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What I expect from the U.S. government

It needs to be more caring, more peaceful. Make a Department of Peace! It needs to shed its arrogance in trying to rule/dominate the world for the benefit of U.S. corporate interests. It needs to represent the PEOPLE not corporations. It needs to stop its economic wars that devastate the lives of Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Iranians. None of these are enemies of the U.S. and they have a right to choose their own forms of government. It needs to stop supporting the Israeli government that treats the Palestinians worse than the South African apartheid government once treated the South African black people. This is what Desmond Tutu said of Israel that it is worse. Stop giving bombs to Saudi Arabia that is killing the people of Yemen.

The U.S. must reduce military spending that benefits U.S. corporate interests. U.S. representatives need to stop representing corporations and to start representing the people of the U.S.

I want the U.S. Congress and president to become something that benefits humanity and the Earth. Global warming, our health care/dental care system, the pandemic need our attention. The U.S. uses more than 50% of our tax dollars on the military – shameful. 

I want the government to become honorable and peaceful and to respect the sovereignty of the peoples of the world. The U.S. is always at war. Economic embargoes are criminal actions. The U.S. is the biggest abuser of human rights in the world and has no moral authority to point a finger at anyone else. Take Vietnam as an example and there are many more. The U.S. presidents (Democrat and Republican) didn’t think twice about going into villages and killing everyone either by foot soldiers or by B-52 bombing. Vietnam, which was never an enemy of the U.S., lost 3 million dead (how many more maimed and poisoned by U.S. chemicals dropped on them. U.S. presidents and U..S military leaders brainwashed us to the point that we become killers of innocents. And 58,000 U.S. soldiers paid the price.

There are many other wars that the U.S. was and is involved in. Economic embargoes must be stopped.
If our elected officials can’t work for peace and can’t represent the PEOPLE of the U.S. then they should get out of Washington. Americans are deceived enough to think that they have our best interests at heart-not true. We are not part of the decision-making process. Representatives are lackies to the corporate interests. Many Senators, Representatives and Presidents have lied to us and taken us to war. One example is Bush lying to us about Saddam Husein’s weapons of mass destruction which led to the bombing of Bagdhad and the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and untold numbers of war crimes against those people who were never an enemy of the U.S. 

The U.S. is not interested in an open and honest government as shown by its oppression of those journalists that blow the whistles. Julian Assange has been persecuted for more than a decade now for honorably and courageously exposing what the U.S. did in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a hero and must be supported.

This then is what I want to communicate with the people in Washington. 

Steve Johnson
Ely, Minnesota

Robin Hood vs. BBB

Most of you know the story about Robin Hood who was portrayed as a “hero!” This was because his philosophy of “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.” This legendary character started in English fork lore in the 13th or 14th century AD. We continue to promote this “hero” in many movies in essence approving of this philosophy of “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.”

My guess is that Biden’s childhood hero was Robin Hood. So now, Biden’s BBB is his attempt of playing Robin Hood! There is another word for this philosophy: socialism!

 have to take a moment to comment on Ed Raymond’s column from the Dec. 2, 2021, issue titled “Black Marble Dumbbells.” He refers to the “wealth gap” being the main motivation for the current “smash and grab” pandemic we are witnessing. How wrong Mr. Raymond is as these incidents are not happening in grocery stores but in high end retail stores! This is organized crime not by the homeless “urinating and defecating” in the streets.

So, Biden’s BBB bill includes hiring 80,000 IRS agents so that the government can steal from every American! Biden is NOT Robin Hood!

P.S. – Thank you Joe Manchin for voting NO! (A true American!)

Chuck Bracken
Cannon Falls, Minnesota