How did we become a nation of frightened followers? Has the American state become so repressive and anti-progressive that we are all now doomed to live under irrational, invasive, public, TSA searches at airports and howling mobs at home as the boot of the national government crushes against our necks in the name of our own good safety?
Continue reading → The United States of Cowardice: Why We Cling to Authoritarianism
America is a country that loves to punish. We punish foreign nations. We discriminately punish our own. This week, The Economist rightfully flays the ongoing — and failed — notion of Wild West American Justice where the punishment rarely fits the crime.
What will happen to the United States — One Nation Under God — if we ever elected an atheist president — or would we be rendered asunder before that could ever happen? Is it possible for an atheist to win the highest office in the land where prayer and freedom of religion reign?
The USA is losing its immigrant mind! The landed have traditionally helped build America into what it is today: A great mosaic of thoughts, colors and dreams. Today, because of punishing politics and a shrinking world, Harvard University reports immigrants are returning to their homeland instead of building a better life in the USA. An entire generation of immigrants is giving up on their American Dream and I’m not sure if we can blame them for the departure.
When we get lost, the first place we look to find our way back home is a yearning glance over our shoulder. We turn back to discover the forward of where we’ve been and how we’ve come to be here. Sometimes we learn the lessons of the past. Sometimes we condemn our future by ignoring the warnings of a world gone awry in antiquity, and we pay for the sins of that dishonest disremembering by reliving the death and blood of our forefathers. In 1894, Henry Demarest Lloyd warned us in his incredible — Wealth Against Commonwealth — book that “Big Business” corrupts liberty and sets national agendas of death and killing for the almighty dollar. Over a hundred years later, we have yet to heed Lloyd’s warning as we sink deeper into an international depression of our own undoing.
Continue reading → Wealth Against Commonwealth and the Wrath of the Present Past
On June 22, 2008 — I read an interesting article in The New York Times claiming the sovereign state of Poland was, in fact, the 51st state of the United States.
I wonder what sort of tax rate the people of Poland will pay to help us bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
The current uproar over singing the American national anthem in Spanish instead of English is another cudgel against whipping the immigrant experience in the United States.
by Luis Vega
When visiting third world countries, people in America are for the most part going on vacation to a resort, or a retreat of some sort. It is rare that tourists will notice the large disparity between the rich people and the poor people. Since the island or country is so rich in beauty, it is quite simple to overlook the existent conditions that countless third world societies are weighed down by.
by Tammy Tillotson
Native Americans were here first. We took their land while generously doling out reservations for their people who survived to live on. Considering a moral sense of fairness, perhaps we now owe them some other form of reparation in order to exemplify a more universal concept of reciprocity. After all, the Native Americans were the ones who did us a favor. Shouldn’t we feel morally obligated to return the favor?
Reparation and Reciprocity
Reparation is compensation payable by a defeated nation for damages or loss caused during war. Federally recognized Indian tribes have the legal status of “defeated nations,” and the Federal government has legal responsibility to protect and promote their welfare. Since the Indian tribes classify as “defeated nations,” the issue arises whether or not they should be financially compensated for the great losses their people have suffered as a result of colonization.
The idea of monetary reparation is not a new concept, yet it partially stems from the notion that America is divided and is in need of healing. In an attempt to turn suffering into healing, money is the solution, which yields the reciprocity of fairness. Money can buy anything these days, and the notion is beyond absurd and appalling. Justice is not served by silencing voices, and money cannot buy or return dignity and self-respect.
If Native Americans were to accept any form of monetary reparation from the Federal government, it would simply undermine what self-respect they have suffered to successfully maintain. Accepting compensation would yield the idea that the debt has been paid in full, when, in fact, there is no possible way to repay Native Americans. It will simply make the Federal government happy in knowing that the Native Americans have been pacified, and they should have nothing else to complain about, when indeed they do.
Continue reading → Reparation for Native Americans: Another Trail of Tears
by María L. Trigos-Gilbert
Since the USA became an independent nation from the British Empire, many Latin Americans have seen the USA like a living alternative (from those days to the present time). Those living alternatives cover the political, social, and financial arenas. Many of the Latin Americans, who live in the USA, have considered their native nations’ obsolete and repressive systems toward the human right of living in dignity.
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