I want my country back.

I want my country back.

I am tired of being told that giving the nations treasury to the very wealthy will ultimately bring prosperity to the working class and to the poor.
I want my country back.

I am tired of my civil liberties being lost to an over zealous Justice Department who offers security at the price of personal rights. Benjamin Franklin once warned that whenever a people trades freedom for security they will soon find they will have neither.
I want my country back.

I am tired of being called unpatriotic and un-American because I dare to speak out against rightwing ideologues who are ruining our nation and against a president who is owned by the religious fundamentalists.
I want my country back.

I am tired of people in power who believe that the end justifies the means because the have a misguided notion that their truth is superior to others truth.
I want my country back.

I wish the fine and decent people who are the vast majority in our nation would once again think for themselves and reject the distortions and lies of the radio talk show hosts and televangelists.
I want my country back.

I am tired of the many churches and ministers preaching a civil religion that is nothing more than the worship of our nation and for selling Jesus of Nazareth as a card carrying Republican.
I want my country back.

I am frightened by the Federal Communications Commission being de-regularized thus giving three or four mega corporations the power to determine what sort of news coverage our nation will have access to. The owners of these mega corporations are all somewhat to the right of center and will be able to spin the news to favor the ultra conservative viewpoints.
I want my country back.

I am saddened when I see the president strutting across the decks of aircraft carriers wearing the flight suit of real combat pilots when he was AWOL from the Texas Air Nation Guard Unit and was instead in Alabama for more than a year.
I want my country back.

A president who received less than a majority in the last election and was selected president by the Supreme Court has gutted scores of programs that helped the less fortunate. And, whatever happened to the "no child left behind" political slogan and promise made by the president?
I want my country back.

I want my country back because the direction our nation is headed won't be worth having unless there is a new occupant in the White House in 2004.

SHALOM!

This article was first published in the Gainesville Times 2003