I am glad the celebrations are over. I see the joy and faithfulness of the everyday person marching with America’s banner, knowing at the same time how it all is cheapened and used.
I see patriotism wrapped in dollar bills, political cynicism and the bodies of working class men and women. I am tired of a uniform being the only decent job option for too many young people. I am tired of the propaganda telling us to stand in line and salute. I am tired of the politicians and arms merchants whose children will never see the battlefield or the hospital at the front.
I want those who make their fortunes off war pay for ruining the lives of those who deserve better. I want politicians like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz and Henry Kissinger on the front lines with a gun in their hands with their children by their side. I want to see them face-to-face with the ISIS fighter with an M-16 in his hands.
It’s all for sale, my friends. The right to life and death goes to the highest bidder. The lies of Iraq are the lies of Vietnam are the lies of World War I. They are the lies of the future. The flag has become, for a long time, used and desecrated by those with no love of democracy; whose only love is money and power.
My respect stays with the grunts; the men behind the guns. As for those in high places who send others to do their bidding, their fighting and dying and killing, may God have little mercy on their souls.
Samuel Johnson said it best more than 250 years ago: “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”
Stephen Aucoin
Waterville
Send questions/comments to the editors.
