I HAVE NO GOVERNMENT. I’M A DISENFRANCHISED AMERICAN.

OpEd News
July 31, 2006

By Linda Milazzo

I do not kill babies. I do not kill children. I do not condone
ANY circumstance that ends the life of a child or brings harm to
innocents downed in the cross hairs of adult perversion. There is NO
circumstance whatsoever that legitimizes the murder of children. The
term "collateral damage" ascribed to dead children or to the shredded
bodies of living children is hideous.

The rite of passage from childhood to adulthood relinquishes the right
to such irresponsibility. The whole process of maturation teaches the
protection of children at all costs. Animals, both wild and domestic,
abide by these instincts unconditionally. It is the aberrant adult dog
who kills a puppy. And on the rare occasion such anomaly occurs, it
confounds attendant humans due to the sheer unnaturalness of the act.

Our expectation for the compassion of canines transcends like
expectations we hold for ourselves.

In the current debacle between Israel and Hezbollah, with the
mounting deaths of Lebanese children, it is unconscionable for
Israel to justify murdering these children by labeling them embeds of
Hezbollah. One should convulse in shame at the insidiousness of such
a declaration. To publicly declare the right to kill a child using
proximity as exoneration of guilt, forfeits any claim to humanity. To
willingly betray the life of a child, betrays every principal learned
during the "normal" ascendancy from child to adult.

To these self-righteous ideologues I say: MAY YOU ENVISION FOR YOUR
LIFETIMES THE FACES OF EVERY INFANT AND CHILD YOU HAVE SLAIN FOR YOUR
CAUSE! What a pernicious badge of inhumanity.

Sadly, this badge of inhumanity isn’t only worn by Israel who slays
the children of Lebanon. Or by the Hezbollah who slay the children
of Israel. It is worn by the Sudanese, who willingly decimate the
children of Darfur. It is worn by the Congolese soldiers who savage
the children of Congo. It was worn a dozen years earlier in Rwanda,
when willing Hutus murdered hundreds of thousands of Tutsi children in
a span of 100 days. The same badge of inhumanity was worn in Bosnia
by the Serbs who murdered Muslim children, by the Turks who murdered
Armenian children, by the Nazis who murdered Jewish children, and on
and on and on.

Throughout the history of un-civilization, the badge of inhumanity
has been worn by one genocidal ideology after another.

Shamefully, this very same badge of inhumanity is also worn by the
United States, where I live. Where the Government’s decision to
willingly overtake the nation of Iraq has triggered the murders of
tens of thousands of children. And where the ideological refusal to
support a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel willingly adds to the
murders of Lebanese and Israeli children each and every day.

Even though Hezbollah has stated its willingness to honor a ceasefire
with Israel, Mr. Bush, along with his former incompetent National
Security Advisor and current incompetent Secretary of State, Condoleeza
Rice, believes Israel has the right to pursue its arbitrary barrage
on Lebanon, with no neighborhood, no apartment building, no hospital,
no school, no market, removed from its artillery sights.

As a resident of the United States, I am by default, in the eyes of
the world, a presumed willing supporter of the murders of Lebanese
and Israeli children. The President of this nation and members of
both Houses of Congress overwhelmingly endorse the continued military
assault by Israel upon Lebanon, which indiscriminately kills more
children every day. Just as Israelis presume the people of Lebanon
endorse Hezbollah when they share the same region, the world will
presume I endorse Mr. Bush when we share the same nation.

More egregiously, just as Israelis and Hezbollah sacrifice each
other’s children for the ‘crime’ of shared terrain, so one day may
America’s children be sacrificed for sharing terrain with the world’s
most undeniably hated man, George W. Bush.

Horrifying, but not unlikely, if Bush is allowed to stay on.

As the daughter of a Jewish American mother and Italian American
father, a second generation American living in the United States,
I am bound by the laws of this nation, governed by its regulatory
agencies, and represented to the world by its elected officials. But
when the beliefs and behaviors of those elected officials are in
constant moral opposition to my own, I can no longer permit them to
represent me. I refuse to have the citizens of the world, my global
brothers and sisters, believe I am a willing partner to imperial
atrocities. Worst of all, to the murder of children.

If one unquestioningly subscribes to the mantra "America, love it or
leave it," one is blind to the more essential mantra, "Humanity, love
it or grieve it." My refusal to be morally distorted by George W.

Bush can only be accomplished by relinquishing all connection to
his governance. As of now, I don’t know how to categorize the state
of residing in a nation as a full citizen while not governed by its
leadership. I didn’t vote for this leadership and I’m not willing
to remain a voiceless mass falsely portrayed by the Bush imperial
regime. I must somehow broadcast beyond the borders of America
that residing within its boundaries are millions of leaderless,
unrepresented lovers of peace trying unceasingly to win back their
nation. Not just to save America. But to save the whole world. To
save the children. The children.

For now, I’ll contend I’m a Bush government ex-patriot living in the
United States. I won’t seek out another nation. This is MY nation and
I’m a viable entity within it. I uphold its Constitution. I pay my
taxes. I make my living. I honor my neighbors. I feel no superiority
to those beyond its borders. I share conscientiously in our nation
and our planet.

But I have NO GOVERNMENT. I’m a disenfranchised American. George
Bush doesn’t know my heart. He’s never looked in my eyes and seen my
"soul." If he did look in my eyes, he’d see a disenfranchised American
looking back. Not with warmth or admiration. Not as a member of his
electorate. But as an ex-patriot of his government who resides within
the nation. A disenfranchised American.

America, leave it or SEIZE IT. Humanity, know it and show it. Save
the children!! Save the children!! Save the children!!

In Lebanon. In Israel. In Iraq. In sub-Saharan Africa. In Aceh,
Indonesia. In Haiti. In the Dominican Republic. In South and Central
America. In North America.

Save the children… the way adults are supposed to do.

(cross-posted on winogradwatchdog.com)

Linda Milazzo is a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist.

Her writing has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and
domestic and international journals. She’s a member of CodePink
Women For Peace and Progressive Democrats of America. Over the past
three decades Linda has divided her time between the entertainment
industry, community projects and education. A political and
social activist since the Vietnam War, Linda attributes her
revitalized-fully-engaged-intense-head-on-non- stop-political activism
to the UNFORTUNATE EXISTENCE OF GEORGE W. BUSH and her disgust
with greed-ridden American imperialism, environmental atrocities,
egregious war, nuclear proliferation, lying leaders, and global
tyranny. Whew… try saying that one three times fast…

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