Living the Matrix -- Can You Believe It?

"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ..."
~~ General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

Ever since we fell into this dark, gloomy abyss shortly after the thievish 2000 (s)election, many of us felt stranded -- forced to live in fear and confusion above the transitory rabbit hole. More times than not, I felt I was locked in an alternate universe -- playing out the movie character "Neal" like in the 1999 cyber-thriller, "The Matrix".

The last four years have been surreal. A dreadful and draining experience -- one hell of a hawkish, bloody four-year "Nebuchadnezzar" ride! However, Americans have an amazing resilience for truth and compassion. You can fool them once, twice -- even more -- but once they realize their freedom, their democracy, is in danger, they become an irresistible force.

In case you haven't noticed, many of our misinformed, behavior-modified citizens have already wised-up. And, every day, countless more are choking down Morpheus' symbolic, mystic "red pill" serum to receive their long-overdue wake-up call. It hasn't been easy. Contradicting a complicit White House-controlled news media -- fighting off a virtual hornet's nest of stinging right-wing pundits who soar from corporate hives to serve their masters has not been an easy task. And it surely hasn't been a walk in the park for those who refused to give up; who are still exposing state-sponsored lies and fake, politically generated terror alerts designed to keep us obedient -- cowering in fear.

The light at the end of the tunnel is a result of Internet patriots devoted to uncovering the truth, and exposing the shameful performance of corporate mainstream media. The Internet -- and the many grassroots organizations, the critical peace and environmental movements that have furthered public awareness and influenced civil action has brought us to where we are today.

Because we were attacked on multiple fronts -- not the least of which was the omnipresent Attorney General John Ashcroft -- that is where we still struggle. Immediately after the Sept. 11 attack, Ashcroft, in a blatant attempt to stop a backlash of dissent and protest, went before the Congress and threatened, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists."

But, this is America, and Ashcroft could neither silence nor prevent citizens from exercising their civil liberties and patriotic disobedience. I am proud of each individual who continues to protest -- to march for freedom -- in the streets. Even those who continue to speak out as they are herded into barbed-wire "First Amendment" pens surrounded by helmeted, jack-booted troops are a thing of beauty.

Americans are not idiots. Many of them thank the global megaphone ramblings of our presidential village idiot for their wake-up call. How long did he think his, "Yer either with us, or yer with the terrorists" mantra repeated ad Infinitum from atop his teleprompter soapbox would play in Peoria -- while American citizens were returning from the killing fields in wheelchairs and coffins?

It's amazing how quickly the neo-cons managed to turn the entire world upside down. It hasn't been that long ago when the world gazed upon the United States with admiration, astonishment and respect. However, thanks to boy George and his cabinet of corrupt "Vulcans," anti-Americanism now runs rampant across the globe.

Our foreign friends who have been beaten into submission should know that Americans understand the meaning of blackmail and coercion, and most appreciate the price paid by those who declined to participate in Bush's falsely propagated preemptive war. Most of us feel comfortable in giving our word that, after our own regime change in November 2004, we will do everything in our power to correct acts of revenge imposed upon "old Europe" by our tainted US Supreme Court-appointed rulers. We will attempt to reverse the damage inflicted on the world.

You might even say we are "born again" -- the umbilical cord of aggression has been cut. No more acceptance of fear and deception of all for the selfish gain of the few. More Americans every day wake up to the fact that the War in Iraq was only the first of many scheduled death marches planned for us by the crude and powerful Project for a New American Century (PNAC) boys. This must be, and will be, stopped.

History books are full of past examples of how other fascist rulers have ruthlessly attempted -- and failed -- to conquer all of the world's natural resources through global war for profit. If only the PNAC cartel had boned-up on history's little lessons before they blueprinted this nightmare, perhaps in doing so they could have saved themselves and us the trouble of having to do it now. History has proved, time and again, that crusades such as those advocated by Bush's "brain," Karl Rove, and his national security advisor Condi Rice are always doomed to failure.

So many lives destroyed. So much misery inflicted. So many people displaced and suffering. I guess the best lesson to learn from all of this is best described by one of those who has paid the ultimate price for his actions -- Nazi leader, Hermann Goering, who said at the Nuremberg Trials before he was sentenced to death:

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

The Chinese have a saying as well: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Well, we have already taken that first crucial step. Furthermore, we have accelerated past a brisk walk and are now up and running! Getting rid of Bush is only the starting point of a long journey that still lies ahead but, in the end, our destination is a calm place where peace, love and happiness of life unites and strengthens us all.

And, when we arrive, family members and friends of our brave will no longer have to hold their breath worrying if their loved ones have died on the killing fields of Iraq or elsewhere. We must have a strong military in order to remain safe, but we must ensure that those who do choose to serve in the military are not foolishly sent into harm's way for any one man's selfish interior motives. We must return to a democracy where war is the "people's choice" and is considered the action of last resort, not a fascist fallacy of those who choose to sacrifice our citizens for selfish gain.

Should we make the unfortunate choice of going to war, then I demand that those who do die should as a minimum, be given a true hero's welcome when returned home. Not quietly sneaked back in to Dover Air Force Base in the dead of night with a White House-mandated media blackout serving as a nerve block to prevent the public from putting a real face of death on war.

The healing has begun. All the signs are there. Maybe it's a quaint and subtle poem that speaks to us in our dreams, or perhaps it's an almost daunting song played outside your window on a calm summer night. Can you hear it? It's floating right now in the breeze like a winding, whispering love song through the trees, softly singing -- as gently as the wind in the following poem which I wrote for my fellow Americans who never stand still.

*Vincent L Guarisco is a freelance writer from Bullhead City, Arizona, a contributing writer for many web sites, and a lifetime founding member of the Alliance of Atomic Veterans. Replies welcomed at: vincespainting1@hotmail.com

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