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Not quite free
But an abundance of bravery

By Pooyan Sadeghi
February 18, 2003
The Iranian

America. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. Free and Brave. Brave and Free. What an odd pairing of concepts. Why would someone who has all their freedoms need to be brave? It seems that in a free society, bravery is simply not a commodity. You would, in essence, have nothing to be brave against.

And why would anyone who is brave need their freedoms in the first place? I would think that if they were really brave they would just take their freedom. They don't need a 'Land of the Free' to have freedoms, because they are brave. Brave people don't take no guff from nobody. I guess when that song was written, it was during a transitory phase. Not quite lacking in bravery, and not quite free.

The people, supposed Americans at the time, although the seemingly anachronistic term 'colonialist' applies, were bravely in the act of installing their freedom. And truly, they were brave. It's like, say, the Palestinians fighting for their freedom. In essence, a civilian population taking arms against an occupying military presence.

Of course, those silly Palestinians don't have another group of people to handily expropriate, such as a group of people lovingly, although perhaps incorrectly, named Native Americans. Because if history has taught us anything, it's that If Americans want anything, an entire ethnicity or even race must pay the price. Which brings me to the 'African'-Americans.

Or as every White man in the south cheers: the Slave-Americans. 'God bless the Slaves' should be the new motto on every piece of currency the US Treasury prints. We couldn't rape and slaughter other cultures and people, undermining their aspirations of self-actualization and democratic rule without the slaves to have helped create an economy as cheaply as possible. I mean, how else would the US have been able to become a hegemon in a little less than 200 years?

Which brings us to what's going on today. Iraq. Yes, we all know Bush is an idiot. It's quite possible, although I wouldn't put money on it just yet, that the organism carrying both an X and Y chromosome and currently calling itself the President of the United States hasn't had an honest day's work in it's entire life. I guess that means he has no idea what life is like for the other life forms.

I'm sure he wants to drop cluster-bombs over Iraqi men, women and children so he can find that as-of-yet undescribed life-form in the hopes of having another organism to relate to. Because other than the oil, which could possibly play a role, what else could there be? Even the leader of the catholic religion, the Pope, is standing up against this looming war. This poor old man doesn't stand up even to relieve himself.

Don't forget the millions of Americans who didn't vote for him and the thousands who did that took to the streets this weekend to remind their president-'elect' that he works for them too, not just the corporations that paid for his candidacy or the retired Jews in Miami county Florida who mistakenly voted for him.

Sadly, it occurs to me that the Bush Administration is essentially occupying the land of the Americans. Maybe the terms 'Brave' and 'Free' still apply. After all, seems like we're in another transitory phase. Not quite lacking in bravery, and not quite free.



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