i received a brilliant piece of satire in my inbox in the tradition of swift’s modest proposal. the author listed a number of reasons why he was happy that america had finally started the bombing of afghanistan. here are some excerpts:

“1. network unanimity in naming the war: it has been so confusing the past four weeks, what with all the networks calling this thing we are in by so many names: america’s new war, america under attack, america fights back, war on terrorism, etc. now, nearly every network has settled on ‘america strikes back’.”

“i like this because, first of all, it honors george lucas. we’re a humble people, we americans, so we can’t quite bring ourselves to call it ‘the empire strikes back.’ ‘empire’ sounds a little scary, and there’s no use in reminding the rest of the world that we call the shots now.”

“3. dick cheney has been moved into hiding again: this can only help.”

you can read more by visiting michaelmoore.com.

don’t get me wrong–i love america, and i am grateful for the freedom that i have to worship, vote, gather, speak, and to be critical of my government and the opinions of its citizenry. i believe that americans feel that the united states of america is morally superior to the other nations of the world and that actions taken in our own self-interest are generally righteous ones. i feel that this attitude is not unlike the mindset of the terrorists who committed the deplorable crimes of 9-11-01.

we need to pause for self-assessment and consider whether or not we helped to foster the global environment that made these events possible or even probable. am i blameless? do i support companies which enslave their employees in sweatshops in china, or poison the land and waters in africa, or strip brazil of its forests? is my government responsible for the deaths by starvation and disease of children in the middle-east? this article raises some of these introspective questions.

unless someone can convince me that my sisters and brothers in the u.s. are free from this blind arrogance, i will continue my fight::