The !0 Most Disgraceful American Actions
I am not one to be much of a purist when it comes to religion or politics. These are human endeavors and as such depend on culture, location, history, leadership, and luck. I tend to look with disdain on religious fervor and blind patriotism. If you 'love' your country you openly and steadfastly criticize bad policies. It is precisely because you are biased toward your own country that you defend her when right and criticize her when wrong. You don't support bad politics at home or soldiers in a bad war abroad. If a war is bad the only proper support for your troops is to demand they be brought home out of harm's way. If you believe deeply in God then reasoned ethics always trumps inherited sectarian dogma. The United States is a little over 200 years old, a mere blip in the history of human civilization. I think America has contributed more to the most rapid change in human lifestyles, behaviors, and mechanized living than any country in human history. Just in my lifetime changes in living standards, human behavior, human rights, and healthy living has been absolutely amazing. It is truly and, ironically true, that these are the best of times and the worst of times. What a grand party for me the times I have lived in have been!!!!!!! Yet, from all directions the ominous signs are everywhere that this may well be one of those "turn out the lights, the party's over" points in evolution. Human overpopulation and all the subsequent consequences are descending on us from all sides. For us to truly accept this is simply horrific to ingest. If one is my age you shrug, "whatever will be will be". Evolution goes on, in what form, under what conditions, and with what species is beyond human prediction. IF God created the evolutionary process and all the laws which control the process THEN God Himself, short personal intervention, doesn't know the future either. After all, the evolutionary process is controlled by chance, environment, and survival of the fittest. Of course God is personally involved with the welfare of you and I in this process. Well, maybe not you. This is our favorite delusion.
At any rate, the accomplishments of America the last 200 years are many and noteworthy. But it takes blind arrogance and patriotism to defend all American actions. I have witnessed and experienced some really good acts by America in my lifetime AND I have also witnessed some pretty sad and shameful acts. Here I am listing the top 10 most disgraceful actions by my country in my lifetime. There is no order to the list.
1. The Vietnam War----I am not sure for what reason any country is justified in killing 2 million citizens of another country or sacrifice 40,000 young people of it's own to accomplish such a slaughter. But this is exactly what we did for no other reason than we didn't like Communism. But the shame doesn't stop with government. Neither do I understand how any American, including myself, could ever have endorsed that war. I was a graduate student at the time, certainly 'educated' enough to see the immorality of that war. But Barry Goldwater didn't and I didn't and neither did a vast majority of Americans. It was bombs away while we proudly pulverized the poor little country with bombs and chemicals. Both Barry and I, and most Americans eventually, in varying degrees, came to see that war as wrong, but the mystery is, how did we ever see it as right? It was patriotism, pure damn mindless patriotism. Support the troops, send more, cheer them on, kill all the ignorant backward natives. I now find it mind boggling that I was an accomplice to such an affair, maybe much the same as Germans felt when they were accomplices to killing 2 million Jews.
It was heartening to recently read that 35 years after the end of the war, which the Vietnamese won, that the Vietnamese people are optimistic about their future. In fact, their optimism exceeds by far the optimism of Americans. They have a single party Communist government. I could never be a Communist but I also feel every nation is free to adopt it's own form of government. Success or failure of any political system is probably as related to the kind of leaders in the system as to the system itself. Before retirement I always appreciated bosses who let me achieve goals my way, not somebody else's way. The best boss was someone who would tell others with notions of how I should run something, "Let him do it his way. I don't understand half of the ways he utilizes, but he gets results. Let him be." And I feel the same way about other countries and other people. Live and let live. Back to Vietnam: In a recent poll of it's citizens 85% said their economy was stronger than 5 years ago. 81% said the country was moving in the right direction. You don't get those kind of results polling Americans. Maybe we should bomb them again for living their way instead of our way, and punish them for their optimism. Vietnam and Terrell Owens used the same tactic to achieve success----one from centuries of being ruled by foreigners and one from the oppression of ghetto life. I am highly pleased both succeeded against such odds.
2. The Domestic and International War on Drugs.---This misguided and cruel approach to misuse of recreational drugs is beyond the pale. The federal government spends $17 billion per year directly from it's budget. If you add state expenditures, the costs per year of keeping 22%-33% of our prisoners in jail for drug convictions, the welfare costs of disrupted families, the social service costs of dysfunctional families living in the midst of this Drug War, the foreign aid to countries for the express purpose of fighting drug production, and the cost of the police and correctional officers to find, prosecute, and keep jailed drug abusers----well, you are well over 100 billion per year. And exactly what have been the benefits? Is this country, compared for example, to European countries, free from abuse of recreational drugs? The answer continues to be no. We have a slightly less percentage of people using marijuana and a substantial higher percentage of alcoholics. The other drugs are about the same. Every serious commission to have ever studied the problem have all recommended decriminalization of recreational drug use and treatment for those with a problem. In our country, to our shame, if you are affluent the problem is treated as a medical problem; if you are poor you are treated as a criminal and jailed. There are few exceptions to this. People abuse recreational drugs because they have mental, emotional, social, or stress problems of some sort. In all cases the person is trying to change the way they feel. That hardly makes them criminals in the common use of the term---it makes them in need of help with their lives. Let's be honest. We don't have the money to spend the same amount of money to educate all children, we don't have money for all people to have good health care, we don't have money to finance modern transportation systems, etc. BECAUSE we spend our money on Wars abroad and the War on Drugs at home. It is just shameful. And why does this police War on Drugs still exist? It is the favorite scare tactic of politicians. The longer a politician vows to lock up drug users and pushers, the more votes they get. Even worse, we spend so much money on this Drug War and Foreign Wars, including hundreds of military bases across the globe (the only country that feels a need to do this), that if we stopped this on a dime, our entire economy would collapse. We are not all that competitive anymore in producing very many things except military hardware and police/soldiers. When politicians say we can't afford to protect the environment or clean up pollution they are right if we insist on giving the priority to military and drug war adventures.
3. The accumulation of 90% of the wealth in this country into the hands of 3-5% of our population----This is less a criticism of democracy as it is lack of democracy. Lobbyist's have taken control over all three branches of government. Obama is probably a rare success story of the people---and this might not last long. The lobbyists, especially the corporate lobbyists, where the big money really is, will sponsor their own people's 'party' with Sarah Palin and other such Bush-like puppets to pose as people's candidates. The weakness in democracy today is that the issues are very complex, past the pay grade of most of us on most issues, and the techniques of propaganda so refined and so effective that the worst of anything can be made to look like the best. In many elections less than half the people eligible to vote actually vote. Obama got through to the people once and got enough to vote, but this may have been a one shot phenomenon. No society in history has ever survived our current one sided distribution of wealth. Between lopsided distribution of wealth and expensive foreign 'empires' of one sort or another, many strong empires have collapsed. What is happening to the 'little people' in our country is cruel, and happening all in the name of monetary greed on the part of those of us more affluent.
4. The unequal expenditure of money to educate all children. The kind of environment and schools many of our urban, rural, and suburban kids attend are an absolute disgrace. Some of it has been produced by the notorious War on Drugs, but there are other reasons too. More and more countries are now out performing our own kids on standardized tests, but we, as usual, don't budge. To give all kids an equal and quality education is considered a form of socialism. All we have to do is holler communism, socialism, private enterprise, family values, and other such tripe, and it often kills the best of policies. Where I grew up all kids went to the same schools and all the schools were staffed with good teachers. Even then it was difficult for kids from poor neighborhoods to compete. Now it is simply hopeless with precious few exceptions. Most of the affluent today would never consider being anywheres near an urban or rural ghetto let alone send their kids to one of their schools. There can only be one ethical stance on education: every child has the right to have the same amount of public money spent on his/her education. When I grew up the poorest of the poor lived a few blocks from downtown where we all shopped. All the poorest children were right in the same schools as the rest of us. It never entered our minds that we might go to school and be shot. You could leave your house with your friends and your mother merely reminded you to be home by supper time. We even hitch-hiked sometimes to get from here to there. We learned to organize our own games, we were often so bored that we were forced to be creative. We had no computers to amuse us, we had to spend our youth figuring out how to tolerate and get along with others. There was no exaggerated 'family values' mentality to force us to circle the wagon around out own families and wall ourselves off from others. A lot of us laugh at Hilliary and her 'it takes a village to raise a child' but back then it really did. Today it probably still does, but the 'Village' often no longer exists.
5. Reproductive Irresponsibility
This is not unique to the United States. Overpopulation has always been a potential problem for certain species in God's created evolutionary process. It sometimes happens, it is dealt with, the correction imposed by the laws of evolution are harsh, and depending on the intelligence of the affected species, cruel. Humans have the abstract intelligence to practice, or at least enforce, responsible reproduction. Some use their innate intelligence to practice it, but the vast majority do not. Often via encouragement from religious dogma, many insist they they have the right to procreate as often as they want whenever they want. It is not the kind of sexual acts engaged in by consenting adults which needs ethical attention, but the procreative lifestyle. It is not life in any form or fashion which need be the ethical focus, but the quality of life.
Overpopulation needs to be defined in terms of whether there are enough natural resources available for all humans to live an affluent life. Affluent meaning food, shelter, arable land, health care, clean water, absence of pollution, good schools, modern transportation, etc. There are valid reasons not to get pregnant, to limit the number of children via birth control, to have an abortion, to not turn one's back on any young offspring. The need for population control may vary from one region to another but the reasons dictating such a need are the same everywhere. The goal is self evident---for every child to have the opportunity for a quality life. Any idiot with functioning sexual organs and sex drive can generate children. To function in this manner is not any imagined right, but an ethical shortcoming. Family planning is not really a choice but an obligation.
God's evolutionary process has given us the potential for a wonderful, unique, natural and good life. But it has to be properly cherished and protected. To practice responsible reproduction, by choice or law, is necessary for all to have their freedom, for all to have happiness, for all to 'feel the sun and smell the flowers and look upon each other with appreciation'.
If anything is logically clear today it is that there are no longer enough natural resources for all humans on our globe to live the kind of affluent life many of us live. In terms of raw numbers, never in the history of human existence, have there been so many humans living lives of abject misery and poverty. It is an absolute disgrace to human potential. Mother nature is about to deal with this. We have spread over the globe like locusts, devouring everything in sight. The correction will not be pretty, mild, or the future consequences predictable. If history is any guide, the evolutionary process will go on, and progress achieved in the long haul. I pity all those caught in the turmoil about to descend upon the human species. Many other species have already been driven to extinction by human activity. I doubt humans will become extinct but it is way past my pay grade to imagine what evolves from humans. There has never been a species yet which has been the end point of evolution. We of course, as is our nature, think we really are the end point and each of us a precious protected favorite of an invented religious deity molded along the lines with which we perceive God.
6. Public Transportation
It seems so disappointing that the country which invented the airplane, the car, the steam engine, all kinds of ships is now second class to many industrialized countries when it comes to public transportation. There is virtually no high speed rail, Amtrak is all but nonexistent, our urban commuter rail system old, dirty, and grungy looking, with the fares high and service poor. I get embarrassed when l see pictures of modern subway stations, modern bus systems, etc. of other countries. When it comes to transportation we are a nation least concerned with quality, with efficiency, with appearance, with providing low cost mass transit for the poor, and with low pollution vehicles. It is not that we lack the technology but our priorities have shifted. Now the splendor is all pretty much in military contraptions of varied sorts. We have smart bombs, smart missiles, all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, massive military ships, planes, tanks, and the more sophisticated and destructive we make all these contraptions, the least good they are to us in modern day conflicts. The U.S. could, if we wanted, have the best, most efficient, most affordable public transportation in the world. But sadly, we just aren't interested.
7. Massive military industrial complex.
For most of our history we avoided conflicts outside North and South America. Our goal was not to get involved in other countries' conflicts, internal or external. But humanitarian reasons goaded us into World War I and World War II. It is always said war is hell but humans have never let that reduce their interest in using war to achieve political, religious, or economic agendas. No reasonable person argues a country should not be capable of defending themselves from external invasions. But we have gone so far overboard with this rationale as to be absolutely absurd. There is no country on the globe whicj remotely thinks they could invade the U.S. and conquer us. We have gone way past considering defense of our country from invading forces and moved to invasive technologies used to invade other sovereign nations. We are the only country which builds military bases all over the globe, and have the dubious distinction of spending more on military matters than all the other major powers combined. What is one to make of this madness and what is driving it? Exactly who appointed us policemen of the world? Who declared us to be the 'decider' of what kind of government or religion other nations have? What ever happened to live and let live? What gives the United States the right, let alone the obligation, to invade other countries in order to side with this or that side of a domestic political or religious internal conflict? We have killed more citizens of more sovereign countries than any other major power on the globe (excluding World War I and World War II and the Balkan War). Add to this the millions of refugees, widows, and orphans and it is no wonder all global polls show America is considered the greatest threat to world peace. With a massive military industrial complex and a voluntary army eager to to do their thing, military conflicts are instigated, if necessary. Violence, as the answer to conflict isn't restricted to foreign battles but permeates domestic conflicts as well. Our answer to domestic security is gun ownership. If we just all buy guns and carry them around in public we will be safe. Better yet build an energy efficient Sherman tank to get us each around in public. We can stonewall this fact, but the truth remains: violence begets violence. We have as much chance turning off violence in Afghanistan or Iraq as we have in our own urban ghettoes. Violence, pushed by overpopulation, has become a mind set, an accepted lifestyle mixed often with religious fervor to sustain it. Obama's mentality of tolerance, sacrifice, and and a very plural "we" is both absolutely right and yet mostly irrelevant to a national mind set firmly entrenched by decades of misguided selfish ways of addressing problems. There is little "WE" in most of the hot button issues.
8. Immigration
Control over a nation's borders and citizenship requirements are every nation's obligation. For decades we have not met these obligations. We have not patrolled or controlled our borders, in part because we are always busy patrolling and trying to control other countries. We have not had much money for basic obligations to our own citizens in quite some time. We also have made no serious attempt to monitor citizenship because we liked the cheap labor and we don't like the government to require citizenship cards or whatever it takes to know who is who. Decades passed and suddenly, like half brained dimwits, we realize illegal citizens are everywhere. Of course it is all THEIR fault for trying to seek a better life for themselves, even if it means working at less than minimum wage. It is like setting out a cookie jar with the lid off in plain view of your kids and then later, in a rage, beating the crap out of them for eating all the cookies when you had said not to eat the cookies unless permission was granted.
Immigration control, at this point in time, requires the borders to be sealed, employment only on proof of citizenship, and citizenship pathways for those already here illegally. It is the only fair way. To punish others by destroying their lives because of our own stupidity and greed is hardly ethical.
9.Government by lobbyists.
Democracy is a tricky word and means different things to different people at different times. Democracy can be a blessing or a useless excuse for mob rule---class wise or religious wise or ethnic wise. 'Majority rules' has that nice sound to it UNLESS you are one of those in some kind of disliked minority. Haiti could have the cleanest elections and elections is which every single person voted and every problem making them poor would still exist. Democracy doesn't correct over population and not enough natural resources to maintain a decent living for all citizens. In this country often less than half the people vote. That makes it a non democracy by definition. George Bush got elected by less than 25% of citizens eligible to vote. Obama got elected by getting more people to vote. Obama will likely get defeated next time because he could not find a quick fix for decades of economic exploitation. Sarahpalinites might get elected, reinstall even worse economic policies than Bush and not only fail to right a tilting cart but overturn the cart completely. I personally doubt the cart can be righted. It is bound to overturn---the question is only how soon, and how much chaos will result.
I am not sure how anyone governs a population which supports military invasions but doesn't want to pay for them, supports conflicts but not if they might be subject to being drafted, insists on tax cuts, wants their own religious values to be the law of the land, is really hesitant about regulating private industries of any sort, wants the latest and most expensive health care known but doesn't want to pay a lot for health care, could care less about education, health care, transportation, wage levels, and housing for the poor as long as they can have a life of material luxury themselves. But the game is up. The rich demand to be even richer but there is little left to extract from the poor, more and more of the middle class are slipping into the ranks of the poor, and this recession therefore is not going to end. Lobbyists for the rich and/or powerful, have control over all three branches of government---indirectly behind the scenes and have the money to literally prey upon the various prejudices of citizens to keep them in line. As long as lobbyists can pit one group against another on hot button issues that are emotional more than rational, their power can be maintained. Guns, abortion, prayers on schools, unregulated free enterprise, drug use penalties, national security, war on terrorism etc are all used as buzz words to demonize anyone attempting to limit the accumulation of wealth in the hands of so few. Money talks and lobbyists have the money.
10. Professional Sports
I am one inclined to believe National Major Professional Sports belong to the people. I think all economic classes of people should be able to afford, and have an opportunity, to attend some games. I think cities, directly or indirectly, should own or control those professional teams who play within their jurisdiction. I think these cities should receive some of the lucrative profits from major sports to help those living in urban areas to have better transportation and education. I also think these corporate monopolies, whoever owns them, should have some of the strictest regulatory mechanisms in place. Having wealthy individuals own the teams in major sports with little or no regulation ensures the people and the cities in which they play get financially fleeced at every stage.
In earlier times the owners were singular in their power. They did as they pleased. Both players, cities, and fans were at their mercy. They could even keep certain ethnic groups from being players. The players eventually wised up, became a collective force and formed a players union. Now the owners and players do as they damn please and the cities and fans are still abused, financially and otherwise. Logic would seem to dictate the fans and cities would become a collective force and form a fans union. But it just never happens.
People complain ad nausea about player salaries, about cities being blackmailed into building teams a new stadium off the tax payers backs, about players moving around so much that each season there is often almost a totally new roster. To pay for out-of-sight salaries ticket prices have gone through the ceiling, corporations buy up a good portion of the tickets, some games can only be watched on cable TV, and all games broadcast are filled with endless commercials in order to help pay the exorbitant salaries at all levels. The media holds up these daffy, sometimes senile, sometimes rich only through inheritance owners, as kind, lovable, wise and honest benevolent caretakers of our national sport teams. Of course the media do, try doing otherwise and see what kind of contracts your employer gets from the league to broadcast games etc.
Like the War on Drugs the public remains intractable on change. Fuss, fuss, fuss, and yet insist nothing change. This is the way it has been, and by golly, this means it is the way it ought to be forever. The players and owners remind us professional sports is a business and the financial bottom line is the King. Both players and owners are powerful enough that they can force the other to meet their demands and the public ends up paying.
Congress has the power to regulate any monopoly, instead they make major sports exempt. What a crock of bullshit. If anything needs strict regulation it is national sports. When any issue gets bargained, the fans, the cities, the players, and the owners should all be at the table and all need agree for any issue to be resolved. Most fans cling to the notion that teams are seeped in teamwork, team spirit, role models for kids. Hardly the case at all. Everything is scripted by the league to project a particular image while the reality is firmly rooted in the financial bottom line for owners and players. These are highly talented athletes and most of them do their very best because their financial status depends on it, PERIOD. The financial gain is so great that talent recognized back in junior high school is often pampered and spoiled from that age on. Any player who refuses or is emotionally incapable of following the prescribed script is crucified by the media and league. Criminal behavior of most sorts is tolerated, forgiven, and fostered by the whole atmosphere of protect winning at all costs while at the same time protecting the league created image of sports. Individuality is rejected, every player is expected to stick to a script, protect the image, mouth the same cliches about teamwork, look humble, etc. Those best at it become icons, if they the have the talent to match, and their income from salary and endorsements can become higher than the rest of the team put together. This orchestrated image is so tightly controlled and manipulated by the league that most players communicate in public like parrots. Interestingly, players as a group have become powerful enough that they are beginning to control sports themselves. Coaches are becoming babysitters. Good players have security guards, publicists, their own trainers, agents, money managers, and often a gang like posse which operate as some sort of mafia--refined or thuggish---to protect the interests of their 'boy'.
I personally have given up on rooting for teams. These are simply hired guns for the year, in some sports the contract can be torn up at any time, and individual stats will determine the financial status of every player. Players are not retained because they are good teammates, they are retained because they generate good stats. Now I simply try to find some player or coach whose personality, background, ability, or demeanor is unique and interesting and root for them. But this is getting harder.
IF major sport professional teams are national sport endeavors considered responsible to the nation a a whole, then all parties should be involved in collective decision making. That includes owners (I prefer the cities own the teams, but whomever), the players, the fans, the cities, all be included at any bargaining table and all be forced to agree on major decisions. This is the only way integrity of these sports can be achieved and speak to the need of all involved.
Footnote: There are more good things the United States has done than bad, by a long shot, especially relative to most other countries. It is the nature of the times which dictates a focus like this on our worst actions. If we are too stubborn or powerless to change, if the limits of human nature at this point in God's created evolutionary process are too great, then Mother Nature will usher in some sort of 'corrective' age, like it always has, even if the correction takes hundreds of thousands of years, and---as I always am reminded----We Go, Time stays.
