The American Problem

It is true that a country should be judged by both its good deeds and its bad. The United States has contributed much that is good – spending more on food aid and other charitable causes around the world as any other county, supporting medical and immunization programs, and emergency relief. These are all splendid achievements and show the high degree of good will that America projects into the world.

Unfortunately, it is not these deeds upon which we are judged. It is upon the negative deeds, the misdeeds, and the secret deeds that are later exposed that we are judged.

The issues that I want to discuss below are all related and have everything to do with why we are unable to see that our acceptance of these problems as normal (and justified) is part of the problem.

1. guns – the second amendment is one of these problems. That is, we are allowed by our constitution to possess firearms at will with almost no regulations. In many states you can conceal a weapon legally and carry it at any time. To protect the rights of those who want to have a gun, we accept the regular random mass killing of our fellow citizens. We accept that 1000s of children are killed by firearms each year (accidentally and “accidentally.”). We accept the smuggling of guns to our neighbors because we want to have guns. We accept the availability of assault rifles and machine guns in our midst, guns whose sole purpose is to kill people.

2. Not prosecuting those in power when they break the law. This one is of a particular problem for all of us. It is amazing to me that president after president and his henchmen have been slowly becoming more and more brazen in how they break the law. Its hard to know where to go back to – LBJ (Tonkin Resolution)?, FDR (internment)?, Nixon (Watergate)?, Reagan (Iran Contra)?, Clinton (perjury)?, and finally GWBush (Torture, NSA wiretaps, Invasion of Iraq)?. I would say despite these many many egregious violations, GWBush has been the most dangerous of all. As I have written in this blog before, the fact that Bush, Cheney, et.al. approved the use of torture based on completely made up legal arguments is one of the most fundamental violations of the law of any administration. There is now the false notion that because torture may have worked to gain some useful information that the ends justify the means. This kind of argument is a self-justification and should be completely rejected the moment it is uttered. It might be better for the world if the human race were eradicated; it would stop global warming and the threat of mass extinctions and worldwide destruction. So should we then launch all our nuclear missiles to solve this problem? Ok that is an extreme example. However, look in any book on ethics or morality and it is clear that the use of means that are damaging to both the victim and the perpetrator does not justify the ends (even if the ends are positive). The United States has signed a treaty, it is the law, there will be no torturing of prisoners. The argument that these folks are not prisoners of war that fall under the Geneva Conventions should also be rejected. The spirit of the law is to protect both the victims (from physical/psychological harm) and the perpetrators (from delving into the deepest, most disturbing of human behaviors). Justifying your own sadistic behaviors because the other may want to do the same to you is not acceptable and it is against the law. I can not capture a burglar in my house, who happens to have a note in his pocket with instruction on how to rape my wife and cut up my children and then tie him up, find his wife, rape her and cut up his children. There are good reasons why this kind of behavior is not allowed in a civilized society. The actions of the Bush team have dragged us further into the uncivilized.

Our acceptance of the second amendment (as it has been interpreted) is part of this problem. It makes us all victims of a culture that accepts extreme violence. The fact is that all of these problems are related and speak to our country’s lack of consciousness for the community of humanity. It is not acceptable for us to live this way. It is not acceptable for us to support those who justify ends through uncivilized means. We cannot allow that to be what defines us as a people. We cannot allow our own immorality to be what other people see. We must hold those who diminish us in that way to account for their crimes against all of us. We must consider these crimes to be against us all, not just the particular victims of the crimes.

Let us pursue prosecutions for these crimes to save ourselves and to save the good name of America around the world.