The Last Word of 2002

By Roy D. Follendore III

December 25, 2002

N2K Issues has been publishing irregularly for two years now and it has certainly been an eventful two years. One might say that the World has changed but it is not true. We exist with exactly the same kinds of horrors and frustrations that have always existed but we just did not appreciate it. The agendas that some would have us think things are more desperate are not. The existence of mankind still hang by a thread, just as it always has. I suppose that is the theme of 2002. In accordance with all of the above, this is a critical essay about strange American attitudes, policies and events that we have witnessed throughout the year.

As children in the 1950's we were being told about the horror of the nuclear bomb and how it could be used to completely destroy our city. We were told that to protect ourselves we should cover our heads with our arms beneath our school desks. Even then I remember thinking how crazy the idea was, so I think that the teachers must have felt exactly the same way. Yet none of us could resist the power of society that forced us into the absurd practice. Someone had thought up the "duck and cover" plan as a critical part of our civil defense. It was probably just a substitute for doing nothing. It just made us feel like we are doing something. But even so, it was more than that. It was indoctrination in Americanism.

We were being taught to feel more "American" if we practiced getting into the position in which we would surely be incinerated if a thermonuclear war with the "Russia" began. None of us knew who that was or exactly what a hydrogen bomb would do to the planet. The Russians were simply the bad guys and we were the good guys. Good guys always win because that was the way it was on television. We also understood it from good authorities because Mothers and our school teachers told us so. We were impervious then. We could only be hurt if we didn't do what our teachers told us to do. Looking back we now know that a million other things were happening and there we were concentrating in elementary school on the end of the world.

Here we are coming up on the year 2003 and we have been seeing the end of the world again pushed on us in the news. As some in the news media seem to be still worried about "SUV" problem and skate boarders who have to wear helmets, our older generation of children in the National Guard and Reserves are being mass activated and shipping out to fight a war with Iraq. As our Government sets out to reorganize itself in the name of something called "homeland defense," we respond to our fear with rhetoric that our Nation intends to go to war with anything that can be remotely be described in terms of terror. The 1950's mentality came back in vogue. Earlier this year there was an Administration plan to tattle tale on our neighbors. Has that really gone away or has it just been repackaged? We ask ourselves, "What the hell are we doing?"

This year our leaders also came up with a brilliant public plan for America to create a department for overseas propaganda. Again, "Where has that program been reburied?" They came up with ways to track every email, every mouse click, and every financial action of every American. We agreed to this in the name of terrorism. We now are living safely in an empire designed by George Orwell. Everything you do or say can now be used in a court of law. In this century, you and everyone else are potential enemies of the State. Fingernail clippers and plastic picnic knives are now deemed to be potential tools for creating weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile we have news reports of Airline pilots who are flying drunk and we have seen special reports about Air Force pilots who bombed Canadians while high on speed. (They were ordered to take them.) We also hear that making a justifiably worried comment about the possibility of a pilot being sober is now considered a crime. (We are not supposed to say anything that is not pleasant on an aircraft because freedom of speech apparently does not exist in the air. Don't worry, it is just an exception.) The justification is the usual, "In this these times we have to be more careful about what we say....." "We have to give up our freedom for national security."

Kids have to give up their rights too... They are commonly tried as adults when it serves the States purpose. (This is yet another exception in the slippery slope.) A couple of kids skateboarding slope in a terminal have become enough to halt airline flights and get arrested instead of being shooed away. Maybe they too should they be tried as adults? A stray dog was shot dead on a runway this year by a security guard with a rifle because he "it might be a threat." The airport security guard decided on his own to shoot it dead instead of reporting the frightened animal to the human authorities and having it picked up. The fragments of the news can be pieced together into the absurdity in which our civilization has found itself. It is like the confetti on new years at midnight at Times Square. These things are just irrational parts of the big picture.

While all of these kinds of things were going on we find ourselves with the absurdity of losing control of our economy. The transportation industry has become a shambles. People do not want to fly with all of this foolishness and who can blame them. Airline flights of less than 400 miles are often not worth it because we can often get to our destinations just as fast by car. Who needs that hassle? Any more delays and you might as well drive if it is under 1000 miles. United Airlines went bankrupt because they lost so many customers. Delta is in the same shape.

Enron and its friends were found to have been fixing electrical rates. They turned off the electricity in California to jack up prices. WorldCom say they have "lost" billions of dollars. The books were being cooked at major companies by the big time auditors. We look at the executives and we think how greedy they all were. But the truth is that we all knew it when they were doing it. We just turned a blind eye. All the while millions and millions are continuing to be raked in by a phony snake oil preachers who pretends to heal sick and dying. Once again our FBI turns a blind eye. Where exactly is all of that money going anyway?

COPs is what Americans think law enforcement is all about. Bust down the door and slam the perps to the floor. After that everyone gets an "attaboy." But don't forget the car chase. LA recently had to stop the Police from chasing cars because of the deaths and injuries that were initiated from things like broken tail lights. There was a special helicopter in the air so they could be brought to television as entertainment.

To top of all of this, everyone is worried about clones. Some would have us believe that we should be more concerned about the horrible things that might happen to children conceived through cloning methods than those born through the tried and true sexual method. When a pink little clone baby arrives for us to see, cloning will not be much difference. On the other hand, how many unwanted sick AIDS and addicted kids will be born this year through the use of the "normal" method of a penis and vagina? Some people would rather spend money to protect a clump of bloody cells than to heal a sick child. They would put more "faith" into those same few cells than to provide the means for women with children to get off of welfare. They are attacking the rights of every woman in America to choose what happens to her body. We Americans tell ourselves we stand on high moral ground and yet America economically supports countries that prevent women from having even the most basic of human rights.

Why has this happened? Is it because we have a system where the minority can overrule the will of the majority? (The Presidential election was not decisive, as much as it was divisive.) Is this because the two party system that can bring rational conscience to our society has been splintered? Perhaps we simply bought the party line. By electing so called "compassionate conservatives," perhaps we have ignored the basic principles this great country was founded upon. By attacking the basic right to bear arms, the defeated party played into the right wing fear mongers and allowed American ideals to become divided. Because of this, we Americans seem to have walked away from the human rights issues. We seem to have walked away from ecology issues. We seem to have walked away from civil rights. We seem to have walked away from economic issues. We seem to have walked away from the idea of silently working through problems and taken on the idea of independently taking on all of the worlds problems.

Our Federal Government is costing us far more, as it is becoming more concentrated and efficient at providing far less to the public. It is more self serving and it continues to ask for more. No Federal Government official has been punished or reprimanded for allowing 911 to happen, even though they were repeatedly told it was bound to happen by their own experts. The administration is having a field day with power. Our President's brother just recently gave rights back to the former FBI agent that committed a felony by destroying documents to cover up Ruby Ridge. What was the message that was being sent to the agency? "What you did was illegal but you are really a stand-up guy? See what happens when you play ball?"

With the degree of secrecy we are seeing impressed by Government during this "war" there is frankly no telling how many Americans and foreign citizens are being held here in our country and offshore without benefit of attorneys and given secret trials. It is reported that they can be harassed 24 hours a day for information that they may or may not have. The little guys who are caught in a trap have little hope of a fair trial. They have to say something, anything. They could easily be turned over to foreign countries that condone the use of torture but share the resulting information. Apparently some have. They could easily be shot and never be heard from because for some, no one knows they were arrested. America does not know for a fact that some have not. Because of secrecy there is no public accountability, and that is exactly the dark place where atrocities are allowed to exist. That is a primary reason why 911 occurred. Secrecy was rampant between branches of the Government. There are many people in America who are afraid of their own Government.

The world has become afraid of America and when their leaders begin to debate the credibility of our actions we condemn them. They are forced to resign. We have become intolerant to criticism.

The trouble is that words like terrorism these days are coming to have even uglier multipurpose meanings. Like other words, we Americans like to define our terms the way that we choose at the moment. We have judiciously moved from condemnation of actions to condemnation of intent.

There are just too many things in the year 2002 that are downright terrible. America is expanding into the vacuum left by the Soviet Union and we are seeing a new America that is increasingly isolated by fear and secrecy. This is the most troubling aspect of where we are as a civilization. We have lost much of our calm and quite determination. We no longer question as we once did. We no longer put our faith into leaders who speak softly because we no longer are willing to listen to others.

America is a great nation and it is far more powerful than it ever has been. But regardless of what our Presidential leader might say in the state of the upcoming union message, it is not as strong as it once was. We are just not seeing the great debate that we need to remain strong. In 2002 Americans have been hiding in the shade of nationalism. True American strength begins to exist when an honest plural debate on issues takes place openly. Those who would say that we do not need these reminders are completely satisfied with the idea that America is at last taking the war to our enemies. They are all too willing to give up your freedom and mine. It does not matter who is defined as the "enemy."

But these people can only do this if you and I allow them to do this and we do not speak our minds. If you think the events taking place around you are irrational and dangerous then you are obligated to speak out to your friends. Good people remain silent in every country without freedom. America going to war is no excuse for remaining silent. War is not rational and it is not surgical. War is just another pitiful excuse for bad diplomacy.

In the year 2003, you and I must be willing to give peace a chance if you believe in peace. You must be willing to take the time to convince others why war is not productive. We should be willing to write to others about the things that you feel are unacceptable. This is the way that a strong new consensus for American is created. I don't ask you to agree with a single word in this essay or, for that matter, on this website. You are not required by any measure to visit this website if you don't like what you have read here. Read other websites if what I say does not turn you on. My words are simply one in billions of others being communicated. Being tolerant of the opinions of others is what America is founded upon.

I simply urge you to support America in 2003, by calling your friends and neighbors. Talk to your town officials. Talk with your clergy. Talk with your children. Write your Congressmen and Congresswomen. Get active on legitimate Internet talk groups. Start now to participate in the next Presidential elections. Find out what others think and why. Step out of your shell and be known. Step out of the brainless media propaganda we find ourselves in and discuss the problems as well as the issues.

Remember being open to ideas that may be different from yours is not a liberal or conservative concept. It is a rational concept.

Happy New Year America!

May America choose the best path for justice, tolerance, freedom and peace.

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