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CounterPunch
February
11, 2003
Time for a Third
American Revolution?
We Want Our Country Back
by GORDON SOLBERG
Like millions of other Americans, I have become
deeply concerned by the direction our country has taken in recent
years. Once the global beacon of freedom, America has become
a belligerent, warmongering, incipient police state. The Second
American Revolution is just about over. It took more than 50
years -- since the end of World War 2 -- for this transformation
of our country to take place, and I suppose it's been worth it
for the minority who are reaping the benefits.
For the rest of us, here's what our country
now looks like (and this is only a partial list):
A country where our former Constitutional
protections now depend on the whim of the regime in power.
A country where all the "systems"
are in deep trouble: the health care system, the educational
system, the legal system, the grotesque prison system... it's
amazing any of them work at all.
An economy that is on the verge of collapse.
When you combine recession, vastly increased military spending,
record budget deficits, record consumer debt, and yet more tax
breaks for the wealthy, we can count on a major economic crisis
before long. But this might be the only way to awaken Americans
from their complacent slumber.
Then there's the breakdown of civility
-- lack of civic involvement (both participation and voting),
corrupt government run by lobbyists, criminal CEOs who remain
unpunished, hate radio/TV. Our country has become contaminated
with the viruses of hatred and corruption. The concept of the
common good has been overwhelmed by corporate and government
propaganda.
And then of course there's the environment.
Americans insist on destroying the only life support system we
will ever have. We don't realize how fragile the web of life
really is. Consider: if we shrank the Earth to the size of an
orange (3"), the atmosphere would be only 1/10 of a millimeter
thick! That's less than 4/1000 of an inch. It's this thin film
of air that allows us to exist in the first place, and yet we
now have an administration that is not only eliminating clean
air standards, but is methodically dismantling our entire environmental
infrastructure.
The polar caps are melting before our
eyes. The rainforests are being cut down at the rate of one acre
per second. If present trends continue, we are guaranteed a devastated
planet, and Mother Nature will be punching the reset button on
the whole human experiment.
This country is now controlled by an
administration which seems to change any situation -- be it Iraq,
the economy, the environment, you name it -- into a worst-case
scenario. There seems to be an apocalyptic mindset at work here.
Or you could call it madness.
The coming annihilation blitzkrieg massacre
against Iraq can hardly be called "war" in any traditional
sense. On a good day I hope that somehow the American people
will come to their senses, despite their constant diet of war
TV.
On a bad day I'm convinced that we have
already passed the point of no return, and that the American
Empire can only ratchet in one direction -- towards more decadence
and destruction.
But then I remember the example of Mother
Theresa, who, even though she lacked the power to change the
overall situation, did the right thing anyway. She never gave
up; she worked every day to make the world a better place. Her
example can inspire and empower us.
In the words of Martin Luther King, "This
hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists.
The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through
the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through
the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority."
We have reached a cusp point in history.
Earth really is in the balance. You don't need a weatherman to
see which way the wind blows. What we need now is nothing less
than a Third American Revolution. A peaceful revolution to be
sure, but a revolution nonetheless. We want our country back.
The forces of the status quo have a death grip on this nation,
and turning things around will be the most difficult thing we
have ever done. But for those of us who believe that America
should once again stand for peace, freedom, and democracy, do
we really have any choice?
Gordon Solberg
is a beekeeper who lives near Radium Springs, NM. He can be contacted
at earth@zianet.com. Website:
www.zianet.com/earth
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