BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES  

Disillusioned and Saddened by my Country

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Deborah Minchew Owen

I sit here tonight, coming home from my shop, reading and looking at articles on BUZZFLASH, one of the only places that tells the truth, and I find myself with tears in my eyes. AT age 49, I remember the America of my youth; of my father, a veteran of the Korean Conflict, teaching me the Pledge of Allegiance, but telling me, NO, instilling in me what being an American really meant -- the rights that I had as a woman, the rights that our black friends had just won through a hard fight, of being PROUD of my country.

I remember sitting at my parents knees, hearing them teach me about "the first JFK," and his great statement of "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

I remember, when my father ran for political office the first time in my hometown of Waycross, Georgia, and walking behind him through tobacco warehouses, down the city sidewalks, shaking people's hands, asking them "to vote for my daddy." The pride I had in not just him, but that I was American.

And in 1992, I opened the first Democrat Political Office that had been opened in my home town for more than 20 years, and the PRIDE I again had in the process by which we elect our officials. And standing on the grounds of the capital to see my choice, my guy, Clinton, sworn in, and having my 25 year old daughter, then 13, stand beside me, while knowing that she was experiencing history.

AND NOW, that same daughter called my in the wee hours of November 3, crying, saying, "Mama, what has happened to this country? What are we doing? Don't the common person, like us, Mama, see this horrible man (BUSH) for what he really is?"

I tried for minutes to calm her down, and finally she said to me, "Mama, I'm ashamed of what this country has done today....." and as I hung up the phone that morning, I wept. Not just for myself, not just for my daughter and the other two children, not just for my neighbor, not just for the people of Iraq, but for our world. Because I feel that we are on the road to total destruction. And being lead by a man, who claims he knows GOD.

Well, BuzzFlash fellow readers, I'm ashamed of what this country has become....oh, to long for the days of my youth, where people, neighbors, friends could disagree, and still shake hands and still be friends.

Peace to all,

Deborah Minchew Owen
Hiram, Georgia

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION