Since 9/11, a grand total of 45 Americans have been killed by terrorists.
45!
That’s about 3 per year.
I’m not going to callously marginalize the tragedy of 45 deaths. All these were people who had families, friends, dreams about the future. Each one is a sad example of what it means to live in a dangerous world.
But think about it . . . only 45 people have been killed by terrorists in the last 14+ years.
Last year alone, there were 16,121 HOMICIDES. 11,208 of those were people killed by firearms! That more than one gun killing PER HOUR!
Every 51 minutes in America, someone is killed by drunk driving. Almost 11,000 a year!
Last year 1,658,370 new cancer cases were diagnosed. 589,430 people died of cancer! That’s 1,615 A DAY! 67 people PER HOUR!
Over 102,000 people die EVERY YEAR from hospital associated infections — by the time you finish reading my article, two people will have died from filthy medical facilities.
Get this: Even greater numbers, meaning in excess of 216,000, die every year because of medical error! Yes, you read that correctly. Almost 600 people die EVERY DAY because of misdiagnosis or error in reading medical charts. “Golly gee. I’m sorry. It said 20.00 cc. I was sure it was 2000 cc. Oops! Can you notify the family of the deceased for me?”
I could go on and on. But this offers some perspective: Rare as it is to be electrocuted in a storm, you are seventeen times more likely to get killed by lightning than by a terrorist.
Let’s cut to the chase . . .
Since 2001, the U.S. has spent over $3 trillion on the War on Terror.
That’s $3 trillion with a ‘t’.
For $3 trillion we could have outfitted everyone with bulletproof vests, cured cancer, put breathalyzer shut-offs on every single car to keep drunks from getting behind the wheel, disinfected every hospital in America, outfitted every single American with a lighting rod, and probably had some money left over to train nurses and doctors how to read a chart.
What’s going on in this country . . . home of the brave, land of the free?
Oh yes, indeed we are free. Free to wake up frightened, go to bed frightened, live every moment frightened because . . . THERE ARE TERRORISTS LURKING EVERYWHERE! They hate us, they hate our freedoms, they want to chop off our heads, rape our women!
I agree about one thing for sure . . .
We should be afraid.
We should be afraid that our priorities are completely whack and that our government is overrun by self-serving lunatics, at the beck and call of our out-of-control military!
Here are some questions we should ask ourselves . . .
How many of you have known a friend, relative or neighbor who has died of cancer?
How many of you have known someone who has a family member killed by a drunk driver?
How many of you live in a community where someone was murdered?
Contrast your answer with . . .
How many of you know someone who was attacked by a Muslim?
How many of you know someone who was killed by a terrorist?
Folks . . . the War On Terror is a fraud!
It’s just a cash cow for our bloated military-industrial complex.
All I can suggest is this: Every time one of the fear mongers comes on TV and shows you guys in ski masks and tell you to hide under your bed . . . GET A GRIP!
You are more likely to get hit by a bus while you’re under your bed, than be attacked by a terrorist while standing at a bus stop.
Here, folks, is my prediction for each and every one of you for 2016.
Ready?
You WILL NOT BE KILLED by ISIS or al Qaeda or al Nusra or by boko haram guerillas.
Actually, you’re much more likely to be killed by your local police.
Choose A Symptom, Ignore The Disease
Willful ignorance, cognitive dissonance, reductive rationalization, diversion or delusion — call your suicide pact Kool Aid whatever you want — has little sway with the Grim Reaper. Just ask Steve Jobs. He thought he could beat the Big C. He was dead wrong.
America made its bargain with unspeakable Evil and now is afflicted with the cancer of its own corruption and self-sabotaging choices.
To avoid the pain, it has euthanized its democracy.
To avoid thinking about extinction, it has embraced fantasy, magic, demagoguery.
To avoid the humiliation of moral bankruptcy, it has exalted profit over people.
To mask its treachery, it wraps itself in the flag, thumps on the Bible, and proclaims: “You’re either with us or against us.” Anyone who doesn’t fall in line is carted off to a for-profit prison.
To keep the sheeple giddy as we sashay to slaughter, it now promotes puerile pandering, grandstanding and simpleminded showmanship over a principled, thoughtful, honest and constructive national conversation.
Thus . . .
Elections have become a circus. The center ring is reserved for the ones with the shiniest teeth-whitened smiles, biggest megaphones, and most dazzling tricks.
It’s all so very entertaining, eh? What will Donald Trump say next? Ha ha ha!
America has hollowed itself out from the inside. As is embarrassingly and frighteningly evident from the current presidential campaign, the political system can now only collapse into its own vacuousness — the black hole of a sham democracy.
Trump, Cruz, Clinton, Sanders? They’re symptomatic of the times. The inflammation. The nausea. The diarrhea. The vomiting. They’re the struggling, heaving, gasping of a deathly ill body politic, telling us something’s very wrong. Quick! Call an ambulance! Vital signs are fast disappearing!
So I say . . .
Don’t yell at Hillary. Or Trump. It’s like yelling at a stuffy nose. Or a rash.
They’re just symptoms. It’s a waste if time.
We need to get to the root of the problem.
“What’s the disease? Cancer you say?”
Cancer is not a simple pathology. It’s complex and multi-pronged — which, of course, is why it so stubbornly resists a comprehensive and enduring cure.
The form of cancer which is destroying our nation is a like self-replicating Hydra which has metastasized throughout the entire infrastructure of our economy, ravaged the entire political system, leeched the media of any integrity and efficacy; it has polluted even the basic support systems of our churches and community organizations; it has completely poisoned the collective consciousness of our citizenry.
This brazen and aggressive malignancy feeds on:
1) Unchecked imperial ambitions.
2) Exceptionalist hubris and arrogance.
3) The crushing power of corporations.
4) The militarization of everything.
5) Plutocratic tyranny and greed.
Trump? Clinton? Cruz? Sanders?
Choose your symptom. As if it makes a difference.
Each has his or her own special twist. A plausible version of reality.
Adult fairy tales. Bedtime stories. Go to sleep now. Dream the American Dream.
At the same time . . .
If we listen very carefully to them, as tedious and exasperating as that often is — with their carefully-crafted rhetoric, focus-group tried-and-tested talking points, slick sound bites, patriotic pandering, tongue-wagging, finger-pointing, massaging and masking of the truth, manipulation of public perception, their smooth seductions and patronizing provocations — we do indeed see what the real problem is. It’s right there staring back at us through the rheumy, half-closed eyes of a patient on life-support, whispered, but still audible, in the phlegmy rhythm of an incipient death rattle.
Our country is very, very sick.
And yes, I include Sanders as a symptom. Here is a decent human being who is being vilified as an extremist and a socialist nutcase because he promotes such controversial ideas as: Every person has a right to a living wage, and every citizen should get proper, affordable health care. Isn’t that an obvious sign that the central nervous system of America is being ravaged by some malignant flesh-eating bacteria?
None of these candidates will talk about the disease itself.
Because none of them has a cure.
There’s only one cure.
Us. That’s right . . .
You and I.