Paul Findley

America is in a fiery trial, and it may get hotter. President Bush has started two wars, and we are bogged down in both of them. Our industrial-military complex has become a threatening government in itself, consuming over a billion dollars a day.

Our nation is awash in fear - unwarranted, but fear nonetheless. In its panic, our government has used torture and rendition to extract confessions from persons our government deems guilty of terrorism. What has come over America, once revered, now reviled?

Today, fear still lurks in every neighbourhood in America. Two years ago a poll conducted by Cornell University found that nearly one-half of the American people are so fearful of a religion, Islam, that they favour restricting the civil liberties of all US Muslims; all 8 million of them.

In his presidential campaign, Barak Obama's biggest handicap was the widely spread falsehood that he is actually a Muslim, as if that affiliation is a sign of depravity.

From personal experience I know that Islam is a great, peaceful Abrahamic religion, with close kinship to both Christianity and Judaism. But most Americans, woefully ignorant, harbour false, fearsome images of this great and growing religion.

Our country remains in the fiery trial that began eight years ago on 9/11. Whose fault is it? It is my fault and the fault of other citizens. We have not done enough.

Four years ago, our government became engaged in a secret alliance with the government of Israel in its military campaign to overturn the democratic decision of Gazans, who voted Hamas to power.

That military campaign reached a terrible climax in the past two weeks, bringing new death, injury and destruction at an unprecedented scale to impoverished Gaza.

The US role in that war remains unknown to most Americans, as a result of the immense power of the US lobby for Israel in controlling almost all discourse that relates to the Jewish state. Americans remain unaware of the scope of this conflict and its origin.

Televised reports received here erroneously portray Israel, not the miserable inhabitants of Gaza, as the victims. The American people remain unaware that the US government has worked closely with Israel for the past four years in an illegal, brutal scheme to frustrate democracy in Gaza.

All of this underscores the importance of good citizenship. Americans must do a better job in seeking out public officials who will tell the truth, no matter how unpleasant or disturbing the truth may be.

If our government had prized justice for all people, we would not have suffered 9/11 or the dreadful experience of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we would not be engaged in a secret alliance with Israel in brutalising Gazans.

Citizenship is not a spectator sport. It is a blessing, but only if we strive for the high road.

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