Split Personality

Whether we choose to believe it or not, the facts are in. America has a split personality. For the most part, the good people of this country are in denial. While we deserve to be congratulated for the good deeds we do as free citizens, we refuse to acknowledge the evil done by our government in our name. Our hearts and our money pour out to the less fortunate, and to the victims of atrocities like genocide perpetrated by misguided regimes in Third World countries. Meanwhile these lawless regimes are more often than not supported by our own state department. We then invade sovereign nations whose religious convictions run contrary to ours under false pretenses. After blowing up our "alleged" enemies, at a cost in the billions, we then follow up by spending even larger amounts to rebuild and repair the damage we did.
Private institutions and individuals provide massive assistance to the malaria and HIV victims in Africa. We are in the process of providing laptop computers to the most remote villages on the planet to speed their arrival into the 21st century. We give aid to disaster victims everywhere; no disaster worldwide goes without our support and assistance. These are great acts of kindness done by private people and institutions in our country’s name.
Our alter ego, on the other hand, invades countries (Iraq is not the first and more than likely not the last) in an attempt to steal their natural resources. Our rich corporations export pollution and take advantage of cheap foreign labor. We export our jobs solely to take advantage of the poor and starving in less developed countries. Our continual military campaigns cause death, destruction, and dislocation to millions of innocent civilians. For our trouble we get a gross and bloated military budget. We give lip service to a war on terror in spite of the fact that we haven't had a terrorist attack in over six years in our own country. We commit crimes in the name of national security; crimes which were deemed so heinous they were banned from use by the Geneva Convention during World War II. We send our children to die in countries which were our allies and imprison and spy on our own citizens.
While the good people in this country strive to do the best we can for all people everywhere, a few disgrace our country and give us a black eye the world over. Their sole ambition is to increase their own wealth and power at everyone else's expense. They manipulate our government and our media and seek to undo the very principles which made our country the envy of all the world a few short decades ago.
We need to regain control of our evil twin, before all is lost. We need to dismantle an ever larger war machine. A machine which is being used as an instrument of destruction and mayhem. A machine which is sucking up so many resources we are bankrupting ourselves and putting the entire world's economy at risk. We need to put our resources into projects like clean air and renewable energy resources. Projects which will provide a secure and constructive future for our next generations. If we learn nothing else from history, we must learn the consequences of a government with an irresponsible military agenda and which is controlled by big business interests. This could be the first generation of a lasting peace throughout the world. But first, we must put Mr. hide behind bars where he belongs, and throw away the key.