Memorial Day

I think the state of our nation this Memorial Day is like the flag in this image. I did the collage not long after 9/11/01. The country was bruised, a bit tattered, and angry. This was before the retaliation wars. Before Afghanistan, and before Iraq.

Four and a half years later, it is the middle and working class citizens of this country who are feeling battered, bruised and angry. What are we so pissed off about? We're pissed off about being lied to, used to make others rich, and for making us ashamed to be American in the eyes of our fellow citizens in the world. I'm pissed off about those things and I know many others who are as well.

A war wages, people - Americans, Brits, Iraqis - are being killed for something that never happened, while people like Dick Chaney, the Bushes, and some others get rich off a war with no purpose and no end. CEOs, arrogant and priveledged, are stealing hard earned pensions from the working class, and they may or may not go to jail for their crimes. Lobbyists buy off our elected representives, who scramble to maximize their income from a job that pays $100,000 a year, selling America to the highest bidder and selling out their constituents.

So this Memorial Day, while I mentally honor and pray for those individuals who sacrificed their time, energy, innocense, youth, and in some cases, their lives to defend this country, I also honor those Americans who get up everyday and try to live decent, quiet, caring lives. I honor those Americans who wade through knee deep corruption and despair to go to work, pay their taxes, and try to find a moment in their day when they can love their families and friends. I honor those Americans who will wake up on November 6, 2006 and make arrangements to get to a polling place to cast a vote for a politician they hope won't sell them out. I honor those Americans who say "screw the big guys, real life happens down here in the trenches" and get on with their lives anyway.