THE LAND OF THE BRAVE AND FREE It's interesting to note that the sentiments expressed by Richard Nixon in the first six months of the 1972 (The Age 2/3) (contained in the tapes just released from the White House) that if the anti-war Movement was not destroyed, he envisaged "a wild orgasm of an anarchists sweeping across the country like a prairie fire". If by some chance that prairie fire had burnt across the United States, the United States would not be the death loving culture it is today. People, who still believe that the United States is the land of freedom and opportunity, only have to examine the facts to see that the myth still outshines the reality. At any one time, the United States has around 1.5% of its citizens in jail, mainly blacks and latinos. The gap between the rich and the poor is the widest in the western world. The United State's government, through the activities of its armed forces and the C.I.A, has been responsible for more coups and deaths in the world, than any other government over the past three decades. The United States holds the largest supply of weapons of mass destruction in the world including chemical, biological, as well as nuclear weapons. It's people are so disillusioned with the political process that only 33% of registered voters, vote for the Congress and Senate and only about 45% of registered voters, vote for the President. The politics of hate and segregation still play a pivotal role in United States life. The economic dream is manipulated by a corporate sector that continues to strive to create profits, irrespective of the human, social and environmental costs. The United States executes more of its citizens than any other country other than China. The United States government acts as if the rest of the world exists for the benefit of the United States. If Richard Nixon's nightmare about anarchism had become a reality, its probable that September the 11th and its aftermath would never have happened. Thirty years on, the names in this story may have changed, but the tactics of the Presidency and the United States Senate and Congress have not.
