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“Them That Has, GETS!” by Lonna Gooden VanHorn
Bob Hebert wrote an excellent column in the New York Times in which he spoke of America becoming an “ownership society.” Increasingly, he said, if you are not rich, the government will do nothing for you. You will be on your own. http://thomasmc.com/
My mother used to put it more succinctly when she said “Them that has, gets.”
I thought the purpose of government was to look out for those who cannot look out for themselves, but I guess that is just idealistic rhetoric.
An ownership society, among other things, means that the taxes you pay based on your wages will be used to facilitate the acquisition of more profits for the rich. You and your labor will, in effect, be owned by the rich. Some people have labeled this “wage slavery.”
Since the time of Reagan, unions have been marginalized and tax laws have been written to favor people who profit through investments over people who toil for their living in the work force, but keeping the rich from having to pay taxes on their invested or inherited wealth seems to be our current president’s special obsession. Additionally, he is using our soldiers as virtual mercenaries to advance the interests of corporations, their stockholders, and the rich. The size of reenlistment bonuses – up to $30,000 – can only be perceived as being bribes to the poor which attempt to “purchase” their willingness to continue to kill “for their country.”
Bush and Cheney are the first president and vice-president in history to flagrantly use the military to increase their families’ personal fortunes. They deny this, of course, but the evidence says otherwise, and unethical business dealings and greed is the signature of both of them.
Eisenhower was afraid members of Congress would be the culprits in advancing the interests of the military-industrial complex, and they are culpable, but it was members of the administration who lied us into war, and Halliburton and Carlyle have experienced immense profits. Ike must be spinning in his grave.
Some soldiers are
astute enough already to see they are fighting for corporate profit.
Some soldiers recognized that truth generations ago, http://oldamericancentury.org
Although I do not want to see American soldiers killed or maimed for corporate profit, I am even more appalled by the robotic soldiers Bush, Sr.’s Carlyle Group will soon supply to the military. If America’s stealing and killing put fewer of our people at risk, we will steal and kill with even more impunity.
Our forefathers left Europe to get away from ownership societies. Commoners could not fish in the streams owned by the “Lords” or hunt in their forests. Taxes to finance Europe’s wars to benefit the ruling class impoverished the people, and were of no benefit to the majority of them. Often the common soldiers were not even paid for their service.
Americans can fish if they have a license, but because under Bush environmental laws are written by the polluters, the fish they catch are often and increasingly not safe to eat. A study done by a Texas university found all but one of the human and animal milk samples it tested from dozens of states contained rocket fuel.
The Super Fund, used to clean up toxic environmental sites will no longer be funded by the polluters, but by the taxpayers. Given the fact we are not taking in enough tax revenue to begin to fund government, what kind of a priority is environmental cleanup likely to get?
Buying bottled water is an affectation with a purpose. It has been subtly propagandized in the media. If Americans become accustomed to drinking water sold in bottles, they will not be so likely to expect water to be safe out of the faucet. Polluters will have more leeway to pollute. Hunter Thompsen despaired because ours is the first generation that will leave our children worse off than the generation before it, and they will be drinking poisoned water to boot. We cannot allow this to happen.
For the first time in history America is a universally despised nation. We are seen as vultures. A nation of bullies and thieves. Even by our own people if they are intelligent enough to have seen through the fear-mongering and the false patriotism used to sell the Iraq War. We steal because we can. Just as Hitler did. Hugo Chaves thinks we will assassinate him. Not only do we have warships heading to Iran, but we also have warships off Venezuela now practicing how to protect “our” oil in case Chaves decides he doesn’t want to sell “our” oil to our oil companies at advantageous prices. All the world’s resources are ours by right because we are powerful enough to take them. Other countries and their people exist as vassals to facilitate our corporations, and to be used by them as they see fit. How else can our cooperation in the coup which deposed Aristide be viewed? Chaos in Haiti means cheaper labor for the sweat shop owners.
America is becoming the imperialist nation our forefathers left their homelands to escape.
Seymour Hirsch says our Congress people are 20 I.Q. points dumber than the generations of Congress people who preceded them. Not only are they dumber, they are also more greedy. As it becomes more apparent that our government has no interest in taking care of its people, as individuals we know intuitively that we must build up ever more wealth to meet our own needs. Which makes us all more selfish. This in a nation that claims to be “Christian” when Christ’s admonitions were always about sharing, giving to the poor and not worrying about tomorrow. He also said “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” I guess the “Christians” in our government today think they are the exceptions to that rule.
And, while our Congress will not vote adequate money to properly fund education, prisons are being built all over the nation. The “ownership” society is and historically always has been in danger from the poor, who, in every society, eventually rebel against the “owners.” The solution? Lock them up. Even the non-violent. In all societies prisons are populated mainly by the poor and powerless.
Our president cannot put together an intelligible sentence if he is not being fed his lines through a wire, and he has so little humanity, despite what he says, it is obvious he cares nothing about the soldiers dying and being maimed for no other reason than his greed and vanity. Lest you have forgotten, in 2003 while they were still in a war zone, he tried to cut our soldiers’ hazardous duty pay and family separation allowances. He tried to keep from having to pay for health insurance for members of the Guard and Reserve, and he attempted to cut funding for the rehabilitation of military housing. Congress was not quite as crass, and did not let him get away with most of his cuts. Yet. But, Bush’s 2006 budget proposes a $910 million dollar cut for the Veteran’s Administration. Just when so many new veterans will be coming home. Many will need expensive help. Some will need very expensive, long-term and even life-long help. Bush and the GOP do not appear to care nearly as much about the welfare of the people their war for profit has injured as they do about the life of one woman in brother Jeb’s state of Florida.
Two years ago a
veteran wrote an interesting letter concerning the magnitude of dollars that
will be needed to care for our returning veterans. Many more
soldiers have been stationed in the toxic deserts of Iraq since them. I
quote Sergeant G’s. letter to the Bring Them Home Now website in September of
2003: http://www.bringthemhomenow
“I am a 20-year veteran of the Army, Army Reserve, and PA Army National Guard. I am an Intelligence Analyst for the PA National Guard in Kosovo, which gives me clear access to the "truth" of current affairs and the inter workings of the politics that abound. I am a soldier who has served in Korea in the 70's, Gulf War of 1991, Bosnia in 1996, and now Kosovo. I saw the lies and misinformation first hand about DU, chemical health hazards, and spoils of war in Desert Storm. Many of my friends are sick, physically and mentally. Some have died. When this current Gulf War has ended, the numbers of mentally and physically disabled will be staggering.
I knew it was wrong then, and now even more misguided. The end state of the current crusade has been to sacrifice the blood of Americans for corporate greed and profit and give the faceless enemy we have made it a mission to annihilate, a renewed cause for action against us.
It pains me to see my brothers and sisters dying and being injured on a daily basis while my Division performs peacekeeping (babysitting) duty in Kosovo.
Everyday I question why 2,000 Guard men and women were uprooted form their homes, jobs and families for a year to do nothing more than provide a "safe and secure environment for Albanians" in Kosovo, while American and British soldiers are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan? They say the Army is stretched too thin, well wake up Bush and DOD. You currently have troops stationed in 130 different countries.
Vital economic resources and manpower are being wasted here in the Balkans, why are we protecting Kosovars who take absolutely no initiative to determine their own destiny and security. Four years after UN Resolution 1244, nothing has changed in the Balkans. Americans are dying everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan and need the "safe and secure environment" we provide for everyone else in the world. We have former president Clinton to thank for this debacle.
The American role in the Balkans has been a nothing more than an economic pipeline for Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR),[sic, Halliburton] and the United Nations who provide all the resources and assistance to the military under the guise of nation building.
It sickens me as a taxpayer to see the waste and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars that happens here everyday. We have no end state goals that we are working for, the mission is to maintain the status quo. Another ticket punch for high-ranking officers and National Guard bureau to collect even more defense money, while states scramble to control budget deficits, provide jobs, and deal with floods and wildfires without National Guard troops. And what about the aftermath of the current war, isn't America going to be a bigger target than before?
For in the final analysis, it's always about oil, non-competitive bids, and corporate greed. How much more blood and taxpayer money will be wasted for this new brand of corporate imperialism?
"Bring us all home" NOW!
SGT G Kosovo
Stan Goff says Bush and Rumsfeld care about the troops in the same way Tyson’s Foods cares about chickens. How long will they be willing to adequately fund the long-term care of Iraq veterans? It is more likely they will spend resources fighting the claims of Iraqi veterans, just as they did the claims of those suffering from Agent Orange, and just as they did fighting claims of Gulf War I vets.
Historically, many people have believed America is the new “Promised Land,” but I believe Christ would be weeping over America now, as he wept over Jerusalem. Because of our greed and materialism. Because of our hardness of heart. Because we are so willing to believe leaders who tell us it is “right” and even good to impoverish kill, and exploit people in other lands for corporate America’s financial gain.
It is time for America to spit such evil leaders out!! www.votetoimpeach.org
Bio: Lonna Gooden VanHorn is a mother of 6 and a grandmother who began writing mainly because she did not perceive Bush/co as espousing principles she had been taught were Christian, and she resented Bush/co being given extra credibility by an ignorant, fawning press simply because he claimed, so loudly, to be a good Christian when his “works” and priorities so clearly indicate otherwise. As a Methodist minister wrote her, the name for Satan in the Bible is “the Deceiver,” and Bush has deceived about nearly everything. The truth is not in him.
Her writings
can be found on several sites on the net, and her Opednews archives can be
accessed here. http://www.opednews.com
She can be reached at jvanhorn@peoplepc.com |
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