MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

BuzzFlash,

"Bombs bursting in air." Words taken from out of own national anthem, and that's what I thought of five years ago when listening to US bombs bursting over Baghdad. Even over the airwaves, the sound was more real and frightening than any movie producers could ever pull off, because we knew it was real, and it was happening to people who had done nothing to this country. Nothing! Innocent people.

How many of us Americans thought about the people being killed during that hubristic Hollywood-type replay of "Shock and Awe," by our Bush GOP White House? To this day, Bush/Cheney still think their lying this country into attacking Iraq was simply "awesome." They talk about it as if the killing and displacement of millions of innocent people were an Iraqi problem.

Of course, had the real evidence proved that Saddam, in fact, did have WMD and was able to use them, I personally, have no doubt that the Bush GOP would never have invaded Iraq. 

Why? Because they wanted what the first invasion of Iraq under Bush number one had ... a small number of American deaths, no matter about the thousands of Iraqis who were killed during that war, as if any of the Iraqi or American deaths did not matter. But the deaths didn't stop there.

The Iraqi people suffered food and medical shortages through US sanctions, and ten years of bombings that have been the cause of many children's deaths and birth defects due to depleted uranium. After all of that indiscriminate slaughter, the violence by the Bush GOP US military continues to this day. 

As most Americans know, "bombs bursting in air" are the words in a poem written by Francis Scott Key, while he was being held by the British as they bombarded Ft. McHenry with 1,800 bombs during the War of 1812, but, as the words go, "our flag was still there." This poem became our National Anthem many years later, 1931. Through the years, it had been put to music that was popular in London and first heard as early as 1775.

And in the same way that most people feel about the country they were born and raised in, the Iraqis will fight and kill until the US leaves their country. But with any government that is led with violence, George Bush fears no accountability for this violence, and so, instead of looking for a way out (just leave), this occupation will continue until every Iraqi is displaced or dead, and in the eyes of a Bush GOP government and saluting big guy media, that is called "winning." 

The only way we Americans can have a government that reflects our true values in a working democracy will be to select those who believe in nonviolent approaches to conflicts and practice them through their votes.

The second most important thing we can do is to change our educational system. Violence and prejudices are passed down through leadership, whether it be in government, media, churches, schools, or within our own families.

Protect our young minds. It might seem unbelievable to some, but under a paragraph heading "Intellectual Espionage," "Everything You Know Is Wrong" Edited by Russ Kick, 2002, (Paraphrasing): At the beginning of WWII, eighteen million men were tested, mostly schooled in the 30's: 96 percent literacy rate, with a 2 percent fall off from ten years before who had a 98 percent rate. By 1940, the literacy figure for all states stood at 96 percent for whites, and 80 percent for blacks, even with all of the disadvantages blacks labored under, four of five were still literate.

These figures are taken from an article written by John Taylor Gatto, "Some Lessons From the Underground History of American Education." John Taylor Gatto was the New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991, and has been named such three times.

We Americans are told by our government how great our educational system is, however, this progression has been a regression down through the years until six decades later, (figures taken from the same article), at the end of the twentieth century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks and 17 percent of whites can't read at all. Black illiteracy doubled, and white illiteracy quadrupled. And, the article goes on to say that we Americans spend three to four times more on education than we did 60 years ago.

According to Collier's Encyclopedia ... During the War of 1812, the number of US citizens serving was 236,730, and deaths from that war were 2,260. Wounded, but not mortally, 4,505. Today, our US military gimmicks the figures, and we Americans will never know the true casualties until our government is cleaned up and made accountable.

Thousands of Americans die every year from war, guns, hospitals, auto accidents, faulty food and medicines, etc. We Americans don't think about those deaths, and we should not only think about them, but do something about them.

The real shock and awe started years ago against we American citizens and is still happening throughout this country by a US government that is clearly out of control ... nothing but, debt, death, and destruction. What's there to celebrate? When we have leaders who walk around joking, doing jigs, singing, and telling us what a success we are ... and, everyone likes to hear compliments don't they? But, for every American who has a conscience, we know that we are not a success until our government leads with honesty, responsible conversations, negotiations ... food for the mind and the bodies of those who are incarcerated around the world, whether it be through political prisons or prisons of poverty, including those in our own country.

History does repeat itself in many different ways. In the War of 1812, the British were using violence and bombing the US. Today, the US has the largest stash of WMD in the world. We've seen the growth of our own violence, and along with that, the growth of our illiteracy. Until we Americans make big changes, a real respect for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ... our way of life will be denigrated down to the fizzles we witness on every Fourth of July.

Today reminds me of another book that I feel says what we should be feeling today, "Sorry Everybody." Forward by Ted Rall, 2005. This was a book of the pictures of many of our fellow Americans apologizing to the world for George Bush's second term. 

How do we Americans square this crime committed by our own government with the rest of the world ... with the Iraqi people? We can't, but we can try. The least we can do is see to it that everyone responsible for the carnage against the Iraqi people is made accountable, to the fullest degree of our law.

Take the violence out of our own society. Change our government. It all filters down, especially through our education, our big guy media. Violence does not solve problems, it just "brings them on."

What would Francis Scott Key write about today, I wonder?

Thanks BuzzFlash,

Shirley Smith

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

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