There have been many attacks on Barack Obama lately. While I am not a fan of either Democratic hopeful, either would be better than the Republican choice. So it would behoove me to state his case, for the record, as I see it.

Putting The Rumors To Rest

Yes, his middle name is Hussein (a very common Arabic surname, but also used as a first name) which means good, small, handsome one. And yes, his last name rhymes with Osama. However, he has no ties whatsoever with Saddam Hussein nor Osama bin Laden.

He was born on 4, August 1961 to parents Barack and Ann in Hawaii. His birth father was from Kenya. His mother is a Caucasian-American. His parents were divorced by the time he was 2 and his mother remarried a man named Lolo Soetoro and moved to Indonesia which is predominately Islamic, but he was involved more with Christianity than with Islam. His Kenyan father was raised a Muslim, but is an avowed atheist, as is his mother, but they are spiritual people. His stepfather was not a religious man.

In Chicago, he belonged to the Trinity United Church of Christ, an African-American dominated church in a community that serves and reflects the values and needs of its people. His pastor he came to know as a close personal friend is Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

So can we finally put to rest the idea that he is harbouring some kind of Al Queda plan to take over the US and launch a terrorist attack on his own people?

As for the comments of the Reverend that have been overplayed, let me shed some light on it. What he said should not have been said from the pulpit. Then again, almost every evangelical-type preacher talks politics from the podium, so this is nothing new. What he said can be construed as racially insensitive and hateful, but they never air the entire speech, just sound bites. Since when do sound bites capture exactly what was being said and how it was meant.

I was raised in a nearby neighbourhood from where this church is located. Many of my friends growing up went to churches of these types and listened to and agreed in spirit with some of what those sound bites were saying - if you looked at it from another point of view.

I am in no way endorsing what the Reverend has said. I think politics do not belong in the pulpit. I do not agree with someone who should be a leader of people to say things in public that could continue to stir the fires of hatred and separation. However, even if it were unspoken, the sentiment is there.

The Reverend was born in 1941. From his experience, he has come of age at the time of the Civil Rights movement. He has seen the injustices done due to racial prejudice and that sort of thing is hard to forget when it happened to you. That is almost like asking a victim of rape to just forget about it and move on.

When Wright said, “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye…and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” He did not mean he was overjoyed at the prospect of the US having harm come on its soil. He was making the point that violence begets violence, hate begets hate. You know, the Golden Rule, if you look at it from the other side.

It is not good to stereotype a group of people nor assume everyone is the same.   The ones who have been most critical of Obama are also prone to generalizing stereotypes themselves (FOX News, I’m pointing at you.)  These same people who run down Obama on the basis of his association is the pot calling the kettle black.

Now if you want a reason not to consider Obama - look at his voting record, or should I say lack thereof.  Too many no-shows or non-votes to show us exactly where he stands on really important issues.

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In the US, the most vocal spokesperson on rounding up and shipping out the illegals is Lou Dobbs. In the UK, the most adamant speaker in protecting the UK from so-called no-go zones for non-Muslims is Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester. They stir people up on both sides of the issue.

The US has always been thought of as “the great American melting pot,” but the reality is most of the new immigrants coming here have always faced hostility and distrust. The early 1900s had waves of European immigrants that were coming out of horrible economic situations to make a better life for themselves and their families. All they wanted was a chance and they faced numerous acts of hostility such as signs in windows saying “(Ethnic Group) need not apply.”

Eventually, these immigrants clustered in their own communities, started business enterprises, and were in a position to be a viable part of the economy. The blended in while retaining their cultural identity. Did I mention the obvious? They were also white.

Whilst these immigrants were blending in, those who were former slaves were still not allowed to play the game. They were always kept at an arm’s distance from blending in which caused the Civil Rights Movement. Racism proved to be a factor in keeping African-Americans marginalized.

For many, Americans were meant to be white and Christian (barely tolerating Catholics and Jews) . If you looked the part, you could easily blend in the “one of us” mentality. This “melting pot” was always one-sided. You could keep your culture as long as it did not overpower the majority or make them uncomfortable.

The rise of the liberals were greeted with the same enthusiasm as Communism. Liberals wanted a place where people were accepted no matter who they are, what they believed, or where they were from. It was this kind of thinking that made the Republican party members switch to becoming Democrats and vice versa. The era of the white male in power was about to be over.

Then a vocal minority who spoke out on behalf of other naturally born Americans who have always been here. The atheists have had to put up with the Christians who wanted to force it in every government institution. This is against the First Amendment. The Christian majority felt threatened.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair was the champion voice who opened the gateway. Suddenly, even the Christians who took for granted this was a Christian nation were up in arms over the threat of something different, scary and something they cannot understand. They wanted to drown out those who complained about the Christian rites and rituals sponsored by all taxpayers.

To be clear, the vast majority of Americans do identify with Christianity at over 50-80% depending on whose statistics you believe. Equally clear, the First Amendment specifically states the government is not to impose a religion upon the people. Many of the Founding Fathers group were in fact members of a Christian faith of some sort, but there were also members who were very much secular. The idea was to create a society of tolerance and freedom when it came to religion, expression, and the right to protest.

All of this hatred for people who are new and/or different is nothing new. It continues with illegal aliens coming from the south border. Unlike other immigrants who came into this country, these come in without going through the proper channels.

This group is creating a backlash in the US economy. Blame the big corporations and NAFTA as well as the”little guy” trying to save some extra money hiring illegals as cheap labor. Blame the government of the countries they came from for not doing more for their own people. Blame an unfair trade system which makes it hard for these people to live in their own countries.

Ever since the infamous 9/11, critics use this issue on grounds that these illegals are the same and equal threat as the terrorists. If they can sneak in and live among us without consequences, so can other terrorists (never mind the fact the terrorists came in through the proper channels or through Canada.)

The ones who cross the border illegally or overstay their welcome do so out of desperation. They are not terrorists. As illegals, they cannot rightfully blend in and are marginalized. They work in jobs without the same guaranteed protection an American worker. Many of them cannot speak English which forces our governmental system to spend money in order to communicate with that population and teach classes for their children. They are not allowed to be like the majority since they are illegal and embrace their own culture they understand.

A high school scene could explain the situation. Imagine a smart boy trying to befriend the popular jock clique. They make it clear he has no place in that group. However, he sees some similarities between himself and the accepting group of nerds.

The boy wasn’t really a nerd, he was just a bit smarter than most. The message was clear from the popular clique. He was now a nerd and the high school society marginalized him as such. It was the identity he could embrace and feel acceptance. He fully embraced nerd culture to the fullest extent. What else did he have going for him since the popular clique would never accept him?

The UK suffers a similar fate with the rise of Muslims. Although the Christians are clearly the majority (72% according to National Statistics Online) , Muslims make up 2.7%. Even the non-believers out number the Muslims at 15.5%. Even the chart used by The Telegraph shows that Muslims are still the minority. All different statistics on religion in the UK reflect that Christians are the majority followed by the non-religious. Together they are two-thirds of the entire population.

News articles seem to spread the fear that the Muslims are taking over the country. UK citizens react in fear and want to run away from their homeland. Run to where? Every civilized country on this planet has had to accommodate people from third world countries. Try going to Spain, or Germany, or Sweden, and you will see pockets of Muslims who have also been marginalized and feared making citizens of those nations want to leave. If you do find refuge somewhere else, would you forget your British traditions and embrace a new one? Could you change your lovely accent to fit in with the local speakers? Can you forsake king and country and blend in?

It is human nature to want to belong.  People want be with others they understand and respect, especially if they were rejected elsewhere. Many extreme Muslims are UK born with parents or grandparents who are immigrants. Even though they were UK citizens, they felt like mainstream society could not accept them.  Go ask the young people in suburban Paris why they are so angry and extreme and you will find you are doing the same thing to the young people in your own land.

If those who are afraid of the situations looked at the bigger picture, they would realize they are part of the vast majority - more of you than them.  You are in your native land.  You do more of a service to fix the problem by not reacting in hysterical fear. Find the root of the problem and fix it.

A Muslim cleric, Dr. Suhaib Hasan, was given undue attention for wanting to introduce Sharia law in the British courts. He is currently a judge in a sharia court which sits in hearings for religious matters that is not currently bound by the British court system.

Think of Sharia court in terms of an arbitration where the parties use it as an alternative to real court to enforce religious law.  The only problem is many who go to this court do so out of fear or obligation.  If they do not abide by the rules the retribution could be harsh.  Those who attend Sharia court are not under legal obligation to abide by the rulings because British laws override it.

Sharia law is simply incompatible with British law, just as the laws practicing Jews or practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses that cannot be enforced by the national law.  The Muslim population is clearly a small minority with a few very vocal and extreme members who make the problem seem bigger than it really is and the media is blowing it out of proportion.

Remember, under a Constitutional Monarchy the people have the right to decide the fate of their country.  Oliver and Richard Cromwell tried to overthrow the Monarchy altogether, but the unsuccessful venture led to the re-establishment of the House of Stuart.   The English Bill of Rights of 1689 set up the government by the dual monarchs of William III and Mary II is enjoyed today in all of England and the entire UK.  The 1215 Magna Carta set the foundation for how the legal system works.  It is clearly incompatible with Sharia law.

With that in mind and the fact that the population of extreme Muslims are in fact the small minority, all this panic does is marginalize people who already feel alienated who feel they have no other choice but to isolate themselves and become more extreme in a culture where they feel acceptance.

The other issue in the UK involves immigrants coming in and taking over jobs.  Natural born citizens feel squeezed out by the new pool of cheap labor.  They face the economics of a sudden pool of cost cutters who thrive on those undercutting  standard prices.

The face of that evil in the US is in Walmart. In the UK it is Tesco.  They have the most successful model of undercutting the prices.  People want to save money.  If given the choice of getting your milk from two stores and one undercuts the price by 10%, where would you buy it?

As a result of offering things on the cheap, these businesses make other local businesses suffer when they cannot compete with low prices.  The big companies become the only game in town offering the only jobs available.  They offer low wages since the competition is wiped out.  The effect of going cheap spread to other countries who work for less while the corporations get rich.  People in these countries need to earn a living and look to the US and UK for work.

Immigrants are looking for a place where they can make a better living.  Local businesses cut the corners by hiring immigrants on the cheap and displacing local workers.  Yet, the people who feel most threatened by the immigrants still shop at those places because they offer low prices which they need on their limited budgets.

Both countries have laws on the book on immigration that need to be enforced. New laws or a ridiculous fence won’t help.

And what is wrong with putting restrictions and limitations on the newcomers? The government is supposed to work on behalf of the people which include looking out for the economic security of its citizens. A glut of cheap, foreign labor works against the benefit of the citizens. Is it so wrong to put a cap on unqualified immigrants from coming into a country to take over jobs from a citizen just because the immigrant will work for less?

And why the racism attached with the immigration issue? Yes, we get it, they are different than the majority. They don’t fit in. They don’t make us feel comfortable. They refuse to be like we are and we don’t like it. We resent having to change our way of life just to accommodate them. Shouldn’t they remember they are guests in our country and they should adapt to our way of life? If we went to their country, they would never accommodate us… All the tiring lines repeated ad nauseam as a reason why we should continue to marginalize these newcomers.

Wouldn’t it be better to approach the problem with a more open, yet firm position? Understand that they do have a culture which they take pride in, but at the same time make it clear how you define your society and welcome them in along the accepted means your society has defined such as quotas on the numbers coming in and from where, language and education qualifications, and the understanding that by living there they are to abide by the laws of the land. Is that too much to ask?

You cannot have people coming into your land and let them walk all over you unless you let them. These fear campaigns by the media only make the problem worse. If you don’t like the direction your country is going, take it back by letting your elected officials know what you want. Multiculturalism does not have to overshadow your existing society unless you let it. Other cultures do add a certain richness to society. We can learn from others.

Why do I visit this unpleasant area? Most who are frequent visitors to my sites don’t realize that at one time I was diagnosed as “schizophernic”. I was in and out of hospitals because of the condition. Yes, I had issues. The doctor even told my parents there was no hope for me. They predicted I would probably end up on medication the rest of my life and depending on family to help me.

Needless to say that “prediction” caused a lot of stress in my family. It is not like a mental illness was a new thing to our family either. My uncle who I really loved as a kid was also diagnosed schizophrenic. The difference between him and me is he really is that way and I was not. I was mis-diagnosed.

I still have very vivid memories of the hell I went through trying to get through very hard times in my life. I was disillusioned after quitting a life long religion of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was taught almost all my life that this was the only true religion and everything outside of it was evil. Do you have any idea what that can do to someone when they start to see flaws? Scared of the real world and not wanting to be part of your old world? It was not a pleasant time, but that was not all I was holding in…

When I was 9 until the time I was 16, a close friend of the family, my mother’s best friend’s husband more than molested me. I am still haunted by that. I really can’t even talk fully about it. I was also raped when I was in college and had a miscarriage.

All of those problems along with the normal confusion of getting out of school and not knowing what to do with your life gave me a nervous breakdown. I attempted suicide several times which landed me in a hospital. It was not a good time, but fortunately, I don’t remember very much of this time. The times I do remember were bad enough.

As it turns out, I was actually suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I was treated as a schizophrenic with the same medications which only made me a zombie who could still remember all the problems I had, but unable to do anything about them

When one is diagnosed as a schizophrenic, everyone gives up. Your life may as well be over according to the doctors who will only lock you up for as long as the law will allow you in the state, give you your meds and a safe place to stay until your time runs out and then kick you out. The lucky ones have a home with loved ones who will tolerate them. The not so lucky are on the streets or in halfway houses. Most treated as if they were criminals for something they cannot help.

Fortunately, in my case, I started to question. I did not settle for what my particular doctors were saying about me. I found my own doctor who gave me a different perspective.

Doctors can be lazy. It is a human weakness. If someone already made a diagnosis, it is easier to just accept it as the truth without looking into it instead of coming to your own conclusions. Besides, schizophrenics mean money. They just don’t question and are often on state and federal benefits and no one takes them seriously. It is easy to keep them in their place and make what you can from them.

And just how are they treated? The institution I was sent to quite often in Tinley Park, Illinois was typical of state run institutes for the poor “insane” people. These are not criminals, but people who are having a difficult time coping with reality. Keep that in mind as I describe the place.

When I was just released from the E.R. from an overdose of pills, I was still out of sorts and very depressed that I did not succeed and looking for my next opportunity to finish the job. None of my friends were really there for me because they did not understand what I was doing. My family acted as if I was an embarassment and did not really want anything to do with me. I had no one. I was angry that the idea I had of what life was supposed to be was all a lie. I was afraid of always being a victim of people like the ones who raped me. I had no vision of life ahead. I was afraid the end of the world would come at any time and I hated god at the time. My whole world was upside down and no one could relate to what was going through my mind.

They had intake volunteers who would feed me a line of b.s. that everything was okay and all I had to do was look at things in a positive way. When you are depressed, you don’t even hear such things. When you don’t respond to such cheery messages, they label you further as a hopeless case before you are inducted into the manditory sentence — 21 days in the hospital, after all, suicide is against the law.

What happened there? In a ward of over 50 people in a locked unit with only 30 chairs and hard floor and a television set by the nurses who stayed behind their cage to be protected from us “lunatics”, I was wandering about for most of the waking hours hoping to find a place to sit and avoid the really serious problem cases who would fling their feces, go around slapping people for no reason, or talking out of their head.

People would smoke just to pass time or stare blankly at the television. What was on did not matter because all they did was drug you into a zombie-like condiditon. When in that condition, you were just too out of it to act up, but deep inside your thoughts which made you “insane” are still actively there. It was a horrible condition to be left in. The doctors would visit with you once a week for only 15 minutes, most of which you were silent while he did paperwork. Then he would see if the meds you were on made you behave and write down notes whether you could be recommended for release.

He never actually talked to you about your problems or tried to help. His job was just to see how the meds worked. When he was done, you went back to the general population. In the general population, there was nothing to do and every opportunity to be harassed by someone who was bored. When things got out of control, you could easily be taken down by a team of nurses who would have a straight-jacket and a shot to calm you down before being locked in isolation for hours. Quite frankly, they got it easier than the rest of us.

Imagine spending most of your waking hours in a small room with lots of other people and nothing to do but watch tv and smoking in the room when you are not a smoker. No place to lie down. No place to take a nap. Not really a good place to get a book to read. Points knocked off your behaviour sheet if you sat on the floor because there were not enough chairs to go around. It was hell. I was not the only one who had escalated thoughts of suicide in that place. Prisioners get treated better than the mentally ill. Because while the prisoners may have broken the law, they are considereed more human than those who have a break with reality.

Unfortunately, my uncle is really schizophrenic. There is no cure for his condition.
To this day he thinks he is personally in touch with god to cleanse the world of their sins, but one could say the same of any religious person. The only difference is he is labeled as not sane and therefore he is somehow less than human.

There still needs to be a lot more done when we consider how we treat the mentally ill. There are people who really believe in outdated notions that they are under demonic possession. Instead of giving them the understanding they need, they are usually treated as something repulsive that they should just snap out of.

I hope you can understand my rant and why I had to make it. It is just something I can’t really hide much longer. It is not a pleasant experience and I have my act together a lot more than I did back then. Now that I have kids, I worry all the time someone will hold my past against me. I also worry that it may stigmatize them in some manner.

Sometime people can change if they are determined, but in the case of many with mental illness, they will always have that condition, but they need to be treated with humanity as well as medication.

May Day began in the 1880s in the United States to fight for an eight-hour work day. Ironically, in the US it is now viewed as a socialist/communist agenda based day and for that reason this American created day is not celebrated freely in this country…unless it was downplayed and only by those considered Left.

2006, May Day had a purpose… to protest a pending bill which would in essence boot out all illegal immigrants and force them back into their countries without a second chance and discounting any contributions they have made to the US economy. Hundreds of thousands of people in the US participated, whether legal or illegal, by not showing up to work or school and not buying anything in an attempt to show the real clout this population has on the US economy.

As a result, many businesses with a large consumer market of first and second, even third and fourth generation immigrants as well as those who employ them had to shut down or suffer monetary losses.

Some critics could argue this amounts to economic terrorism, but a point is made clear, this country is made up of immigrants and immigrants are the backbone of this country. Without immigrants, we would have no one here but the original natives. If you felt so strongly against the immigrants, you could have easily tried to walk in their shoes by working their jobs and spending their share of the money.

I don’t know if I believe in this tactic for awareness, but I do sympathize with the message as my father is an immigrant from Jamaica. My mother is an American because she was born here, but she was raised in Jamaica and only came back shortly before I was born. I could have just as easily been born Jamaican.

Not all immigrants are illegal and not all illegal immigrants are trying to ruin this country. The law illegal immigrants are breaking is not on the same criminal level of murder, rape, extortion… The law they are breaking is on the same level of a parking fine, forgetting to file taxes on time, breaking curfew. It is only a minority which make a run for the border. Most come into the country legally, but due to forgetting to file the right paperwork in a timely manner have become illegal.

Illegal immigrants are here to make a living because opportunities in their country of origin is limited. Many of them even pay taxes as well as contribute to our society.

For those who are fearful of immigrants taking over and losing all the good jobs to them, there is a remedy, but you may not like it.

Start insisting that large corporation who export all the good jobs outside of the country pay a decent living wage which is comparable to what they pay in the US. It would lead to higher prices on all goods you buy, but it would also assure that the countries which are getting the jobs have some security and incentive to stimulate their own economies and create new businesses which would employ more local people leading eventually to better education and more opportunities in those countries.

At the same time, it would also mean more jobs would stay at home paying decent wages with benefits. We cannot have fair trade unless it is fair all across the board. Unfair trade is why we have illegal immigrants. Not all come here illegally, but most have just overstayed a work permit and continued to work as normal because the desire to go back home where there is nothing available is not an acceptable option.

And insist other countries do more to stimulate their own economies and assure their citizens are treated fairly when they work. If they accept funds from other countries to help them support their people, insist they are responsible with the money and can account for it in the form of better education and more job opportunities. Most foreign aid is wasted by corrupt governments who do not help their people at all. All this wasted money could have been used to make their country better.

When you have an upside down economy, eventually the fallout will come to surface in ways we do not like. That day will come soon to the US and it will not be easy. The workers in the rest of the world are realizing they have the right to be treated humanely and deserve better working conditions as well as better trade terms.

Sooner of later, the US will not have the upper hand and it will be a very sorry day for everyone. I do not say it to gloat, but out of fear. Unless we come to terms with the fact that it is not the US above everyone else, we will go down in flames. This narrow-minded view of immigrants is only one aspect of how this tunnel vision will ruin our country.

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I will also keep you posted to anything good or special for you to see for yourselves.

As always, I do appreciate you. You are the heart and soul of my business venture. Without you, I am just a silent voice. Thank you for coming by.

The problem is there is no official US language. While the most common language is English, it is not the official language. Many English speakers feel threatened by the growing Hispanic population who refuse to learn the common language and feel put out by having to accept Spanish as the growing language. This is why the distinction of trying to force the Southern border to be harder to cross rather than the Northern border.

This kind of fear is not a new thing. There was a time when the target of fear was the incoming Irish, the Polish, the Italians and so forth. In times before political correctness, you would see signs in business windows wanting to hire people that specifically said, “Irish need not apply.”

The Mexican, Cuban, and other Hispanics come to the US because of the lack of opportunities at home. How hard-hearted and cruel must one be to suggest that we shoot these desperate people trying to cross the border? There are actually people who think this way. They view these people in the same light of criminals who kill or sell drugs. While they are breaking the law and are criminals, the crime they committed is against immigration laws. Most who come to the country under illegal means and start working are usually law abiding people who just want to work and would been in their own country doing the same thing if the opportunity was there.

However sorry one may feel for their situation, one must argue that they are welcomed to come into the country in legal ways. As long as they are contributing to society in a positive way, we should welcome them. There are so many groups and organizations willing to help people acheive legal immigration, even if one crossed over illegally or overstayed a legal visit. When one has breeched immigration laws, they may have a harder time getting legal status, but it is not impossible.

I don’t completely buy the argument that immigration is the sole threat to the US job market. We reward big businesses by giving them tax breaks by sponging off the government and outsourcing jobs. We have a congress that has not agreed to up the minimum wage law leaving many people living below poverty. The whole NAFTA and CAFTA deals have only made things worse. It has created substandard wage jobs in Mexico and South America by outsourcing US jobs to places where people will work for less. Those in countries where they do not qualify for such jobs keep coming to the US because picking fruit in fields in hot conditions for long hours and little pay beats starving.

It is not as if Americans won’t do the jobs these illegal immigrants are doing. They just want to be paid a good wage to do it. If picking fruit in the field would support a family to cover all the basic needs, you would have many Americans lining up to take those jobs. Those jobs pay less than minimum wage for illegal workers and barely $6 an hour for legal workers. For such hard work, it is not worth the effort when one could apply for welfare.

The danger of illegal immigrants is they are often working for less than minimum wage, are exploited, and as many speak no English are taken advantage of by landlords and other businesses which keep them perpetually at the mercy of others. The businesses and employers exploit them until they can no longer be used and care very little to what happens to them next. That just is not right.

The reason employers seek out illegal workers is so they can get cheap labour. It’s all about the cost of doing business. As they are illegal, many do not pay taxes, but can still access the services paid out in taxes. However some do pay taxes and blend well into the population that no one asks questions.

The main fear is coming from a notion of what America is supposed to be…Anglo/Saxon in nature, traditional Protestant Christian, English speaking, everyone the same. It has changed and truly become a melting pot which is disagreeable to those who used to be the majority ruling class.

This kind of culture blending is happening in Europe as well and most people want to discourage it. National identities are being lost to multiculturalism. If this trend were to get out of control, the fear is there would be no distinction of one place to another. We could have a one earth race of people with identical blended cultures of everything. The things that made it special to visit another country would no longer be there. It would be like going to France and expecting a unique French cuisine only to get McDonalds which you could get at home.

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Is it a civil war? That’s debatable. Yes, there is trouble. There has been trouble since the alleged “mission accomplished” that has never gone away. Now this trouble has shifted from outside insurgents to inside conflicts between the Shias and Sunnis. The biggest spark was blowing up a sacred mosque followed by retaliation after retaliation.

Most of the Iraqi people just want to get on with their lives without having to worry about being blown up while doing it. They would like to have regular electric power and access to gas. Is it too much to ask that they be allowed to live a normal life without worrying about the safety of their families just because some in both camps are good at holding a grudge?

There are no clear demarcations to divide sides. There is no clear cut agenda that groups are rallying around. It is kind of a vague conflict with a lot of brutal fighting, but an all out civil war is not exactly there yet.

The US Civil war started off as a vague conflict and resulted in all out war. I don’t think this is a stretch to imagine the same thing could happen in Iraq. A civil war, in some aspects, is a positive sign of growth. The invasion of Iraq and its rebuilding has mostly been an outside intervention. A civil war is the ultimate way the people themselves can show they do have the power to make their own decision. However, they are not in a position where they can afford to flex such muscle without doing further damage to their infrastructure.

War is not a thing one should consider as a first option. Diplomatic means should always be sought before deciding to shed blood to prove a point. They do have the power in their hands to settle their matters in a peaceful way, but it may require the currently elected Prime Minister stepping down and having a new election.

Who knows, one Iraq may work if all the people are willing to have it. Then again, they may be better off as seperate countries with their own will and agenda. A critical part of staying together is the oil reserve. It is the only main source of wealth. If one area gets full control of it, this could lead to a desperate economic situation for those who do not have access to it.

Saddam may have been a ruthless dictator who needed to be toppled, but it really should have been an inside job. The Iraqis need to feel their own power and to make their own decisions, no matter what the rest of the world thinks. It was a mistake going in the way it happened. I can only hope any future leaders will look back at the way that war started and learn something to prevent such disasters.

It may have been a disaster, but it can always be corrected. Hopefully not at the expense of more lives lost.

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Sign This Petition Now To Censure Bush.

Why am I for this petition?

Among all things President Bush has done:

1. Illegal wiretapping
2. Invading a soverign nation without due cause that ended with thousands of lives lost
3. Ties he and his administration have had with corporations under scandal with stock trading
4. His reckless disregard of the Constitution
5. His reckless disregard of the national debt
6. His hiring of cronies no matter how unqualified for the job
7. His lack of response during Hurricane Katrina
8. His lack of response on 9/11
9. The secrets and half truths he and his administration plans which affect the rest of the nation
10. And a quote that is attributed to him that MUST be investigate where he says, “The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper.”

If even one of these are true, that is more than enough for a censure. If more than one is true, I think it calls for impeachment.

Bill Clinton has committed far less serious deeds while in office and he was quickly put up for impeachment. What Clinton has done did not endanger the lives of people in this country.

I have to ask, where do your loyalties lie, with the people of this country and this country itself or with Bush and his cronies who are selling us out? Your decision on this matter will let me know clearly whether you are for this country or against this country.

If he and his type can claim that line, so can I.

It’s All Food Related