A few days ago I ran into three men waiting for the bus, arguing about politics. At times the debate got hairy, and I was afraid they might start slitting throats, but alas the bus came and they were freed to sit apart from each other.
The first man accused the second man of being anti-American, saying that we, as Americans, are obligated to defend our great nation at whatever costs. Our ancestors have fought and died to give us the rights we have now, and we must not disgrace them by cowardly turning away from the face of danger.
In times like these, it doesn't pay to ask ourselves why Sept. 11 happened, but rather it was such a heinous crime that we must retaliate and show the world what America is made of. He said that the University of New Mexico may as well be a haven for terrorists, as it is full of left-leaning professors ranting their communist beliefs to vulnerable students, and that the community should put a stop to such behavior.
He went on to explain how the anti-war movement during Vietnam was precisely why that conflict went on so long and ended in failure. In order that we do not make the same mistake now, it is necessary that we forgo a few civil liberties, like free speech and standard judicial rights, for our protection. After all, he concluded, if we ourselves are not terrorists, we have nothing to worry about.
The second man accused the first man of being anti-American. America, he proclaimed, was built on the very foundations of civil liberties, and that if we give those up we will see the demise of the true America.
He condemned racial profiling, reduction of free speech, and the new judicial laws recently passed. He went on to say that America has acted as a terrorist itself, and talked about the School of Americas and its role in Central America. He cursed the ulterior motives of the war on terrorism - oil, free trade expansion and beefing up the military-industrial complex - claiming that it was meant to legitimate the aspirations of the corporate world, which has made a puppet of our current government.
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If we are true Americans, he concluded, it behooves us to take back control of the media and actualize real democracy in this country. War, he said, is not in our interest, rather in interest of the undemocratic ruling class.
The first man called the second man a dirty communist. The second called the first a bloody fascist. Each one, according to the other, was destroying our great nation.
Meanwhile, I noticed the third man never said anything. When the bus came, he stayed behind, and spared me a few words.
"America hasn't been around very long," he said. "People forget that we are human and get consumed by this idea that we are Americans. Our great nation has got to be secondary, man. They're destroying our world!"
There was a moment of silence then in which I lost myself in thought. I was suddenly bombarded with flags and balloons and billboards and the smell of french fries. Then came strange images of mass graves, trash dumps, nuclear explosions, shantytowns, raised forests and dead sea gulls.
"The world," the man said, "Love it or leave it."
I had to ask, "Can't I just stay in America?"
by Mike Wolff
Daily Lobo Columnist
