An apology on behalf of Americans [Archives:2002/49/Focus]
YANA HYLTON
[email protected]
How I wish that I could apologize for all Americans, but I cannot. I have found in this last year who I truly believe are friends and those whom I can no longer morally bring close to my heart.
This is a great sorrow for me. I am a reformed person, you see. I voted for President Bush. I thought that he was as he claimed a true Christian. Look what my vote, and many like mine, have wrought upon the world and especially on the peoples of the Middle East. I fear this is only the beginning.
I fear that the day is coming when there isn’t a nation on this planet that won’t dread the name of our president. I wish I weren’t saying this. I was raised a Republican. My whole family is Republican. We hardly can speak to each other anymore because I find their views so hostile, so ugly that I can’t help but become angered with them all. They don’t understand this. They think I have lost my mind.
They can’t wait to wage war and show how glorious America is – how America stands for democracy and freedom. They have been so brainwashed by our media that they truly believe that waging war can accomplish their ends. I cry daily.
I have less reason to cry than most on this planet in physical terms. I know this. I do not suffer physically at all. I am lucky. I was born here in America. Not in a poor country or a struggling country or a besieged country.
And yet, I feel that in some ways, I have more to cry about. My country has so much to give and doesn’t. We, here in America, could change the planet tomorrow if those of us with the most wealth would just do so. If most Americans would demand a stop to the self-righteous hypocrisy and say,
“We want to stand for democracy and freedom!” “We want democracy and freedom for all!”
But, unfortunately, most Americans don’t know what this means. We don’t know that our government has long been in the business of suppressing democracy and freedom for economic gains. Americans don’t know that the feelings that our government deliberately instills in them are those that are racist and self-promoting. We are taught our lives are worth more than yours. Perhaps this is true in many countries. I am sure that it is. But we are the richest nation on the planet, bar none. We are the strongest. We truly do have an obligation to the world. But it isn’t one of dictatorial mandates and war.
It is one of peace. No country has had the power the US has today since the Roman Empire. We can do what they did and self-destruct from hatred and greed. Or we can take the post Jesus route and love our neighbors as ourselves.
Which includes America believing that every child killed on this planet has the value of an American child…no more and no less. Until we can see that all children, all people are of equal value, than all is no avail. Nothing I say or you say or anyone says will change the ugly course of history. It is sad that most churches in America espouse what I am saying here and yet so few Americans actually hear their ministers talking to them.
I am sorry. I am in despair because my votes, my letters to Congress, to the president (and those from my friends who agree with me) go unnoticed. There are many here who want to reach out in peace and friendship – but not as many who are waving flags who believe that there is some glory in killing other country’s children.
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