zim
02-17-2003, 06:15 AM
When I was just a boy, living in the late 80's Hong Kong, I saw on my uncle's little faux plastiwood TV set the Tianmen square incident. I didn't understand it completely, but I got the gist of it; China was an overbearing and controlling place. It was a place where if you said something mean about that Mao guy, they would run you over with tanks. It was a place where if you didn't go to bed early and do your chores, they would not only beat you, but punish your parents for not educating you properly. It was a place that I didn't want to be, and for the longest time, I was anti-China, pro-America. Hong Kong wasn't going to be safe from Chinese rule forever, so we decided to move to America.
I shunned my Chinese heritage when I came to America. I embraced American culture and free thought. The American way of thinking suited my curious nature. There was no room in my mind for anything else, because I had become one with this way of life. It was fair and just.
My mother would often warn against speaking out against America. Back then, my whole family was composed of non-citizen resident aliens. There was always fear that our freedom may be taken away- old habits die hard. I "knew better"; I knew that here, in America, we would be free. We were hardworking people, who added to the commerce of my town. My mother was friends with the townsfolk, and I was friends with the mayor's grandson. But I knew even if we didn't have friends, we would not be bothered. People would complain about the policies of Bush senior, but they were never taken away. People sometimes acted crazy and destroyed property, but they were never killed, they were treated fairly and punished according to law.
I never saw a single tank or an armed soldier with a machine gun through my entire childhood, and would never think I would ever see such a thing in my neighborhood.
Why now? Why does my young brother Peter of age 7 now have to live in a society of unnecessary fear?... tough luck? Why do I now have to live in a world that I had to travel halfway across the world to escape from?
We can blame terrorists... but terrorists aren't in charge of our nation's policy. Why does our government insist that the only way to protect our nation's safety is through subjugation and tactics tried and proven ineffective by decades of history? What does anyone have to gain from this induced and artifical fear factor?
I believed in America. This country educated me, this country raised me. My life is defined by the standards of American wisdom and philosophy. And it is through this education, this set of morals that I've developed because of this, my parent country, that I now declare that this country is no longer what it says it is- America is dead, and in its place is a tyrant state run by Bush & Co., a subsidiary of the Republican Regieme Ltd. I was promised freedom. I was promised justice. I was promised principles akin to basic morals, written in the Constitution. Yet all that is left now is injustice and ignorance in the very basic principles that this nation was founded upon.
But I exaggerate; Our beautiful country was destroyed not by the tyranny of kings, the toils of famine, or the will of a merciless God. It wasn't destroyed by any one man- The United States of America was destroyed by Americans. We who sit and stare at our television screens while imcompetant presidents are put into office. We who ignore politics because "it's pointless to listen", while a once glorious nation is now used as a tool of exploitation, raping lesser countries in the name of profit. We who hide in the comfort of false hopes in a system of artificial economics, while death rains upon innocent families so that our stock market may gain a few points. We who drive this economy of death, a nation driven by profit through blood and slavery.
Why?
reprinted with permission from original author. (http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~wtsang/asuka/index.html)
I shunned my Chinese heritage when I came to America. I embraced American culture and free thought. The American way of thinking suited my curious nature. There was no room in my mind for anything else, because I had become one with this way of life. It was fair and just.
My mother would often warn against speaking out against America. Back then, my whole family was composed of non-citizen resident aliens. There was always fear that our freedom may be taken away- old habits die hard. I "knew better"; I knew that here, in America, we would be free. We were hardworking people, who added to the commerce of my town. My mother was friends with the townsfolk, and I was friends with the mayor's grandson. But I knew even if we didn't have friends, we would not be bothered. People would complain about the policies of Bush senior, but they were never taken away. People sometimes acted crazy and destroyed property, but they were never killed, they were treated fairly and punished according to law.
I never saw a single tank or an armed soldier with a machine gun through my entire childhood, and would never think I would ever see such a thing in my neighborhood.
Why now? Why does my young brother Peter of age 7 now have to live in a society of unnecessary fear?... tough luck? Why do I now have to live in a world that I had to travel halfway across the world to escape from?
We can blame terrorists... but terrorists aren't in charge of our nation's policy. Why does our government insist that the only way to protect our nation's safety is through subjugation and tactics tried and proven ineffective by decades of history? What does anyone have to gain from this induced and artifical fear factor?
I believed in America. This country educated me, this country raised me. My life is defined by the standards of American wisdom and philosophy. And it is through this education, this set of morals that I've developed because of this, my parent country, that I now declare that this country is no longer what it says it is- America is dead, and in its place is a tyrant state run by Bush & Co., a subsidiary of the Republican Regieme Ltd. I was promised freedom. I was promised justice. I was promised principles akin to basic morals, written in the Constitution. Yet all that is left now is injustice and ignorance in the very basic principles that this nation was founded upon.
But I exaggerate; Our beautiful country was destroyed not by the tyranny of kings, the toils of famine, or the will of a merciless God. It wasn't destroyed by any one man- The United States of America was destroyed by Americans. We who sit and stare at our television screens while imcompetant presidents are put into office. We who ignore politics because "it's pointless to listen", while a once glorious nation is now used as a tool of exploitation, raping lesser countries in the name of profit. We who hide in the comfort of false hopes in a system of artificial economics, while death rains upon innocent families so that our stock market may gain a few points. We who drive this economy of death, a nation driven by profit through blood and slavery.
Why?
reprinted with permission from original author. (http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~wtsang/asuka/index.html)