Ashamed!
No, it isn't just the 2nd Nakba in Palestine and America's relentless, uncritical support of the state of Israel
There are times when I feel truly ashamed to be an American and wish very much to leave still again. Fortunately, or even unfortunately, it will not happen. On the one hand, I am trapped by both my age and financial situation; on the other hand, I can no longer escape my own sense of conviction that America is worth important sacrifice. No, I am not talking about losing a limb on a battlefield on the other side of the world, nor even military service in general.
Neither has my conviction anything to do with the reason that people are currently pouring across our borders often without any ID. For, their view of America is shallow at best. What one sees from afar, and what one knows close up are truly two different things when it comes to human thought and behavior and the way in which these are organized socially. I know this for a fact, for I have spent much time in both places — both far away from America as an international vagrant trained in the social sciences of American academia and very close up as the son of a German immigrant who fought against Japan in World War II and a second generation American mom of Dutch and German descent.
When one considers who is funding the mass migration across our Southern border we should all take pause and reconsider. For, it is barely the Chinese, and hardly the Russians; rather, it is our own Department of State in cooperation with the United Nations, numerous privately owned and managed American NGOs, our many local American governments, and ultimately the American taxpayer — you and I — who are ultimately responsible together for the free plane tickets, bus rides, and smartphones, as well as the lodging, food, clothing, and medical care received by these unvetted trespassers. And, this is to say nothing of the numerous privileges conveyed on these newly arrived, unwanted “guests”. Yes, America was built by immigrants, but today America is being threatened by their presence.
Immigration has worked throughout American history, because new Americans were quickly absorbed into American society. Yes, the word quickly has always meant different things to different people in different situations, but in this context it means the overall rate of absorption (assimilation) of new arrivals into American mainstream society that matters most.
When I was much younger American intellectuals had already begun to speak of minestrone soup as a substitute for the notion of a melting pot, and today we speak about identity politics, as if identifying with others with a few carefully selected and shared human traits were a healthy substitute for the culture of rugged individualism and strong local community upon which our nation was founded.
When I was much younger, government was the last place that most Americans would seek a profession. Government jobs did not pay as well as those in the private sector, and the opportunities for professional advancement were far fewer. In an undergraduate economics class in the late 60s and early 70s government spending — including spending at the federal, state, and local levels — as a percentage of total spending was approximately 15 percent. Today, federal government expenditures alone account for 25 percent of total national spending including consumption, investment, and net exports. Even more horrific is that all levels of American government combined account for nearly 40 percent of the total! These numbers are absurd and completely unAmerican. Yet, it is an important reason why immigrants are pouring across our borders in record numbers.
Our politicians have forsaken us and our nation. This is surely the case, and it makes me ashamed, if not disgusted.
Every year, the President of the United States stands before Congress to deliver his annual State of the Union address and Congress applauds itself on behalf of all of America. What exactly are they applauding, if not the greatest money and wealth racket in the history of humanity? What is very tragic in this applause is the fact that We, the People, have allowed this to occur. What is worse, many of us simply turn away and attempt to go about our own business, as if there were nothing to be done. Many simply surrender with the words: “So long as the government keeps delivering, there is no reason to complain”. Deliver what, exactly?
My fellow Americans, it is not even about real wealth that has been stolen; rather, it is about our individual freedom from government control and oppression — our liberty as the citizens of a state whose authority to govern arises from the consent of the governed, We, the sovereign people of the United States of America.
The only people in the United States who should be fearful are the foolish, the criminals, the politicians, and government itself. The foolish should be fearful of themselves, the criminals of the state, the politicians of their electorate, and the government of the courts. Today, however, the foolish command our streets, the criminals are allowed to go free, the politicians listen to the people only to learn how better to control us and steal our wealth, and the government creates policy rules that are treated by the courts, as if they were laws enacted by our elected officials. The result, is a nation without a rudder, adrift on an ocean of social chaos. Seemingly helpless we are watching the destruction of the American ethos as it unfolds. This destruction is impairing the mental and physical health of the average American citizen and ruining all that for which American has ever stood.
In the end, we have a choice. We can continue to go down this road of decay and misery while our elected officials cheer themselves on in Congress, our State legislatures, and city and county councils across our once great nation, or we can take a stand, embrace the American system of governance as conceived by our nation’s founding fathers, and purge the halls of American government of the rot and decay that has infected our once hallowed halls!
Need I say more?
In liberty,
Roddy A. Stegemann, First Hill, Seattle 98104
Author of Mount Cambitas - The Story of Real Money