The Real Banana Republic

The detainee bill passed recently by Congress sends shivers down my spine. We’ve traded our torch of liberty for a beacon of hypocrisy. How are we ever going to climb back up this slippery slope? It’s too depressing to contemplate, as is the entire reign of Bush/Cheney. These people are deluded, corrupt, and criminal, greedy for power. The more I look the less I see the nation once known throughout the world as the great hope for mankind.

We’ve lost our mojo. We display all the characteristics of a banana republic: government corruption, election fraud, official incompetence, false religious fervor, and a yawning gap between rich and poor.

And now, like the best of the banana republics, we condone torture.

When will this madness end? If the country had an opposition party worth following I’d feel more confident that the bleeding might soon stop, but all we’ve got is a herd of callow wimps: Clinton, Biden, Kerry. None of these people has ever seen a principle they can’t wait to compromise.

The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. echo down from the mountain tops, through the valleys, all the way to the coast, calling good people out, chiding us for our cowardice in the face of outrage. Shame on us for turning our backs on what gave us such promise: freedom, equality of opportunity, justice for all.

Concerned citizens – and they must number in the millions – search in vain for an outlet for their anger. They might feel the urge to march in the streets but hold back for fear of marching alone. Intelligent voices are drowned out by the likes of Hannity and Limbaugh and O’Reilly, misinformation fills the airwaves, and the public is too dispirited to wade through the lies for a nugget of truth.

Immoral means can never lead to a moral end. In the name of preserving freedom we reserve the right to torture, and grant ourselves immunity from any consequences. In the name of security we reserve the right to shred and trample our fundamental values, invade other countries, and demand that the rest of the world remake itself in our image.

The high crimes and misdemeanors of the last five years will weigh like a millstone around our collective necks for years to come. Until someone can convince me otherwise, I remain more fearful of what we can do to ourselves than what can be done to us by outsiders.