YOU VET YOUR LIFE

Dear Readers,

For those who's history only goes as far back as the Imac, Veteran's Day probably needs some sort of explanation. Arising out of the slaughter of World War One, so many people had been affected by the loss or maiming of a loved one, some sort of acknowledgement of the wasting of so many lives needed to take place -probably not for sentimentality's sake, but in order that the people in power could maintain that control over the mass of humanity that sustains those who seek to rule.

It's in this context that we observe another yearly recognition of those who choose to defend us.

Yet there are those of us who command the airwaves and earn huge salaries by stoking prejudices, railing against common sense and urging our country into military folly that see our brave boys and girls as (as Bob Dylan once wrote) as 'pawns in the game', and want to send even more of them into a mindless Moloch of misguided madness. Yes, Rush, Glenn, Sean and Bill, I'm talking about you.

The right-wing 'chicken-hawks' who feel it's their duty to urge young men and women to take up arms -when they did not bother to- should be ashamed of themselves, even as they pose as 'patriots', stirring up 'teabag' mobs into action against ideas which do not suit these media satraps' notions of how we should behave. Men with microphones are the bravest - as long as it's not they who are doing the dying.

Yes, this country should absolutely revere those who have taken up arms in defense of this democracy, and many have died horrible, painful deaths in fighting fields where honor and liberty was at stake - but survival was what it came down to in the end. Without realizing it, they were metaphors, and it pains me to see so many right-wing blabbermouths elevating their own status on the dead bodies of people they view as mere fuel for their own firestorms.

But life isn't fair, and the cowards who have suddenly found militarism thrive while the very audiences they pander to send their children off to hopeless, murderous wars.

I sleep uneasily thinking about the veterans who have been maimed and slaughtered in service to this country, but Glenn, Rush and Sean sleep peacefully in the confident assurance that there will always be armies willing to die for their wealth and comfort. Is this a great country, or what?