While listening to American radio, I heard some announcers refer to what they saw as a positive shift toward renewed patriotism in Americans. While some were hosting veterans and others speaking against war on Iraq, and Afghanistan incidentally, some religious and advice-show hosts talked about such things as the intolerance of the use of the words "God Bless America" in class rooms, and of Satan and how to recognize Satan at work (no, I'm not just talking about your boss). They talked of "his" intolerance, violence, charisma, contempt for the word of God.

But the only version or interpretation of God that I heard addressed was the Christian version. I'm assuming this word actually does include the sentence "thou shalt not kill", from what I've read of the old, but still widely available book. They spoke of how the U.S. stands by the words in "God We Trust", and they spoke of the importance of going to war against Iraq in the same breath, turning it into what sounded like a holy war.

Of course this begged the question that if they trusted their God, would they not then trust that war is wrong? I suppose unbias inquiring religious minds would also question the Bush intolerance, violence, charisma, and contempt.

It is no small thing that the economic devastation by U.S. led national and international organizations and corporations is done through a currency which bolsters the spiritual authority of the actors through such a loaded statement as "In God we trust". Is this not blasphemy in a strange and horrible sense and a perversion of the image. I believe it is important to consider how those on the receiving end of structural adjustments and colonialism are hit with the use of the extra hand of a distorted God.

Children of our time are at great risk physically, spiritually, emotionally from such claims to authority. This climate not only endangers them developmentally but alienates them from their parents and from self-understanding & respect, and the safety and strength offered by the trust in their care takers, when these do not fit into the mold carved by the myths of patriotism and the good adult citizen.

To harm or frighten children with an unconsidered or self serving image of God and patriotism is by far one of the greatest injustices of our time. Not only might the perpetrators indeed be shown to the elevator the minute they get to their heaven, if there is one. Unless there is an effort to stop themselves, the irreparable damage to the human family will linger in the history of Americanized chidren all over the world, thrown into crisis and manipulated into a philosophy of low self-esteem and alienation from caregivers, intolerance and war. There is no way to sneak around it, there are consequences to the choice of filling minds with pro war ideas. Though ignoring the damage society is doing by creating justifications for the have/have not, and with respect to Noone is Illegal, the is/is not mentality, people receive inappropriate treatment. The prevalence of youth incarceration over rehabilitation and prevention service provision including an effective social safety net, is no coincidence and the denial of those in power as to society's responsibility is a dangerous one which will not disappear by burrying heads in the sand. But it can be listened to as a guide.

In her address to Wellesley College on June 1rst, 1990, George Bush Jr.'s mother recounted the story of the young pastor who finds himself in charge of some very energetic kids and hits upon a game called "Giants, wizards and dwarfs". "You have to decide now", he said, "which one you are". At that, a girl tugged on his sleeve and asked, "but where do the mermaids stand?". The pastor told her there are NO mermaids. "Oh yes there are", she says, " I am one!" She intended to fit into the scheme of things, without giving up her identity or the game. "Diversity", she quoted, like anything worth having requires effort. Effort to learn about and respect difference, to be compassionate with one another, to cherish our own identity and to accept unconditionally the same in others".

Where is Barbara Bush's voice burried now that her son is threatening to begin what could result in World War III over just the lack of those things?

PATRIOTISM, A MENACE TO LIBERTY, (from infoshop)

by Emma Goldman, 1911

WHAT is patriotism? Is it love of one's birthplace, the place of childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations ? Is it the place where, in childlike naivete, we would watch the fleeting clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not run so swiftly? The place where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken lest each one "an eye should be," piercing the very depths of our little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of the birds, and long to have wings to fly, even as they, to distant lands? Or the place where we would sit at mother's knee, enraptured by wonderful tales of great deeds and conquests ? In short, is it love for the spot, every inch representing dear and precious recollections of a happy, joyous, and playful childhood?

If that were patriotism, few American men of today could be called upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into factory, mill, and mine, while deafening sounds of machinery have replaced the music of the birds. Nor can we longer hear the tales of great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of sorrow, tears, and grief.

What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the average workingman.

P.S.> Hello my dear. I send you all my best and receive your warm message.