I can’t get it out of my head: the sense that my last post somehow damaged something in me. I can’t sit still, I keep getting up to look out the window, I can’t do my work, even trying to get to sleep took a while.
It’s true what so many commenters have said, that there are a lot of Americans who don’t support what is going on in America or with Bush. I know that. Just the opinions of the commenters here alone proves that. But then how does one come to terms with all that is happening right now? People talk of being peaceful inside and trying to work out the problems then. When I don’t look at the news and get away from the city far enough so that I can’t hear the planes overhead all the tiime (four of them just went by overhead right now as I wrote this…), I can allow my mind to settle on other things. But a lot of that involves cutting oneself off from society. How does one not get angry when Bush appears on television or in the internet news and says and does the things he does?
As Americans so often remind everyone, America supposedy has a government “of and by the people”. How then does one separate the people in general from what the government is doing? Where does one direct the anger if one is not American? I speak out about America as a country and what it is doing and I can’t help but include the people when I refer to what it is doing.
Bush made the State of the Union Address last night (I haven’t seen, heard, or read it), something that is supposed to be meant only for the American people, and yet I’m sure he spoke about the “world being a safer place” or what not… meaning he was addressing the whole world. If he was addressing the whole world, if he takes it upon himself to dictate to all of us what we may or may not do, then why do all of us here in the rest of the world who are affected by his words and actions, have no say in deciding whether or not he gets to stay in office? Americans can at least vote about the matter. I have no vote. I have to rely on the will and mood of the Americans, hoping that they get some sense into their heads.
So please tell me, where do I direct this anger I feel, while at the same time professing a love for many Americans and for the country as a whole? How do I find a sense of peace about the world (I like myself and am comfortable with myself personally) when there is this man, with his contingent of madmen, who wants constant war and strife? Where do I draw the line between speaking my mind and shutting up?
More than ever I think it is time to cancel the borders and stop defining the world by the names of countries. I speak as a world citizen, a Terran, a Child of the Planet Earth. I look upon this preoccupation with some imaginary boundary called “America” and wonder, who are they kidding? Yes, America is a beautiful and admirable place, as is every single other patch of land in the world. There is no border within the natural world, it is all one. Perhaps it is time to stop defending America or Japan or Germany or China against the rest of the world and learn to defend this whole piece of cake we inhabit, all, together.
Laughing Knees 