this piece was inspired by all of the greed, corruption, money, and control lust out there.


it's not right that our country is run by businessmen instead of people whose collective will is to properly govern the country. for instance, take the current presidential administration. in this administration alone, the members have strong ties to the following companies: Monsanto, Pharmacia, AT&T, Microsoft, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Motorola, Lear, Amtrak, Philip Morris, General Electric, American Electric Power, BP, Ford, NL Industries, Northwest Airlines, Clorox, Bank of America, America Online, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, United Airlines, Boeing, CSX, Business Roundtable, and Qualcomm. in addition, Bush is the first U.S. President ever to have a Master's Degree of Business Administration. kinda funny though...he got in in 1975 from arguably the most prestigious business school in the country (Harvard), and then afterwards ran two companies (and a country as well) into bankruptcy. yet, we follow him blindly, gawking at his admireability and nominal title. we watch him tell us who's boss and whose foxhole we're going to smoke out next, and we cheer and slap bumper stickers on our cars for some cloudy cause that we never took the time to evaluate. anyway, the point is that our wars are no longer fought for justice, but for profit. our entire culture is being replaced by a conveniently marketed lifestyle. we binge on pills to treat the side effects of medication that treats the side effects of medication that treats minor heartburn. we look in the mirror every morning and wonder how much longer it will be until we've saved up enough cash to get our faces sculpted into a tom cruise or a julia roberts. we watch the scale tip 200 pounds, and then we whine about it to our fat loved ones over a big mac. mmm, there's nothing like ill-treated, hormone-injected, fecal tainted beef fat to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. oh wait...that's just the addicting chemical additives that ensure our return to the double arches. let's go get some more - we can drive our cute, gas-guzzling SUVs and be there in no time. but remember to get gas first. then we can sit back and complain about how awful gas prices are as we look out the window through the 'support our troops' decal, ignorant of it's meaning. oblivious to the obligation that it requests. let's think about that for a second. "support out troops." do we truly support them? do we listen to them when they come back and tell us that the war is not worth it? how about when they bring word that the iraqis prefered having Hussein in power because he left them alone...because he didn't bomb and slaughter their wives and husbands and children and demolish their houses and mosques (edit// this is in recent history, of course. we all know about the kurds and kuwait in the 80's, but that's old news. we had 15 years to step in, and doing so now for that sake would be absurd) - do we listen to them then? no. we don't. and we don't support out troops either. we just encourage their deaths with false patriotism. as Mark Twain once said, patriotism is always supporting your country, and supporting your government when it deserves it. who are we to think that we are being patriotic? flag sales and yellow ribbons don't mean a thing, no matter what Fox News tells you. and why do we think that our government deserves our support? have you seen our national deficit skyrocketing as our national budget plunges by the trillions? did you read about how we're neglecting the Kyoto Accord because it would mean less profit for corporate America? do you realize that the people that we're murdering in the Middle East are exactly like you and me? have you noticed that our military bases in Iraq are on oil fields?

i DEMAND that you take five minutes out of your pleasant life to think about this. it's honestly the least that you can do for yourself. wake up from your nationalism and say hello to humanity. please.