Death of America

Rachel Corrie died around this time last year. This week another American woman has died though under different circumstances. Buried in the sensationalism of the past few weeks is the fact that another human being has had to suffer because of choices made by others. I wanted to avoid commenting on the big news story of the week but I couldn't help it. The death of this American woman Terri Schiavo, is symbolic of another dragged out possibly torturous death-the death of the American Republic. I know plently others such as Gore Vidal have written and shouted about this for a long time. It is a concept I would have believed preventable if not down right impossible in my once illusory view. I know better now. All one needs to do is take a look at the past and present. America's elite sacrifice Iraqis every day who are very much aware of what is happening to them. Countless other nations have also chosen torture and death for friends and enemies alike. We the American people have mostly turned a blind eye to it all.

As long as we can continue to be busy consumers who allow our children participate in the killing game we are indirectly condoing murder as fun. When we allow our military to use similar games to recruit our kids to kill for real and they die doing this job, we honor them as heroes. We directly choose to let Iraqi children, Afghani children, our children, die. When we turn a blind eye to the death and destruction of others, with ease we become victims of death and destruction ourselves. This is the essence of the death of America. Our allowances for the choices our government makes to torture and murder others is what gives people like Mike Schiavo the authority to make the choice he did concerning Terri.

As I wrote this, I received an email alert that the pope has died. I haven't checked to see if it's true. I can only think of others like him who used their authority (which comes from the choice to BE) to speak for the weak and dispossesed. I can see that such people are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. They have long carried the burden of witnessing and doing something about the persistent enslavement of this planet to no avail. Maybe the pople has done all he could with what he had in him and is duly tired of this world. As non religious as I am, I send prayers of thanks for the Rachel Corries and the Pope John Pauls, even Terri Schiavos of the world. They have reminded me that beauty and compassion though rare is possible only by us becoming its representative. I also pray for god or whomever, to have mercy on us for the kind of world we have participated in creating-a world where beauty and compassion has been held hostage by the slave masters. May we develop the will and ability release this hold and create something different.