If you value your American passport, then mind your own bloody business! Do no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil of the Bush administration. That’s what it means to be an American in these times!
Today, as clocks are moved forward by one hour to save daylight time, the tedium vitae of American vainglory would have forever altered life’s trajectory for many here. Even though spring’s curtain-raiser stirs up sights of feisty climes and endless colour... sadly the creeping shadows of men whose hearts have dried and split, straddle America. Never was a superpower so torn asunder what God’s bounties had joined together.
All that is left of Justin is ashes. Last night, he was cremated. The hospital in Albany, in upstate New York, pulled the plugs on him. He was DOA (dead on arrival) when the ambulance brought him some days ago, but the doctors revived him and put him on life support — only to let him go eventually. His Japanese-American father is heartbroken. Justin was his only son. His mother, a white American in a wheelchair, has already lost a daughter by another marriage to heroin overdose.
A Ricky Martin look-alike, handsome Justin loved life. But he also had a fatal attraction for heroin. Giving up a good job at MTV in Manhattan, Justin decided some months ago to move to Albany — a hellish place in winter. He wanted to get away from his domineering mother — always complaining, always demanding sympathy. He hunted for a job but found none. Instead, he wound his way into the underworld of drugs and was again sucked back into a habit he had promised his girlfriend he would kick forever.
Yuri lives and works in New Jersey. But every weekend, she would make a six-hour return journey to be with her boyfriend. They were planning on a July wedding. A fourth-generation Japanese immigrant, Yuri’s parents did not want their daughter to marry Justin because of his drug addiction. Yuri herself is a shy, attractive 24-year-old, whose outlook on life is more Asian than American. “I am scared to go to my apartment,” she sobbed when it was all over.
Addiction stalks America and kills, but Bush’s killing fields are elsewhere.
When Yuri called, one happened to be watching the Greek-American Robert Mueller, FBI Director being grilled on drug enforcement. The congressman presiding over the justice subcommittee in the House of Representatives quizzed Mueller on how he intends spending the $500 million budget allocation when, “there are 28,000 Americans who die each year from drug overdose alone. While, it’s very well to smoke out Al-Qaeda and Iraqi terrorists, but what about the heartaches, tears and agony of families whose loved ones OD (overdose) on drugs? What are you doing to stop the import of narcotics?” Ask big boss Bush! It’s the oil stupid! Not drugs we’re after. Did Mueller really say that? Not a chance in hell. Instead, the FBI chief traipsed to another topic. He and big brother Attorney General Ashcroft are seized with a new game — Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003 that gives them more wiretaps and secret searches, government access to credit reports and other personal records, a database of DNA samples and provisions allowing Ashcroft to revoke the US citizenship of anyone providing assistance to a group the American government considers a “terrorist” organization.
Did I hear someone ask, “Hey, where is American justice or the judges and their hallowed courts”? Nope, Ashcroft has emasculated all. They have no role.
So, what else is new?
Unfortunately, there is: the State of Oregon is considering a bill that would apply drastic criminal penalties to violent protesters, anti-war or otherwise. If the bill passes, a protester can be designated a terrorist. There can be copycat laws by other states.
Get this: if you value your American passport and all the blahs that go with it, like freedoms, liberty and free enterprise that Bush blatherskites, then mind your own bloody business! Should you find yourself bang in the midst of antiwar demonstrators, lay down and play dead, say on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, get out before the Police grabs you and puts plastic handcuffs to drag you into their wagons.
And should you perchance hear, “No war! No profits! No business as usual!” quickly stuff your ears with your forefingers. And heavens forbid, should your gaze wander off to a collage of injured Iraqis, including a burned and screaming baby, juxtaposed with pictures of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, just pretend someone sprayed mace in your eyes. In sum: do no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil of Bush Administration. That’s what it means to be an American in these times!
Pity the nation whose hearts beat in sync with colour codes (we have Orange nowadays). Anyway, FBI upped the colour alert after “finding out” that a “multiple attack by Al Qaeda against Jewish groups and businesses was imminent.” Naturally, the police has increased its patrolling. Even in sleepy suburbia — a retreat for the old, retired and rich — cops cruise down the roads, looking for I wonder what. Surely, the “Arab and Pakistani terrorists” don’t drive the latest litter of Jags, Mercs or Cadillacs. Nor do they live in multi-million-dollar mansions that dot the American landscape.
But gadfly Daniel Pipes continues to pump American-Jews against American-Muslims: “I worry very much from the Jewish point of view that the presence, increased stature and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims... will present true dangers to American Jews.”
His hysteria is anything but apocalyptical: “There is no escaping the unfortunate fact that Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military, and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism, as do Muslim chaplains in prisons and the armed forces. Mosques require a scrutiny beyond that applied to churches, synagogues and temples. Muslim schools require increased oversight to ascertain what is being taught to children.”
Even the fury of rednecks is back. In California, four Muslim women wearing head scarves stepped into a restaurant. A white male began playing a guitar and singing after spotting them. His song contained lyrics that were highly abusive and insulting. To top it, the restaurant manager after hearing the women complain, lost it and threatened them with physical harm. The man was later arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department, so we’re told.
Hello! Is this freedom-gyrating America or the land of jahalia in Nawabpur (where the local feudal-lords made a woman walk naked on the street to avenge a family dishonour)? I have reported; you decide.
Don’t expect to find such stories on any news channel or major newspaper. The American press has compromised its conscience. It gives people only what they want to read... especially when it comes to trashing naturalized Americans. Meanwhile, sales of US flags are up by 25 per cent, claims the nation’s largest manufacturer of the Stars and Stripes. Some cars and homes are back sporting the flag.
The White House is frothing after the BBC aired live video of President Bush getting his hair coiffed in the Oval Office as he squirmed in his chair and practised on the teleprompter minutes before his pasty address to the nation announcing war.
Mischievously, the BBC (now feigning innocence) showed 1 minute and 37 seconds of ‘presidential primping’ to hundreds of millions of viewers in 200 countries around the world before Bush’s formal address at 10:15pm while its Washington-based anchor Mishal Husain (granddaughter of retd. General Shahid Hamid of Shaigon industries, Rawalpindi) chatted up a colleague about the significance (sic!) of the moment. Now we’re told that a technician (he’s toast!) accidentally flipped a switch that fed the image of a ‘not-ready-for-prime-time Bush — his eyes darting to and fro as a female stylist sprayed, combed and patted down his hair.’
Well, while Bush’s schmaltz sickens, Melissa’s story has died before being born. She’s on death row — lying in the corridor of U-Penn hospital since the ICU (intensive care unit) is choked. She went there for a checkup (being diabetic) but they gave her the wrong injection staving off a heart attack. Mother of a four-year-old, Melissa lives with her boyfriend, a drunk and live-in-basher. She’s worried to death as to who will care for her daughter, since her mother, old and sick, has excused herself.
Eighteen thousand homeless deface New York while Bush makes the top one per cent Americans, who already own more than 40 per cent of the wealth, super-rich. His Iraq adventure will cost the poor taxpayers 200 billion dollars, still the White House is pushing massive contracts to Bush’s corporate cronies waiting to rake it in post-war Iraq. Wagging his finger from the stage, Academy Award winner Michael Moore pilloried: “We are against this war, Mr Bush. Shame on you.” He received a standing ovation at the Oscars. Others heckled him.
If you value your American passport, then mind your own bloody business! Do no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil of the Bush administration. That’s what it means to be an American in these times! 
