America is broken. America has been broken for a long, long time. To fix what is broken would require the scrapping of most of our infrastructure. It would require a rewrite of the legislative structure, including instituting proportional voting and a Senate that is divided by equal populations rather than by states. It would require the elimination of paid lobbying, the public financing of all elections, the elimination of crimes without victims, the institution of greater regulation controlling all commerce, the reinstitution of progressive taxation, the reinstatement of the estate tax, the de-citizenation of corporations, the reeducation of America, etc. 

To "fix" America would require the elite to give up power and for labor to be valued over wealth. To fix America would require all of us to think for ourselves and to be educated about our history. To fix America, we would have to see America (and the rest of the world) as a "commons" rather than up for grabs. Of greatest importance, we would have to recognize the underlying engine of the corruption of America - the willingness of the our citizenry to be led by corrupt elites and our concomitant unwillingness to stand up to injustice. 

Is the situation hopeless? It is, if we continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over. It is, if we continue posing false enemies. It is, if we think someone else is going to stand up for us. Our only hope lies in ourselves. In our willingness to have perfect integrity in our lives and in our transactions with our fellow citizens. Corruption can't exist unless we, the people, allow it. The mess we are in is of our doing. It is up to us to redress it.

Eight things you can do:

1. Open your mind through meditation or through other means to cleanse the incessant howl of propaganda, hate and fear from your consciousness. You don't have to love your enemies, but don't hate them either. Until you do this, all your efforts will be unsuccessful. 

3. Let go of the idea of property and its hold on you. Let go of patriotism. Let go of capitalism. Let go of America. Let go of all belief. These are all traps designed to ensnare you. Instead, come to rely on your instincts, your intuition and your intelligence.

2. After you have cleansed your mind, speak out, without equivocation, about the truth in your heart.

4. Educate yourself and others about America.

5. Practice civil disobedience when the state places its needs over the rights of the citizenry.

6. Stand up to injustice, hypocrisy, and corruption wherever you find it. You will find a way.

7. Don't hope for miracles. Don't expect the ignorant (and proud of it) masses to rise up. Don't think you can convince a single member of the elite to give up their ill gotten gains. Instead, work on the above as if your life depended on it.

8. Humans don't always make the wrong choices. Some societies are peaceful and sustainable. Some people who are not sheep are also not wolves. Find them and work with them.

Johnny

The Truth about America

Open the newspaper. "Scandal, corruption and malfeasance" scream the headlines. Same as yesterday. And the day before. They're all going down! Wait, they got away with it! Wait, there's more! Yeah, the private will pay the price! Too bad the generals won't. They lied us into war? But wait, we're winning! We're bringing democracy to Iraq! Wait, democracy means a fundamentalist government? Wait, we upped the airstrikes! A scream erupts from my throat, long and unmelodious. I'm taking a news break.

We need, at times, to pause and catch our collective breath.  From the lies that got us into Iraq, to the lies that keep us there, from the corruption that is the Republican Party to the corruption that pervades our largest corporations, from the secret orders that take away our civil liberties to the secret prisons where torture is the norm. The breadth and scope of the corruption is staggering.

But, as we try to take stock of the horrendous calamities our leaders have brought us, we might ask the question: Are these events nightmare aberrations, just a hiccup in our history? And will we be able to regain the certitude that our nation is, once again, "the greatest country in the world?"

To find out we must look at America's actions today and compare and correlate them with the historical actions of the United States from its inception. Sadly, upon examination, we see an unbroken history of corruption shockingly similar to what we are witnessing today.

We've been duped again and again. And each time that we are taken in, it is done in the same way. An event occurs or is orchestrated by our leaders. The leaders and their minions describe the event in mythic terms designed to induce fear or hate. "Our borders aren't safe." "The yellow scourge." "Savage heathens." "Welfare mothers."  "America isn't Santa Claus."

Perhaps an illegal alien kills a marshall as he crosses the border. Our leaders scream that our borders aren't safe and we must enact harsher laws. Or a judge say we you can't have religious symbols in public building. The next thing you know we have God in our Pledge of Allegience.  Unions started to gain power for their members. Our leaders responded with attempts to portray unions as "Un-American." Now our leaders are saying that the left is stealing Christmas. No telling where that will go.The events that the leaders seize upon are transformed into myths designed to trigger us to act with hate, fear, greed, or just impotence. Just as long as we continue to serve the hidden agendas of our leaders. The popular press eagerly joins in the frenzy. Politicians fan the flames. The people are inundated with the myths until the myths transmogrify into what passes for the truth. Seventy or eighty or ninety percent of the people aligned behind a our new national identity. We come to see issues in black and white. "United we stand."

Then, the bloodbath can begin. Then, we will accept oppression. Then, we gladly march to war. To kill the enemy, the enemy that the myths create. We will slaughter the Native Americans and pray for our holy victory. We will enslave and lynch black people and berlieve we are only supporting "states' rights", We will send soldiers to kill the "commie" union workers who just ask for a fair shake. We, the people, will swim in the blood of the vanquished. Glory is ours. The greatest country in the world. With God at our side.

When our leaders want to attack other countries — Mexico, Spain, The Philippines, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, etc. —  grand slogans are crafted to demonize the new enemy. They reverberate down through our history: "The Monroe Doctrine,"  "Remember Goliad" "Remember Pearl Harbor"  "Remember the Alamo"  "Speak softly but carry a big stick," "The stakes are too high to stay home." "The war to end all wars." "a Day of Infamy," "Make the world safe for democracy." "Better dead than Red," "the Evil Empire," "The War on Terror" "Freedom is on the March."

And the myth-makers sit back and pull the strings and watch the show as we dance to their bidding. Until we are spent. Until the myth-victory is ours. Then, after a brief pause, a new myth is born. A new threat. A new fear to get us all excited. And off we go again. And again. And again.

Occasionally the puppeteers slip and allow us a peek behind the curtain, allow us to briefly see the strings. So, we rise up in righteous anger at being betrayed. We demand that legislation be passed to address our grievances. Then the process drags on and on with compromise after compromise and we end up settling for legislation that merely re-hides the strings and once again pulls the veil back over our eyes.

This is the great secret of America. That corruption is built in. It is not something that attacks the fiber of our nation. No, it IS the fiber of our nation. It is our raison d'etre. And it will always be so. Right? Or are we ready to do something about it? Now, wouldn't that be a new year's resolution!

Johnny Peaceseed

A letter to our leaders

Please Stop. Please.

Please stop. Stop the killing. You started it. Please stop it now.

Please stop the plunder of our resources. Don't you have enough?  Please.

Please stop raiding our children's inheritance. You've left little enough for them when they grow up. Please.

Please stop disrespecting our elders. Plan D? Come on, please stop hurting them.

Please stop blaming the poor and disadvantaged for the mess you've made. Are you so spoiled with your wealth and yachts and mansions that you no longer can see what you've done. I beg of you, please stop.

Please stop lying to us. Your lies hurt and confuse us. We want to love you, but you make it very difficult. So, please stop.

Please stop killing the brown and black-skinned people of the world. They are suffering under the weight of your repression. Please.

Please stop making up wars for us to fight. Do you want to be remembered as Hitler's disciples? Please stop.

Please stop child and prison labor and slave wages in your factories around the world. We don't need the latest shoes or hip-huggers that badly. Please stop.

Please stop making religion a tool of hate and aggression. Jesus and Muhammad wouldn't like it. Really.

Please stop torturing people. It does not become you or your family. Please.

Please stop devising ways to divide us. Can't we be just one great big family.  Please. We really would love to have you join us.

Whatever happened to you that hardened your heart and made you this way, we are truly sorry and we forgive you. So, please stop. Now. Please?

Pretty please with sugar on top.

Johnny Peaceseed