As America moves into the center of the holiday season, a time in which we should be celebrating the joy of family, warmth of shelter and appreciating all that we have --John Lennon serves as a reminder of the war, abject poverty, famine, disease and the loss of childhood innocence.
Happy Christmas (War is Over) John Lennon Music Video"
This music video is so powerful, yet one small voice crying out among the millions of dollars of advertising and commerce that will compete for our time from now until the end of the year. I hope that we can all stop for a moment and reflect upon the promise and vision of America and ask ourselves how celebration is possible while we move farther from the path of international law and our own Constitution?
And as our attention is further divided to consider the candidates and elections next year we still have so many egregious acts perpetuated by the current administration that are left under-investigated and undisturbed.
I think of the promise America has to live as a peaceful, strong example of participatory democracy for the rest of the world, and think where we are at present.
Even if the political landscape changes dramatically in 2008, how do we position ourselves as "world leaders" while people like Karl Rove slither off and Donald Rumsfeld is welcomed with open arms by a leading institution of American learning (Stanford). While continuing to work toward a better future we must not ignore our past and anything less than a complete, intense investigation by the American people with the real potential for jail time for many within this Administration is the wrong message for the rest of the world community and for generations of Americans that will grow into a hostile world if we do not begin to attempt to acknowledge our mistakes and rectify them.