July 5, 2006 | Notes from a PMSing South American Canadian Hello Eric,   The American government sucks. And to be honest, I believe the vast majority of American people are not scared. They're just lazy apathic and pathetic, their only motivation is to protect their salaries, their houses and their cars, not the thousands civilians now dying in Afghanistan and Irak. Of course, you have your heroes and warriors. But what good is it if you have no solidarity? This world, it's upside down. Our lands, they're cursed with all these children's blood spilled. Our humanity sucks, we don't deserve this Earth. We're fucking immoral morons, still letting people die while watching soccer on TV. So I ask Americans, would you let this happen if someone was threatening your sun's, your brother's or your own precious life? No, you would fight with your bare hands, you would put on a strike, start a revolution or whatever. You would go to that White House, with policemen, horses and dogs, you would rapt these people by force and bring them to justice ! Do something for God's sake, stop pretending changes are graduals, spill some ayahuasca in their water or something!   Happy 4th of July, you Idiots! (please, don't take this personally)   A woman on PMS. = and a response I read that letter from a South American Canadian and I think she has it right to some degree.     From my viewpoint as one that is not participating in the great American worship of consumption and acquisition, I see too many of my neighbors and peers only thinking of the latest Lost program, or the next Making of a Star episode.  These people talk about their plans for their lake trip and keep living like the world owes us  the riches we have.  These people wouldn't know how to live in a dirt-floored hovel if it came up and bit them in the ass.  A good case in point was that National Geographic program Worlds Apart.  This program took an upper middle class American family and plunked them down for 7-11 days into a third world country.  These Americans, the women especially,  seemed unable to adapt or cope for even that small amount of time.  They inevitably had emotional melt downs.  I think the program was cancelled because  it showed just how spoiled and entitled American families, especially upper middle class white families, are.  The arrogance these American families showed was all too apparent.   As a nation, we have most of the world's wealth, waste more and create more waste than all the world put together,  use up more non-renewable energy than any other people, and have an attitude of entitlement that is egregious in the extreme.     No wonder the South American Canadian writer said what she did.  I no longer feel like I belong here. The selfishness, the denial of other people's needs, the wanton wastefulness is not a way of life I espouse or want passed on to my children.  That this bunch of people tolerates this government  is not so amazing after all.   Carrie Harrington = Raven Responds Re: "So I ask Americans, would you let this happen if someone was threatening your sun's, your brother's or your own precious life?" What our writer fails to realize, is that this is EXACTLY the lethargy; it is EXACTLY the point:  Most Americans WOULD and DO "let this happen"......I mean, who is "letting" their children and themselves get shipped to Iraq? Of course most Americans are interested in their personal economies.  That those economies include what others consider "luxuries" is beside the point.  A man who owns a cow wants to protect it.  The SUV is only a matter of degree.  For Americans (and much of the world) re-education and prioritization of our current situation has become mandatory. The situation comes back to that question people keep asking you (Eric):   "What can I do?"  My responseto MOST people?  "Anything, just DO something." We are paralyzed in the headlights.