The U.S. Animal Farm

Editor�s Page

Our lead article this month does not bash the Bush administration � for a change. Rather it bashes the 9/11 conspiracy theorists. This should not be construed as support for the Bush administration, which we continue to criticize as best we can, albeit indirectly, in three of the four articles in the �Politics and Society� section and, in few words, as follows.

Considering all the lies (call it misinformation if you prefer), stupidity, ignorance, ineptness, violence, war mongering, illegal detentions, �renditions�, useless deaths of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, etc., attributable to President Bush and his administration, it is a wonder that the American people have not yet risen up in massive protest. Many have of course, like our own Jo Ann Schwartz, who participates in countless demonstrations in Washington and elsewhere � but it�s not enough.

I have been an expatriate for many years, but I am still an citizen of the United States and, although by now diverse cultures have taken root in me, I still consider myself an American at heart, as do others who know me. But I am not a member of a political party, and I wouldn�t give you two pesos for any of them. I only voted twice in my life: once for John Kennedy, not because he was a Democrat, but because I simply loved the man and felt that he represented hope. The second time, much more recently, was for John Kerry � but it was really a vote against Bush. My two adult children who hold U.S. citizenship, one who lives in Germany, the other in Cambodia, exercised their right to vote for the first time. Since our absentee ballots had to go to New York City though, which went 80% for Kerry anyway, they were essentially meaningless.

Being an American expatriate has been a trying experience for the past thee years. One must continually assure friends, acquaintances and even casual strangers such as taxi drivers, that I am not one of �them�, that I belong to the not-so-silent opposition � and hope that they believe me.

Do you know who is one of the most admired public figures in Argentina now? Fidel Castro. Do you know why? Because he is an enemy of the United States. That in itself is sufficient to ignore the fact that he�s a dictator. Do you know how it feels when the Vice President publicly declares that the prisoners in Guantanamo are well off because they�re living in the tropics? And how about a president who can�t put a proper sentence together without a teleprompter, and who says that the sacrifice (of other people�s lives in Iraq) is worth it? But those are only words, the fact is that citizens of the United States (albeit a small majority) should feel ashamed by now that they voted to re-elect this man in 2000 and that they are doing nothing now to stop his animal farm from compounding its disasters.

Joe Citizen: But how?

Me: Tell your congressional representative that enough is enough and you�re going to vote his ass out of office if he doesn�t do something for once in his parasitical political life. And get other people to do the same.

OR: ask Jo Ann: [email protected]��

Before it's too late to avoid THIS:

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

(The last paragraph of Orwell�s �Animal Farm�.)

FTS ��

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