Existentially Speaking in the New American Dark Age

FASCISM…

It’s an ugly word.  Yet, it appropriately fits the present state of the U.S. government.  I recently learned that 70% of our intelligence budget goes to private corporations.  In Iraq, private corporations received no-bid contracts from the U.S. government for the reconstruction of that country after the American incursion of 2003.  Also, there are over ten thousand private security forces receiving US government dollars for military operations without any US government oversight.  No Iraqi corporation can act upon its own to participate in the reconstruction of their own country.  All corporations and companies must sub-contract to Halliburton.  The decision to put Halliburton in charge of the Iraqi reconstrucdtion was made through Vice President Dick Cheney, its former chief executive, and others in secret, closed-door talks before the war began.  Michael Moore made reference to the corporate control of Iraq and its pre-planned exploitation of a soon-to-be-bombed and warred-upon Iraqi people in his film Fahrenheit 9/11.  Michael Moore may present the facts with humor and sarcasm, but he does present the facts.  You may check his documentation and resources for the film at www.michaelmoore.com.  When the minutes of this meeting were sought by congressional members, the White House and Cheney’s office refused to supply them.  Worse, a newly corporate-favoring and politically conservative US Supreme Court supported Cheney, a key employee of the American people, in holding back vital information about how US taxpayer dollars were spent in these secret meetings.

Fascism is the detestable marriage of corporation and federal government.  All three branches of our government are controlled by corporate interests.  Corporate lobbyists and lawyers not only push for legislation affecting their industries.  They write the legislation.  Corporate monies heavily line the campaign coffers of just about every congressional, senatorial and executive member of our government.  It is a sad fact that it is always the candidate with the most money in their campaign coffers that win federal elections.  Our communications media are controlled by a handful of global corporations whose interest and priorities are far removed from the working class people in the United States,  and also far removed from providing any relevant news concerning the health, welfare, education and enlightenment of US citizens.  Our highest courts have been stacked with pro-corporate judges and justices to ensure that corporations wield absolute control over private citizens in the United States.  This is the most powerful fascist alliance in world governmental history.  Yet, the word “fascism” is seldom used, because the popular media are part of the fascist regime and, thus, cannot stand outside of themselves with any objectivity to report the truth.

For more information about the fascist US government, please link to the following:

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

An American President…of Reason, Compassion and Peace: Jimmy Carter

This existentialist in a New American Dark Age recalls a time when America was weary of war, of aggression, of global cold wars and other paranoias, and longed for peace–a peaceful planet, a clean planet–and we had an American president that was leading us down the path toward these ends, Jimmy Carter.  He was then, and is now, a man of deep spiritual and humanitarian convictions, and he was radically changing American policies toward peace and cleaning up the environment.  He provided incentives for developing solar and other renewable forms of power, and was pressuring the automobile industry to develop and manufacture more fuel-efficient cars.   He worked toward a lasting peace among nations in the  Middle East.  As a former president, his services as diplomat and statesman have been elicited by successive presidents, and governments of other nations, as well.  His ongoing Habitat for Humanity projects have provided low-cost housing for many, many poor families.

His presidency occured just after the fall of Richard M. Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal.  It was a time when confidence in government and authority figures was shattered, and he developed a national reparte with Americans that was unpretentious and informal.  He tried to melt away the authoritarian facades of presidential power and truly sought to provide what was best for Americans.  One of my favorite presidential speeches was made by Mr. Carter after he fired most of his cabinet, secluded himself at Camp David and called in the social leaders–teachers, professors, priests and ministers, civil rights figures, and economic leaders, to determine a new direction for America.  The speech was entitled, “A Crisis of Confidence” and for the first time in my memory, a president stood and spoke not to spew hollow and empty promises, but to invite the people of our American democracy to take responsibility themselves to restore confidence in government by actively being involved in the democratic processes, and to truly be a government of the people, by the people and for the people.   You can hear the speech online at AMERICAN RHETORIC:TOP 100 SPEECHES at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm

 Alas, many Americans want a demi-god, someone to lead them by the hand, rather than a true statesman and a dedicated administrator of the will of the people.  People didn’t want to exercise their will.  They didn’t want to take responsibility for the rising inflation, the rising cost of oil, and to do for themselves.  So, the American people didn’t elect Jimmy Carter to a second term for his forthrightness and honesty.  Instead, they elected a not-so-successful grade B movie actor named Ronald Reagan, who had charm, a great smile, and promised tax breaks and wealth trickling down to everyone, even the poorest among us,, like magic.  Reagan’s empty presidential promises were just that, and he took the federal budget surplus under Carter and left the Americans with the deepest federal budget deficit in U.S. history, along with a much larger pool of impovershed people.  However, illusions of wealth, provided by an explosion in the credit card and loan industries, convinced people who were deep in credit debt, that life was better, because they were consuming so much more…albeit on borrowed money.  Such is the short-sidedness of American thinking, and why the long-range intelligence and planning of a Jimmy Carter could be so easily foresaken for the immediate “feel-good” (translation: short term enjoyment for long-term payments) economics of a Ronald Reagan.

Jimmy Carter has been much more successful in meeting his personal humanitarian goals as an ex-president, without being amid the forest of political trappings and influences.  Mr. Carter’s statemanship, his dedication to peace and to true democratic participation of all people in the quest for happiness and realizing one’s dreams has kept him and his wife, Rosalyn, busy into his mid-eighties.  His participation in international diplomacy earned him a Nobel Peace prize, and he continues to work dilligently to help the poor and oppressed in the world.

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman conducted an in-depth personal interview with President Jimmy Carter last Monday.  Here is a link to a conversation with my favorite of modern American presidents:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/10/1518224

Listen, Learn, Enjoy

Amen

Reason, Compassion, Peace

MH