THE BIG FUCK YOU FROM THE US PRESIDENT AND OUR "GOVERNMENT"

OK. You had to enroll in the armed forces so you would have a chance to go to college. Now, you've been pulled over to Iraq to fight "something" that our "fearless" leaders call a "war" --- meanwhile, your wife gives birth to you first child. You are not there for the birth. Medical problems are encountered for both your wife and your newly born son. Thank God, they both pull through and are OK.

However, your wife is unable to work and the baby requires a great deal of medical treatment. Insurance covers some, but not enough. Your wife uses that American Express Card you received to cover some of the bills to ensure that your son gets the best treatment possible --- that treatment is already not so good because your wive has to use the lower income hospital where the HMO makes all the rules.

Before long, you and your wife are spiraling into debt and your income for fighting Mr. President's "war" is not making ends meet. If only you could get home -- maybe you could get a job that would pay enough to get your family out of debt. But, you are stuck. Stuck until a bullet pierces your skull. Thank God, you survive. You are returned home and you begin the slow process of being approved for perm. disabilty. Your wive has developed hives from worry and you are becoming fat as the cheap food in the fridge seems to be all that can give you comfort. The medical bills stack up and the AmEx card dried up long ago. Neither of you answer the phone for fear of having to be treated like shit by some underpaid collection agent from AmEx.

Finally, your uncle convinces you to swallow your pride and file for bankruptcy. As he explains it -- this is the only way you will ever get your family out of debt and your only hope to start clean so that, maybe, you will be able to get your son into college one day --- if the HMO system puts enough effort into getting his health on track.

You find out that another of your buddies just came back from Iraq in a rubber bag. This only adds to the constant pain you're having to learn to deal with as the HMO feels you do not qualify for a special surgery available in Canada.

You recieve a formal notice that American Express is going to sue you. You contact a Bankruptcy Attorney. And, then you are told that your President --- the one you voted for because the Democrat seemed too "educated" to "get" you --- helped push a new law which ends the ability to file for bankruptcy. You and your wife will be paying $100 a month for the next 15 years to pay off the debt that was incurred while you were "protecting" the country you love.

Your President, Congress, Big Corporate Banks/Credit Cards and the Super Wealthy have just told you to fuck off. You are worthless and do not deserve a chance to rebuild your life so that your son might have a chance to escape the hell in which he is being raised.

The thought occurs to you that you are not even at the poverty level. You are middle class.

And you wonder, is this how it starts? The gradual errosion of human rights. The gradual take over by the coproate machine which keeps folks like your "President" wealthy. ...Will your son even have the opportunity to fight a useless greedy war so that he can get an education ---- or, by the time he is 17 --- will you and your family become slaves working in camps designed to keep the machine running while the wealthy go on about their businesses?

How long will we all just sit and watch our country continue to bully other countries and de-humanize anyone who makes less than $150K a year? How long will we continue to allow our government to define what is "appropriate" love? How long will we allow our rights to be taken away so that Bank of America and Sony can make more money? How much longer will we let our farmers, nurses and teachers be underpaid and overworked? How much longer we will continue to all agree to sit in the back of the bus because we do not opt to live the life a few assholes have decided is the only "acceptable" way? How long will people pretend that folks like C. Rice is not really scoring points for the rights of women or the advancement of People of Color? How long before we realize that she is little more than a sad Uncle Tom parody used to fool the masses? How long before the inner-city gangs wise up and turn the guns away from each other and aim them at "us"? How long before we stop worrying about other countries and focus on the fact that we have people in our country who barely get enough food to eat? How long before we realize that our failure to put more importance on education is destroying out future? How long before we do something about the fact that the evil men behind the Enron scandal are still walking about free while the 18 year old kid who held up a convenience store with a toy gun is sitting in prison till he hits his 58th birthday? How many more of our kids are going to die "protecting" democracy when we really know that they are there to keep us close to oil? How much longer are we going to let people like George Bush ruin our country?

How much longer are we all going to be stupid? ...or, is it already too late?