As a US Soldier, we are often told, perhaps to justify our possible deaths in combat, that "We Have To Protect Our Freedom" and "Freedom Isn't Free", etc. These statements people make about America sometimes make me wonder...the Freedom to do what? The freedom to gorge ourselves on as much food as we can eat, stuffing our faces with junk food until we are so obese that we apply for a handicapped parking permit because we can't walk more than 20 feet? The freedom to be so fat that when we go to a store we have ride around in those electric carts that were originally placed there for the elderly? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 percent of all American adults are obese, up from 12.5 percent in 1991.
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At first I gave Bush the benefit of the doubt, supposing that maybe Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction, or WMD. It turns out they haven't even found any WD-40. As of this date, 29 September 2003, the only Weapon of Mass Destruction in Iraq is the US military. It also seems the media has dropped the whole thing, too, one never hears about WMD’s anymore. More and more I am embarrassed of being an American. It reminds me of when I was in Germany and whenever I hitchhiked or took a train across country, instead of an American flag on my backpack, us wiser expatriates sewed on a Canadian flag.
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I dream of a nation that provides quality public education to any citizen that wants it, from pre-school through college, as it is in Germany. We as a nation are sorely lacking on all three counts; we have families living in third world conditions for lack of housing, we have citizens that have to decide whether to buy medicine or food, and we are graduating students who have trouble writing their name. Our infrastructure is eroding, our states are all broke, yet we are sending ANOTHER $62,000,000,000 to Iraq, even though they have the worlds second largest oil reserves.
Meanwhile, we have the worlds largest defense budget and the government is bombarding us daily with fear, as if we are on the verge of invasion from all sides. I propose we slash defense spending by at least 50% and work on a smarter, more streamlined military. I propose we double teachers salaries, build more schools and test our teachers regularly. We produced quality educational facilities in the past, we can do it again.
Well, that is my rant for the month.
http://www.graffiks.com/dylan_articles/dylan52_generica.html
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