Ellington

In the past few years our nation has entered a new era. The phrase used widely is, "the war on terror."

I have no qualms with a war on terror, but I must first question the history and motives of any nation that wages such a war; it's the American in me.

My primary concern is the history of our national government. From the 1980-1990s, we experienced "the war on drugs," where we invaded Central and South America and imposed a "democratic society" that accommodated the interests of our national government.

In Nicaragua we threatened the nation with sanctions and embargos, unless they voted for our democratic candidate.

Much was the same throughout most of the region. And of course we supported it, because it was a war on drugs. The same drugs brought into our country by the CIA.

As Americans we even went the extra mile in supporting the cause by outcasting Latin-Americans, because our media constantly drilled the notion that drugs and Latin-Americans were synonymous.

In the years before, (1950-1970s) there was the "war against communism." We invaded various nations.

In Vietnam we were freeing people from a danger that apparently the citizens of Vietnam didn't even know of.

Communism was a fear that haunted all our citizens.

And of course, we were never hesitant to report any suspicious links to communism, which evidently pinned our citizens against one another further encouraging our national media to promote the fear of communism that persuaded us to support the war.

It is true the sixties was a time of change, but we mustn't forget how violent the struggle was.

When JFK hinted that we were going to pull our soldiers out of the massacre, our citizens praised him, while munitions companies opposed this idea, and with their overwhelming influence, dealt with it accordingly so that under Lyndon Johnson we remained at war.

Today, we our imprinting our imperial label in the Middle East, in what is called the "war on terror."

The media posts a terror alert daily as we sit as loyal citizens and support our nation in their pursuit to spread democracy, while American oil industries use our military as muscle to monopolize the world's resources.

Once again, we trade our freedoms for security and just as in the cases before, we out cast Middle Eastern Americans and label them according to the title of the war, "terrorists."

It is no wonder we are such racists. It is no wonder we have become a paranoid society. It is no wonder we cannot even trust our own neighbors.

As a nation of many races, we all go about our days suspicious of one another. In doing so, we have lost the ability to stand together and regulate our government's actions, therefore losing the core of our democratic society.

We are so fearful of these false threats that are constantly being injected into our society by the media, that we give our full support to save our asses from it.

The case is very simple, our government picks a fight with a nation that has what it wants. However, first as a democracy, it needs our approval.

That is when the media comes into play. A fearful threat is introduced, and as humans with natural instincts for survival, we respond by giving our full support to our government which protects us.

Yes, let us trade our freedoms for security. John Lock proposed a reasonable theory stating that governments were formed by man for security reasons. In doing so, some personal freedoms are given up.

If our national government continues to purposely inject these fears, we will soon find that we have no freedoms left.