USA, WE THE PEOPLE, WHO GETS SERVED?

“ULTIMATE LOYALTY TO SERVE COUNTRY” General Yueh Fei ‘s mother SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY, CHINA

I read that today. It made me think of the term patriotism. From the Latin, Patria, country.Serve your country. But what is your country? What is loyalty? At any given point in time, a country is governed by an elected administration. They are transient. The people’s will is like fashion. It changes. It’s whimsical. So again what is country? Is it the literal geographic coordinates we occupy? If so how does one determine how one may best serve one’s country?

I dismiss the idea of service to a given administration. I didn’t vote for GWBush. Look at the shape this USA is in today. It’s monumentally depressed. It is engaged, against the will of the majority of the people, in a synthesized war predicated on the flimsiest excuse of “to prevent terrorism over there from coming over here”. This manufactured war is costing blood of men and women who mistakenly think they are serving their country. In reality they are serving the greed of war profiteers, Bush and his cronies, who could care less about the deaths of these people.

Which brings me to my current outrage that American citizens could honestly think that electing John McCain as our next President will fix the ills that our nation is currently beset with. The definition of insanity is: performing the same actions repeatedly and expecting a different outcome.

John McCain has voted 90% of the time exactly in step with Bush. So he shall be more of the same. That is NOT what we need to fix this country.

And again, my point is you can not serve a country until you decide what your country is. Or what you imagine it to be. I am an American by birth. But far too often I feel like a stranger in this land.

My definition of what my country is this: A place that lets me pursue happiness and flourish. Where I can watch my children lead happy lives. Where there is unity and harmony among the people. Where my taxes are used for services like education, health care, food and shelter.

I pay taxes. I am of the mindset that you get what you pay for. I am most certainly NOT getting what I’m paying for, and neither are you my fellow citizen.

Barack Obama is not an experienced leader in the sense of having governed or mayored etc. But he is an intelligent man who gives one the impression that he genuinely wants to help ALL the people, not just the small minority of the very rich. That makes better sense to me.