Bring Humanity to Power

Remember President Eisenhower's warning to beware of the military industrial complex? (If not, I suggest you read it or another good source for excerpts is the film "Why We Fight" another of the many that all Americans should be required to watch!)

Here's a little check on how well we've taken Ike's advice:
"George Schultz was secretary of the treasury and chairman of the Council on Economic Policy under Nixon, served as Bechtel president, and then became secretary of state under Reagan. Caspar Weinberger was a Bechtel vice president, and general counsel, and later the secretary of defense under Reagan. Richard Helms was Johnson's CIA director and then became ambassador to Iran under Nixon. Richard (dick) Cheney served as secretary of defense under George H.W. Bush, as Halliburton president, and as U.S. vice president to George W. Bush. Evan a president of the United States, George H.S. Bush, began as founder of Zapata Petroleum Corp, served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under presidents Nixon and Ford, and was Ford's CIA director."—Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, Berrett-KoehlerPpublishers, Inc., 2004.

We Americans hassle about separation of church and state all the time while we ignore the elephant under our noses. We need to do a little shouting about the separation of corporate/military and state.

I'd bet that in all the history of the country there has never been a time at which a greater portion of the national product had to do with war. There certainly has never been a time of more blatant profiteering from war. When a president can create a war so that his corporate cronies can capture market share and then award multi-billion dollar contracts for "reconstruction", etc., our moral compass has surely been sunk in the murky waters of corporate and national greed.

John Perkins labels our present form of government a "corporatocracy". I call it "aristomocracy". Whatever you call it, it is sick and is spreading its madness all over the globe. We all need to do all we can to bring throw into the gutter where it belongs the kind of imperial thinking our government has always tended toward and has now fully manifested and somehow bring humanity to power.

Impossible in the face of the forced two party, winner takes all electoral system now in place? Probably, but we could make a hell of a lot of noise and some impact on political methodology if we were indignant enough. The constitution does still give us a bit of power after all. Between now and November, 2008 is prime time to exercise it.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored. But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR