READ AT YOUR OWN RISK : Open Letter to America : IMC-SA

I would not wait, for your letter to be printed, as you could be waiting for a very long time. The american public, do not care, are not interested. They have sold their soul to the devils. As long as they have strong economic growth, they are happy. The last thing they will worry about, is rising sea levels,the flooding of towns and cities in europe and southern africa or even the death of cetain species of animals within our eco-system. If the american public really cared, they would have tore down the gates of the whitehouse or of congress. So that they would have got mr Bush to sign the koyto protocal and so that he would have left the isolated confines of the white house, for south africa. Or perhaps, he did not know where south africa.

Hello. As an American I am sickened to read such posts as those I have found here.

That having been said, it is not so much because of what you have said, but because of how tragically true it is.

To explain the American mindset I would have to be among the norm. I have friends who are among those who are asleep as you put it, so I will try to explain it from their' vantage point.

The higher classes, yes there are classes in America, they appear to be completely consumed with themselves. Pursuing life, happiness, and wealth - the American dream after all was supposed to encompass these things. Their children are raised by paid help, are sent to private schools and want for nothing. As teens they are spoiled rotten with $1,000 USD outfits, $30K automobiles, their way paid into the finest universities and colleges this land has to offer. These people are well traveled - as far as vacation sites go. So long as their fortunes continue to soar, the grades of their children continue to reflect upon the superiority of their parents, and their secrets are kept as secrets - all is well in their world. They couldn't truly care less for the events that occur overseas - so long as it doesn't interfere with their next vacation hotspot.

The middle class are mostly consumed with surviving while providing a little extra to make their family comfortable. These are the soccer Moms, the blue collar working class that works plenty of overtime, and pays through the nose for HMO medical benefits. Their children are sent to group day care providers while they're young, attend private schools in the larger cities, public schools in those communities that are still safe, and generally want for comparatively little. The parents then to summarize are consumed with their occupations, their mounting costs of living, the increasing cost of gasoline for their gas guzzling SUV and family Van, but more over with just being able to earn enough so that their family is comfortable. Their feelings towards the events of the world? That varies dramatically I'm sure. While they are effected by the gas prices, relatives having to go overseas to fight for a war that has never truly been justified in the world community, they are as I said consumed with providing for their family and have little else to provide for any lasting effort to change the way things go in this country. Other than this, reading headlines that indicate that a train wreck in Europe was caused by a terrorist bomb on the tracks is not really the top of their agenda to look at. They would far rather look at the sports section to see how their favorite baseball team did during the double header the day previous - and perhaps look to see what family event they could do the following weekend to keep their family unit stable and whole. Who can blame them? In a country where the unofficial policy is that you cannot raise your' children personally AND be comfortable what more can you ask of them?

The lower class, which I must admit includes most everyone I personally know, are those who are as we say; "Wage slaves." We are the men and women who work for an hourly wage. Any single man or woman working full time, 40 hours a week, at an entry level position in the region I reside within turns over only $14.5k to 18.7k USD. Cost of living - is approximately $14.6k USD. This does not account for food, vehicle breakage, replacement of furniture, maintainence of one's home, or even medical care of ANY variety. I trust that the numbers may be somewhat different per region - BUT - I am certain the ratios match out about the same.

These men and women are often forced to place their children in second rate day care providers they do not have the money to finance background checks for - or they cannot work. They are denied preventative medical care and are forced to settle for minimal health care in emergency rooms - usually resulting in receiving prescriptions they simply cannot fill. Dental care is at the mercy of sporatic dental programs that come and go like the wind. They are required by law to maintain expensive auto insurance - or they are fined heavily if pulled over and they do not have it. (This happens a great deal - for cursory inspections; so much for unjustified search and siezure.) Vehicle inspections lead to cars being forced off of the road - though they cannot afford to purchase better or maintain to a higher standard the vehicles they do possess. They are often dedicated to their children though their children often want for very much. Hand-me-down clothing and toys are appreciated by both the parents and the children.

How do they feel about what is going on overseas? Generally speaking they are struggling to survive in a different kind of "wilderness" than is found elsewhere. They're trying to stay afloat with lead weights around their ankles. Thus as a result MOST of the lower class do not have much time to worry about the tragedies and perrils of life in other parts of the world. They just want to survive their' own.

This all having been said - there are those who are out of the ordinary. Individuals who are unhappy with the system, unhappy with the beaurocracy, unhappy with just about everything this country has become and is presently doing. What can these few do though to change things? They do not listen to the few. They listen to the majority who are blissfully unaware of the true events occurring beyond their little lives. How did this happen? With most of the United States just struggling to make a living, a life for them and their' families, they have little strength to do much more than make a living - go home, watch a little of the boob tube, and get far too little sleep before the work day starts all over again. While we are known as "the land of the free", the "free" are now the wealthy elite. The lower class and the middle class - we're not free. We're wage slaves, bound the very oars of this ship the US has become. Whether this ship leads to an unfair trade occurring somewhere in another part of the world or leads straight to war - those of us below decks have no strength to rise from these oars and make any kind of declaration - let alone demands of our superiors. Our freedom is an illusion perpetuated by ancient slogans that now ring hollow. Even our valued freedom of speech is ... no more. We speak against our government and we are marked. Watched. Harrassed. Indeed ... even jailed. Even among friends the R word is seldom said above a mumble yet it seems that the R word is the only Chlorine for this cesspool of corruption this once proud land has become. If you're saying we need to vote for better representatives? You're speaking greek to an monolinguistic American-English speaking Minnesotan. We are given our choices - do we vote for the man who paid $20 million in the last month in a bid to become the next US president, or the one who paid $15 million? Both of which are undoubtedly business owners - ruthless in their own right, both again, most likely criminals out for their own gain. What's more - how do we gauge who it is we're voting for if not by those measures? Do we vote by platform? Candidates are not forced to uphold ANYTHING in their platforms. Might I remind you of "No New Taxes" from the first Bush in office. Do we go by the nature of their crimes they've committed in the past? Not hardly! If neither of them have been law abiding citizens, what is the difference?

As an American to an obvious outsider - I ask of you - what is it exactly that you intend for the people of this country to do? We are bound in chains, and there is nothing we can do. We the People are now We the Slaves. Our ancestors must weep at the shameful shadow we've become...

patriot149

Um, I sure this is an interesting article, but the Simsons are on television right now, so....

John Kerry began paying back Michael Moore for all his efforts on behalf of defeating George W. Bush. First on the list was a thorough cleaning of Michael Moore’s colon. After almost 40 minutes with a high velocity hose and a pair of shears, Kerry exited the rectum and pronounced Moore “polyp and turd free".

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK:

Open Letter to America from a Canadian