Sunday Stream (39) - [stop]
Posted: July 17th, 2005, 3:43 am
[stop]
“O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free” – [stop] *The United States incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any other country — more than two million men and women in 2000.* “...and the home of the brave?” [stop] *Statistics show that the United States has 220 million guns, or almost one for every man, woman and child in the country. With less than 5 per cent of the world's population, America harbors one-third of the world's 640 million small arms.* [stop] *Sixty years after the first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert, the United States still has some 2,000 nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert and is considering new weapons such as earth-penetrating bunker busters.*
[stop] Facts and figures like these make me question some knowledge. Is the knowing of things like these ever a great assist at living? America calls itself, quite proudly, ‘the land of the free” but when that was a rallying cry over 200 years ago democratic societies were far and few between. Times have changed, people have learned. Is England any less free than America? How about Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Finland, South Africa... are these countries under the yoke of suppression? How about Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, South Korea...? Brazil, Argentina... the list is pretty long nowadays. How many of the current world’s 260+ countries are not free in any way? Sure, in today’s news we read about unrest in many African countries, but how many of those are unstable due to financial starvation? And isn’t that being at least addressed by others like the G-8?
So why does America, a country with less than 5% of the world’s population, consuming ¼ of the world’s oil, continue talking about freedom? Freedom from what is the question. America is not free from the oil habit. It is not free from guns and violence. It is not free from drugs [stop] * In 2003, an estimated 19.5 million Americans aged 12 or older were current illicit drug users,* [stop] * In 2002, Americans filled 3,340,000,000 (That is three billion, three-hundred and forty million!) outpatient prescriptions, the equivalent of twelve prescriptions for every man, women, and child in America.*
America, the land of the free and the home of the brave is an addictive society – addicted to oil, to guns, to nuclear weapons, to illicit drugs and pharmaceutical ‘legal’ drugs, to food and alcohol. America is not a free as we tend to think. Freedom is not a path to self-destruction.[stop]
America [stop] before it becomes [stop America]
Cecil (w/ many thx to Google)
17 July 2005
“O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free” – [stop] *The United States incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any other country — more than two million men and women in 2000.* “...and the home of the brave?” [stop] *Statistics show that the United States has 220 million guns, or almost one for every man, woman and child in the country. With less than 5 per cent of the world's population, America harbors one-third of the world's 640 million small arms.* [stop] *Sixty years after the first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert, the United States still has some 2,000 nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert and is considering new weapons such as earth-penetrating bunker busters.*
[stop] Facts and figures like these make me question some knowledge. Is the knowing of things like these ever a great assist at living? America calls itself, quite proudly, ‘the land of the free” but when that was a rallying cry over 200 years ago democratic societies were far and few between. Times have changed, people have learned. Is England any less free than America? How about Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Finland, South Africa... are these countries under the yoke of suppression? How about Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, South Korea...? Brazil, Argentina... the list is pretty long nowadays. How many of the current world’s 260+ countries are not free in any way? Sure, in today’s news we read about unrest in many African countries, but how many of those are unstable due to financial starvation? And isn’t that being at least addressed by others like the G-8?
So why does America, a country with less than 5% of the world’s population, consuming ¼ of the world’s oil, continue talking about freedom? Freedom from what is the question. America is not free from the oil habit. It is not free from guns and violence. It is not free from drugs [stop] * In 2003, an estimated 19.5 million Americans aged 12 or older were current illicit drug users,* [stop] * In 2002, Americans filled 3,340,000,000 (That is three billion, three-hundred and forty million!) outpatient prescriptions, the equivalent of twelve prescriptions for every man, women, and child in America.*
America, the land of the free and the home of the brave is an addictive society – addicted to oil, to guns, to nuclear weapons, to illicit drugs and pharmaceutical ‘legal’ drugs, to food and alcohol. America is not a free as we tend to think. Freedom is not a path to self-destruction.[stop]
America [stop] before it becomes [stop America]
Cecil (w/ many thx to Google)
17 July 2005
although this likeness doesn’t do it justice.