September 21st was World Peace Day and in over 100 countries millions of people and their governments participated in programs, concerts, dances and speeches to celebrate the occasion and express their dreams and hopes for a lasting and sustainable peace. Meanwhile, the greatest country on earth has become a nation of fat women talking on cell phones while driving to the mall in vehicles designed to carry an entire construction crew and their equipment to a job site, and good Christian men who stand by as Haliburton steals billions of taxpayer dollars and worry about whether a poor black woman, raising her grandchildren, might be getting more than her fair share of welfare.

As a misguided, inept government fritters away a surplus of trillions of dollars fighting an unnecessary and unpopular war, redistributes billions in tax cuts for the wealthy, saddles our children and grandchildren with record debt and erodes our constitutionally protected rights, we listen to a self-indulgent dope fiend on the radio regaling us with tales of how Reagan and the Bushes have gotten government off our backs.

The latest tragedy on our Gulf Coast is just the most recent example of how 25 years of discrediting government, draining resources from humanitarian programs and appointing cronies to important government positions have left our country without the necessary resources to deal with basic needs in a disaster.

Our government, in our names, has caused the death of over 100,000 human beings in the Middle East and close to 2000 of our brave fighting men and women.

As we approach the end of the year and the Holiday Season, let’s send out greeting cards extolling "Peace on Earth" and look for another small, defenseless third-world country to attack.

Don Greenwood
Cape Girardeau, MO.

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