Barabbas and other American Heros

High Treason


I do not love my country. Its
abstract lustre
is beyond my grasp.
But (although it sounds bad) I
would give my life
for ten places in it, for certain
people,
seaports, pinewoods, castles,
a run-down city, gray, grotesque,
various figures from its history,
mountains
(and three or four rivers).


José Emilio Pachedo


America what have we made of you? Our one nation under God has more the look and feel of David's Israel. How quick we are to ignore the wisdom of our forefathers and how ready to gamble it away on the next cheap thrill. Our children deserve better and so do we.

Where is the America of Thomas Jefferson? What has become of his vision of the independent yeoman farmer, the healthy distrust for cities and financiers, the separation of church and state and the principle of religious tolerance?

And Martin Luther King, Jr.? The youngest Nobel Prize winner this world had seen. A man who used purely nonviolent means to bring down the shameful legacy of segregation in a hostile nation. A man who denounced the Vietnam War and sought to unite the poor of all races into a coalition for change.

And where is the thrift, hard work and community spirit of Benjamin Franklin in the America of 2008? Remember it was Franklin who emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous in their sense of attention to civic duty and if they rejected corruption.

How is it we so readily accept injustice and folly when great Americans have shown us more noble ways? Have we forgotten that of those to whom much is given much is expected? We have been brought to our knees by the recklessness of our own social institutions and are made to cower before a constant menace of terror.

Indeed, what has become of our Christian concern for the meek and poor? How have we forgotten that humility and charity are the foundation of any just society? Capital punishment and unjust war are the mark of a vengeful nation, which has forgotten that most Christian notion of turning the other cheek. Can we really regard with surprise then the financial and spiritual impoverishment of the American family?

Jesus and others like him gave their lives for the poor and disenfranchised. Rather than succumb to the ready temptation to strike back at those who wished them harm, he and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi laid down their lives so that the actions of a corrupt state would pale in comparison to their own peaceful example.

I weep for an America which regards the rhetoric of Washington warlords and fear-mongers as anything but poisonous slander. I do not love this nation. Nor any other. I am incapable. History is overflowing with tales of bloodthirsty nations just like ours. Past and present, they share a common fate. Our children deserve better and so do we. I will choose the America of Franklin, Jefferson and King.

Matthew