriotism from people who sit on the sidelines.

"War hath no fury like a non-combatant." -C.E. Montague

"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others." -Thomas Jefferson

"Many studies have discovered a close link between prejudice and 'patriotism.'  Extreme bigots are almost always super-patriots." -Gordon W. Allport

[above quotes from "PETER'S QUOTATIONS: Ideas for our time" edited by Laurence J. Peter, Bantam]

Back in the Ronald Reagan era, I began to use the term "war capitalism" in speeches and writings.  It became obvious to me that the Reagan administration, led around by the nose by corporations that made ungodly sums of money when they could manipulate the U.S. into a war.  The democratically-elected government of Nicaragua was not a threat to anyone, but the Reagan administration found reason to finance an illegal war against that elected government.  It began to support the Contras clandestinely.  When Congres began to smell a rat, Reagan went underground and made secret deals for weaponry with the nation of Iran.  It all was pushed by certain corporations that I called "war corporations."

This has continued since then.  Both political parties have had candidates and office-holders who did the bidding for these war corporations.  No longer was the government of the United States and its military under the control of the American people, but fell under the control of private corporatons that not only bought votes, not only paid the White House and Congress to start wars [e.g. Greneda, Panama, etc.], but profits were made in astronomical amounts from these wars that were previously unknown.  Our nation was being run by corporations that made immense profits from managing to get the U.S. into wars.  Democracy be damned.

CorpWatch [www.corpwatch.org] traces the big money being made via war by our clandestine government, the war corporations.  Here are a few examples of how it is done...

RECONSTRUCTION: The victor of modern wars "make extraordinary profits by giving contracts to their favorite companies to rebuild what they have destroyed and then hand the bill to local taxpayers."

LOGISTICS: "Private companies do many of the routine activities in the military from cooking food to repairing fighter jets under a program called 'the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program'. . .The federal government has an open-ended mandate and budget to send these companies anywhere in the world to run humanitarian or military operations for profit..."

SECURITY: "Today's mercenary is more likely to wear a business suit or stand guard over an oil pipeline. Companies like Defence Systems Ltd. guard British Petroleum's pipelines in Colombia.  Dyncorp polices the Mexican border, while Military Professionals Resources Incorp. trains U.S. soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq in live-weapons fire."

INTELLIGENCE: "From satellites that can photograph postage stamps from outer space to covert operatives who are searching for Osama bin Laden, private companies now help run much of the clandestine services for organizations like the CIA."  Science Applications Int'l. Corp. of San Diego is designing eavesdropping software for the National Security Agency in the U.S. to monitor phones, faxes, and email.

Do you want private war corporations starting wars or paying to buy Presidents and Congress-persons to start wars?  Is the CIA not secretive enough, we have to have private secret corporations doing the CIA's work?  Think what could be done with the money spent to fight unnecessary wars.  Think of the American men and women in the military who lose their lives fighting unnecessary wars, or wars started by the secret purchase of politicians of both parties.  This is what Americans need to be moved by and act!  Most of the rest of today's political debates are led and managed by these war corporations and their lackies.

[some material here was taken from www.worldwidewamm.org's "Worldwide wamm" periodical for July-August 2010.....quotes from corpwatch.org]

The folly of partisan political perspective is truly amazing in light of devious and shady happenings on both the left and the right.  This has been taking place since the founding of the United States.  In the midst of the current polarization of political differences, the variety of vehicles to express opinions has allowed extreme elements to broadcast their viewpoints in a more virulent manner. 

Compromise and a mature approach to cooperation have suffered.  Each political group feeds off  this polarization, thus more and more they feel pure and sacred.  Seeing other possibilities, other opinions, other ideas have become impossible.  The U.S. has suffered because of it.

Neither side is blameless and neither side is pure.  LBJ allowed the Vietnam War to escalate and go on far too long, and even used the Gulf of Tomkin as an excuse for it all.  No more need be said about Richard Nixon than "Watergate" to remind us of the frightening misuse of power and devious actions.  Ronald Reagan funded the Contras who were fighting a democratically elected government in Nicaragua, and he secretly used Iran to help him ...Iran!    Bill Clinton's escapades with a young intern in the White House are sickening reminders that our presidents are mortal people with immoral thoughts.  George W. Bush's administration lied to Congress and the American people over and over, and Obama made election promises that he surely must have known he could never carry out.  Whose blameless?

Are these simply the pitfalls of democracy?  Can we simply blame the American populace for allowing this to happen?  Or are these developments by our presidents a reflection on our own immoral and unethical thoughts and actions?  Is the fault, dear voter, in each and all of us?  If so, when clear heads prevail, the last thing we want to do is follow an extreme movement.  The past is littered with the ruins of peoples and civilizations that expressed their own immorality and their own unethical motives by choosing extreme leaders.  We need look no further than the recent past century to see the destruction and devastation that came from BOTH communism and fascism, the extreme left and the extreme right.

Marx and Lenin found tools, peoples, and nations to carry out their "ideals."  Mussolini and Hitler found tools, peoples, and nations to carry out their "ideals."  Are these the extremes we want?  When will we ever learn?  When will we realize that every political movement has its own falsities.  When we begin to make extremes sacred, we then use our power to foist upon others what we believe to be "ideals."

Allow me to state right off that these comments of mine here are opinions.  As such they may not be exactly factual and historically accountable.  But I am open about this, unlike too much media today.  But a blog is a blog is a blog.  I try my best.

[UNHINGED: The Trouble with Psychiatry by Dr. Daniel Carlat]  A recently published book by a highly-respected psychiatrist clearly documents how the pharmaceutical industry not only "buys" psychiatrists, it writes books for them in which they only add the name of the doctor.  It is a scam, pure and simple.  The fact that so many drugs have been found to have serious or life-threatening side-effects, should not come as a shock.  The entire field of medicine and accompanying corporations comprise a heavily-fraudulent business.  We are duped in the U.S. constantly by physicians, drug corporations, hospitals, HMOs, PPOs, etc.  Medicine in America is no longer "practiced," it is far too often a part of a scam.  And you and I suffer because of it.

With graduate study in psychology, I know that there can be many beneficial aspects to what we commonly call "talk therapy."  But today, this practice is being superceded by drug therapy, and I use the word "therapy" reluctantly.  No matter what kind of medicine you rely on in the U.S. today, getting you hooked on prescription medicine is an easy way to force you to come back over and over for a lifetime.  This means guaranteed money for the physicians and the drug corporations.   In some cases the side-effects from the prescription drugs are far more harmful than what you are being treated for.  But you may never know about the dangers of the medicine because the data on the trials to get the drugs approved by the FDA or other government agency was probably done and written by the drug corporations themselves.  They fudge on the information they provide about their findings.

Avandia, now under fire because of the death-threatening side-effects, presented studies from the drug company itself to prove its worth to the federal government.  The dangerous side-effects were revealed in some of the studies, but were never presented in the application for approval.  I would call that a scam or something worse.  People are dying because information about the dangers were never shown to patients or physicians.  This is happening over and over with prescription drugs.  Meanwhile the drug corporations are making billions and billions of dollars in profit from these dangerous drugs.

Europeans are not as prone to use prescription drugs as we are in America.  Could it be that this is one reason that many nations in Europe have longer life expectancies for their citizens than in the U.S.?  Not only are drugs not gone to as soon or as often as in the U.S., but drugs cost far less in Europe.  Something is amiss.  Something needs to change.  We are suffering from this scam.  We are victims not patients.  Yes, I believe in capitalism, but not criminal capitalism.

Yes, I know that many people are prone to say that the government should stay out of business.  No matter what your political stance, who, other than the federal government, can regulate such a huge industry and make certain that the American public is safe in a physician's office or at the drug store?

Of course the federal government needs to be more reliable itself.  Of course.  But to simply say "no" to federal government regulation of the health care industries is to cut off our nose to save our face.  We are committing suicide by allowing the health care industry to set the rules and regulations.  It is time for a basic change in how health care is delivered in America. 

More erroneous assumptions are going to be made of this suggestion in this blog than any I have written.  This is a prime example of what we "know" to be true not being true at all.  OK, let's get to the topic...

I have just finished watching the DVD recording titled "9/11: Press for Truth."  It has again raised questions that have bothered me since the tragedy of 9/11 occured.  Like you, I have been programmed to think that I know the facts about 9/11.  Like a robot, I think questions about it now are simply the acts of kooks who see conspiracies everywhere.  But this IS different.  These are legitimate and serious questions.  People closest to the investigation of 9/11 smell a rat at the hightest levels of government.

I do not like titles, and find them somewhat uppity.  However I guess I can claim to be a "historian."  I taught American history and world history.  I have a Master's degree in history from a respected university.  And I have been featured as a speaker on a variety of historical topics.  This is stated so that you may understand that I am not prone to conspiracy theories, and challenge all statements that do not have a basic historical or professional journalism basis.  I check references.  I try to be objective.  People of a variety of political perspectives have called upon me for speeches and media interviews.

In my long lifetime, only a couple of happenings have me thinking of the long-term consequences that threaten the very existence of America as we like to perceive it and construct it.  The first would be the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The second would be the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.  After all the years since December 7, 1941 there still remain many questions concerning how and why it happened, and how much prior knowledge FDR had about that attack.  But that is insignificant compared to how little we know about 9/11.  The basic questions that remain about 9/11 go to the very core of what is America.  The questions raised about 9/11 are far more profound than Pearl Harbor or any event in my lifetime.  And the people with the basic questions are families that suffered the loss of a loved one.  These people have no political agenda or limited perspective.  They want to know the truth about 9/11, and they have been thwarted at every turn by their government.  Of course the main focus is on the president at the time of the attack, George W. Bush, but the ongoing cover-up remains with Barack Obama.  Why?

Over $100 million dollars was spent in investigating Bill Clinton's sexual episodes with Monica.  The families of the attack victims on the World Trade Center begged for many months for an inquiry, and finally received about $3 million for the investigation into 9/11 [with more public outcries it was raised to $14 million].  After the famiies met with Henry Kissinger, who was appointed chair of the inquiry commission, he stepped down because the family members began to ask him questions that directly implicated him with personal connections that would prejudice his service.  The family members clearly pointed out how uncomfortable he became when their questions of him began to hit the mark.  The entire inquiry process was constantly prevented from doing its job by the president, the vice president, and federal bureaus.  In short, the families of the lost ones could not get what they wanted: answers and/or material that would give them answers.  I cannot tell you how suspicious this all looks, how specifically information was kept from both the commission and the families.  The families to this very day are still fighting to find answers to their basic questions, and they are organized to continue to try.  They have been stone-walled.

I could go on at length about this.  But like a historian who seeks factual information, I offer you references beyond the DVD, "9/11: Press for Truth."  Please, if you care about the United States, go and search these references.  Some will give you loads of other materials.  This is not a witch-hunt.  This is not about conspiracy theorists, it is about people versed on this subject without a political opinion to offer.  And it is about what has been found by family members who lost loved ones in the Towers or family members who lost loved ones fighting the fires there.  Repeat: read this material, don't suppose you know.  You do not know.  This has implications for the future of our nation and our democracy:

www.911Truth.org     www.journalof911studies.com/beginners.html     http://stj911.org

http://911scholars.org     [search engine these people and their 9/11 comments: Paul Reynolds, George Monblot, Ebrahim Afsah, Jochen Bolsche, Niels Harrit]        "Creed, Cabal, Conspiracy"   

There are tons of references beyond those few, but those will give you a start and they are accompanied by many other references.  YOU DO NOT KNOW THE TRUE STORY OF CAUSE AND EFFECT OF 9/11 !

I was born and raised in Milwaukee.  Since then I have lived in Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, and Virginia [Washtington, DC].  I've traveled extensively throughout Europe and North America, met heads of state, celebrities, sports figures, governors, mayors, authors, TV stars, Hall of Famers, ad infinitum.  I've hosted two radio talk-interview programs.  I've given speeches to as many as 10,000 people.   However one thing never left me: the knowledge that my hometown of Milwaukee was a big city, but not truly "major league."  It was not New York or Berlin or London or Paris or even Chicago.

When I moved to Kansas City I encountered some of the same inferiority complex.  One of the first people I met walking around the Country Club Plaza in K.C. was a woman who recognized my "foreign" accent.  She asked me if I were from Chicago.  I told her I was from Milwaukee.  Her mid-major metro inferiority immediately showed itself: "What do you think of Kansas City; kinda a cow town, huh?".

I suppose some of the same feelings of being from a city that is not truly in the big leagues is present in Indianapolis, Columbus, Des Moines, as well as Milwaukee and Kansas City.  That's a shame.  These are cities that have a wonderful variety of culture, sports, history, entertainment, etc., but have what New York and Los Angeles do not have: access to these places.  No worry about where to park, no worry about whether it is safe, no worry about ALWAYS having to make reservations, etc.  In Milwaukee and Kansas City you are not delegated to necessarily having to take a taxi to where you want to go.  And, generally, most places are affordable and not burdened or secluded by outlandish prices.

Living in Washington, D.C. was a revelation to me.  People rarely made eye-contact.  On the subway, people "faked" reading a newspaper so they could avoid making eye contact.  I have a million true stories about this factor in living in Washington.  And unlike the Midwestern cities, in New York or Paris or London, strangers walking past you on the sidewalk never offer a simple smile and "hello."  That is somewhat a Midwestern trait, but especially true in a place like Kansas City.

All the trappings of museums and buildings and things are present in Paris and London.  But, to some extent, you have that in Milwaukee and Kansas City, or it will come as a traveling exhibit.  Unlike the Midwestern cities, you have to make the effort to meet people in Berlin or Paris.  If you travel, by all means, make the effort.  Walking the cities, meeting the people is what travel is all about.  It is not about how many museums you visited.  This is a mistake made by too many Americans when they travel to Europe.  Inter-act with the people.  Make the effort.  Show them your smile and Midwestern warmth.  You will be amazed what you will find and what you will learn. 

Kansas City and Milwaukee have much to teach the world.

Taken for granted far too often are the men and women serving all of us in the military, whether in a foreign land or at home.  No matter one's particular viewpoint on any national or international activity, these brave people are at the ready to serve the United States of America.  I was a little kid who played on the grounds of a veterans hospital facility, and learned early-on about the thankless job that they do.  Let us not forget them.  Let us remember them 365 and 24/7.  And similarly, let us not forget our vets.

As we reflect on the place in the world that the United States holds, let us remember to be good neighbors.  Too often we forget that we are by far the main consumer of illegal drugs in the world.  Without our insatiable desire to consume illegal drugs, many of today's international problems would go away.  And just as we as Americans are so quick to judge others, let us look in the mirror.  And just as we are so quick to see punishment as the only solution to our problems, let us see clearly that punishment of drug users is not working.  Therapy and rehab work far, far better than prisons.  I served as president of the board of directors of a drug-alcohol addiction program for offenders coming out of prison.  I know first-hand the failure of prison, and the positive results of counseling and rehab.

We Americans who hate taxes almost more than people anywhere in the world, always look to cut "welfare" costs.  Translation: that means cutting social service programs for the neediest among us.  Rarely do we look at cutting corporate welfare, and never take a hard look at the abundance of corporate welfare cheats.  And while the Pentagon and military aspects of the federal budget represent the largest slice, why do we rarely look to cut the waste and pork from the Pentagon budget?  We spend billions of dollars on programs that even the military says are unnecessary.  This is not a partisan political issue as both parties use pork as a means to feather their own nest and for money to get re-elected from corporations that make ungodly profits from war and war-related expenditures.

Instead of ONLY looking to "throw the bums out of office," why don't we insist that our current elected officials reach across the aisle in Congress, and see what can be done cooperatively to move the nation forward?  We have not only become a polarized nation, we have become viscious toward each other.  Why would we allow both parties to act out in such a way as to simply and only prevent the other party from achieving success on an issue ...ANY issue?  Difference of opinion is one thing, preventing matters from going forward only on the basis of partisan politics is another [and detrimental to America].

The United States of America has elected as President a man with mixed racial blood.  The very fact that the U.S. elected a man with this background, is saluted worldwide as an indication of the true democracy that America broadcasts.  The very fact that the U.S. elected a man from a poor economic background, raised by one parent, is from what is termed a "minority" background, and raised himself up by his bootstraps, is a gold star for this nation as it is recognized around the globe.  The fact that the U.S. elected a man as President of this country who does not come from a wealthy family or a family with strong political clout is something to be celebrated.  Let us all do so on this Fourth of July.

You are an American, I am an American; let us join hands.

It is time to experience a miracle.  Somehow we have to find a way to get the deluge of corporate money out of U.S. politics.  Corporations, especially war corporations and pharmaceuticals, have American politics in their hip pockets.  And their influence continues to grow.  You have been duped to think otherwise.  It crosses political party lines.  America is for sale, and much has already been sold.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court's conservative and right-wing majority clearly expressed itself politically with its decision on Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.  This decision lifted limits on corporate spending in the political process.  This action announced a fire sale of American politics.

It is absurd to say that labor unions and other community groupings also spend money in politics, so why shouldn't corporations be allowed to spend as much as they want also.  First, far more money is spent by corporations than all other influence groups.  More importantly, how many politicians quit politics and end up with posh jobs with labor unions?  None.  Over and over we see people exit politics to take a whopper of a salary with a corporation or corporate-related influence organization.  Political money by the truckload is available from corporations and other corporate front groups for politicians.  In fact, without this kind of money it is now difficult to even run for a national office unless one has oodles of his/her own money.  Without corporate money in your war chest, you are homeless.

What does this all mean?  For one thing, it means that the little guy and little gal get shafted in America.  Even well-intentioned social service funding ultimately ends up in some corporate pockets.

It means that the U.S. is far more likely to be trigger-happy when an international crisis arises.  Every war means billions and billions of dollars of profit for war corporations who have "purchased" their cadre of office-holders who do their bidding.  There is always a great deal of money available to convince the American people that war is the answer to all problems.  Americans are eager to criticize welfare spending for the poor, but reluctant to be equally critical of welfare for big corporations.  We have been sold a bill of goods.  And it is to our own detriment.

The results are clear as to what is happening with all this influence buying and election purchasing.  The United States is fast becoming a nation of haves and have-nots.  The American dream for more and more Americans has become a nightmare.  Corporations can now buy our entry into a profitable war.  Corporations can now ignore proper safety and precautions and dig mines and oil wells where they damn-well please, and how they damn-well please.  Federal regulators are for sale to the corporate bidders, whether they are American mining companies or foreign oil companies.  America is for sale.

It was interesting to note that all the comments to the previous post about America and Americans were without any humor.  There are many things about Americans that are humorous, and if you have done a great deal of international travel, you know about this.  We stumble our way around the world, assuming that the world should adjust to us.  And in the process reveal an ignorance that alarms others because we hold so much military and economic power and are using it more and more lately.  Nevertheless, I have some views from others about what consitutes America and Americans...

"The best blood will sometimes get into a fool or a misquito." -Austin O'Malley

"I don't have to look up my family tree, because I know that I'm the sap." -Fred Allen

"My folks didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they were there to meet the boat." -Will Rogers

"The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consumation." -Woodrow Wilson

"I don't know much about Americanism, but it's a damned good word with which to carry an election." -Warren G. Harding

"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them.  There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves." -John Wayne

"The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation." -William McKinley

"I confess that I cannot understand how we can plot, lie, cheat and commit murder abroad and remain humane, honorable, trustworthy and trusted at home." -Archibald Cox

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." -Thomas Jefferson

"America is the country where you buy a lifetime supply of aspirin for one dollar, and use it up in two weeks." -John Barrymore

"How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles!" -John Mason Brown

"This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money on books than we do on chewing gum." -Elbert Hubbard

"America is a land where a citizen will cross the ocean to fight for democracy -- and won't cross the street to vote in a national election." -Bill Vaughn

"At the moment the United States is the most powerful, the most prosperous, and the most dangerous country in the world." -Robert Maynard Hutchins

 "Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character: it is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent." -Theodore Roosevelt

"My rackets are run on strictly American lines and they're going to stay that way!" -Al Capone

 "Patriotism is not enough." -Edith Cavell

"With malice toward none, with charity for all ... let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds." -Abraham Lincoln

"Every man loves and admires his own country because it produced him." -Edward Bulwer-Lytton

"Human sovereignty transcends national sovereignty." -Lester B. Pearson

I've met Americans on the streets of just about every major American city, literally hundreds and hundreds of small towns and farms, in Canada, Mexico, Berlin, Russia, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, and on and on and on.  The miracle of America to me is that these people here and abroad represented a wide spectrum of beliefs, different opinions of politics, the length and breadth of ideas of internationalism, morals, ethics, rights, geography, beauty, art, philosophy,    My hope would be that we get over our tendency as individuals to want to regiment thought, and see people as us or "other." I hope I never limit my thinking about humanity by some geographic line.  There are wonderful people everywhere.  And that rainbow is what makes me proud to be a citizen of the world as well as the U.S.

Inasmuch as the readers of this blog seem to want to comment about what, to them, is America or who is an American, here is your chance to indicate the specifics you use in that regard.  Simply comment here and voice your opinion.  Be as specific as you can be.  Here are some guidelines, but use your own definitions...

What is an American?

How does an American differ from a European or Asian or African or Australian or South American?

There are some common definitions about who an American is that are often disputed.  Agree or not?

How do you disagree with some of the common uses of identifying an American?

Use commentaries, if you wish, related to race, religion, ethnicity, geography, status, parents, etc.

Should all Americans have equal access to the same things such as  health care, unemployment benefits, retirement benefits,  basic standard of living, home location, police protection, schools, fire protection, safety, human rights, dignity, etc.?

Which Americans should be given the power to declare war?

Here are some names that may jump-start your thoughts about what constitutes an American to you:

Muhammed Ali...Jeffrey Dahmer...Roberto Clemente...Anne Murray...Wayne Gretzky...David Beckham... Timothy McVeigh...Arnold Schwarzenegger...Albert Einstein...Werner von Braun...Shirhan-Sirhan...Lee Harvey Oswald...Jack Ruby...Mata Hari...Caesar Chavez...Ethel Rosenberg...John Wayne...Maurice Chevelier...Baron von Steuben...Barack Obama...Sarah Ferguson...Martina Navatralova...Estee Lauder...Peter Jennings...James Earl Ray...Mickey Mouse...Martin Luther King...Christopher Columbus...Norman Thomas...Bill Gates...David Duke...Pat Robertson...Jesse Helms...Charles Lindbergh...Henry Ford...Nathan Bedford Forrest...John Wilkes Booth...Sarah Palin...George Wallace...Father Coughlin...Jesse Helms...Aaron Burr...Sitting Bull...Betty Crocker...Jimmy Swaggart...Alfred Hitchcock...Golda Meir...Nicole Kidman...Stan Laurel...Paul Bunyan...Al Capone

Should all Americans be seen as "patriotic"?