1. De Tocqueville once described America as a state of mind. I agree. That is the America I and the much of the world grew up believing in; an idyllic land, built upon ideals of freedom, equality of man, liberty and justice for all, those high and illustrious ideals of The Republic, reflecting the highest hopes and dreams of the glory of man.

   But, as I grew older I found that these were the Emperor’s false robes; that they covered a reality which fell short, far, far short of the ideal, if not exactly the antithesis of those ideals.

   I am even more grievously outraged that America may have presented itself to the world as a defender and protector of man, when the richness of its false garments hid the jailor slaver. I now deplore and dislike what I see it has become, or has exposed itself for the “Raincoat Charlie” it has always been.

   The ugly nudity we see in America’s corpse today, is not the work of George Bush, the Republicans, nor the arrogant Americans, but is the product of its history. Neither is a root cause, they are but the effects of a long history. They are consequences.

   As a corpse, the obvious becomes apparent; this thing is not growing or developing; it is corrupting, and the stench is becoming unbearable.

   And, the fight we pursue, is it futile? Are we trying to beat life into a dead horse which never actually lived? Trying to beat a dream into reality? By doing so, are we perhaps forging what was a lovely and idyllic dream into a nightmare?

   How did it happen? How did the leaders of the “free world” become complicit in ethnic cleansing, murder and mayhem?

   I have no answers. Robert Parry, investigative reporter and author distinctly elucidates in a nutshell: “The United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of US benevolence, generally held by the public, and the other of ends-justify-the-means brutality sponsored by counterinsurgency specialists. Normally, the specialists carry out their actions in remote locations with little notice in the national press. That allows the public to sustain its faith in a just America, while hard-nosed security and economic interests are still protected in secret. ”

   Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift a Navy lawyer, not too long ago responded to a question by describing America in the same terms; an America undefined by racial, religious, ethnic or cultural circumstance, by geographic boundary, or cultural identity when he said; “America is a mix of every people in the world. …Our territory is not homogenous. What we are fixed by are our ideals. That’s basically what America is. We are a set of principles. If we lose sight of those principles, then we lose sight of America.”

   Might the ideal still be within the realm of achievability? I have my doubts. But, that is the way with ideals. And without them, we have nothing upon which to build hope.

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