Putting a Price on U.S. Citizenship

Sir;... The having of money puts people into a society of their own with others like themselves who have money... I have never known people with a lot of money; but I have known people with a lot more money than myself, and I must confess that they were great, fun, intelligent, and gentle... I am not... Put me in a suit and I look like a gorilla in a suit... My head is too small for my shoulders, and my arms which I have often hung by are too long for my body... I have what one author described as the working class smell...
One of my old pardners from Ironwork days used to lament: Why was I not born rich??? This is his land too... He was born here, and he fought in Vietnam; but the fact that he was hispanic put him in the class of outcasts I put myself into with my political views; so I often heard the lament during our hours on the road just getting to a job we had to do for eight or ten hours...
Sorry Trigo... Maybe if you could speak the king's English they would forgive you the fact that you served your country, and risked your life for them while they sat home in the sun...I am not sure what it takes to be treated like a white man, but I am certain it must help to be white... Let me see if I can put a point on this...
My people, like Trigo's people came here leaving nothing behind worth returning to... Trigo always wanted to get enough ahead to go to Mexico, and be a big man there... I hope never to have to return to any of the places my people left behind... My first relative in this country was a Hessian fighting for the wrong side who was smart enough to tell the tide of history was flowing in a new direction... I have had them in the Civil War, and in the Second World War... This is my home, and I have helped a friend become a citizen, and witnessed her swearing in, and when it was done, I shook the hand of the federal judge, and told my friend: Welcome Home... We forget that home is one of the sweetest, and most beautful words in our language... But this is also the land where liberty's light first shone on the world; and it is not less in peril now than it ever was... Great wealth when it means influence in government is deadly to justice, and liberty is justice...
We have from the start allowed too much in the way of privilages in competition with rights... We have fought one war for the privilage of property, and another war looms only because we must choose as always between the rights of property and human rights...The static condition, supported by the courts as much as slavery ever was, is making this country a backward, third world hell hole, hopeless and hateful...
The rich can always run off; and why not??? People with money are welcome everywhere... And the democracies created in Europe after the 2nd world war certainly work better, and cut more people into the process than ours does...But here we have a mountain to climb and a desert to cross before we can find any shade...
The Constitution has in the minds of most the same religous affection as scripture...They cannot see that it made their exploitation legal, has made the expropriation of the commonwealth fact, and has made them powerless to prevent it... They are told it is good, and believe it is good, and think the only problem with America is that too few people abide by the constitution...Our constitution is not the written constitution, and the written constitution is destroying and fragmenting the true constitution which is this people, and the notion of liberty and justice for all... The goals of the constitution is the constitution, but far too many confuse the intent with the result...
Look about you... How many people, rich or poor really love this country... It is great for my friends... The land of opportunity, where hard work can often pay off...They have not been here long enough to see themselves morally degraded as the price of material progress...
Thanks...Sweeney

Re: James A, Sweeney
Please take a day off. I have to admit that I never make it through your whole diatribe after an article. It is just too painful and way too long. You just aren't as interesting as you think you are. Sorry.

I'm sorry Mr. Sweeney, I have been too hard on you.

Re: Wesley Johnson...Sir..
Some people buy their books by the size... A fat book can scare the hell out of them... Think of what effect a spider has on them...
Again; if you don't want to read it, don't... I am writing in the dirt... The next breeze will blow it away and I don't care... I am just the second liar, and they never have a chance... No one ever straightens a bent rod...If I had a mile of words I could not rectify all the crooked thought I find here; but I will be happy to reach an approximation of straight as a good deed...
Any idiot can bend the truth to suit themselves; but the fact that we all need the truth and find it essential should get everyone in arms...The truth is hard to come by, and when people find it they should not depart from it, because for something inessential they may loose what is essential, and injure themselves as badly as the injury they do to all in the denial of the truth...
Thanks,... sorry about all the allegory,... Sweeney

James Sweeney, please keep on writing as you see fit. Wesley can go read the sound-bites in writing for the short-term satisfaction he seeks, and fade into a pain free, meaningless existence.

Regarding what Mr. Shields wrote, this brings up my disgust with the Clintons in general. Bill was one of the most brilliant to come along in a very long time. Too bad he didn't exercise the leadership his brilliance could have brought us.

Hillary is just a bag of hot air, riding on her hubby's coattails, trying to come off as some kind of hard-hitting feminist. It appears like she was a good mom. Don't want to take that away from her.

Re: Masako
I appologized to Mr. Sweeney. You seem to have your own special problems. I wish you the best.

And a quick recovery

Re: Wesley Johnson;... Everything's cool... I want to know what everyone thinks... Everyone has a different perspective, but we all have our take on the truth... No one would choose to be blind, as Artistotle said, we get so much knowedge through our eyes... No one can help being like one of the blind men with the elephant, and it is really difficult to take many opinions and draw a correct picture of a reality too large for anyone to take in, from it...It is why I read history and philosophy, and try to listen to people...
For the right to believe they are the only one angry, and justified in their anger is a mistake... For the left to believe they are alone in their anger or love of humanity is wrong as well... It is common for people to make themselves politically conscious out of a need to change the world, often out of their own unhappiness... I try to take to heart what the Muslims say, that if you want to change the world you should first change yourself... First, it will give you some appreciation of what it is to change some self against their will when you try to will your own change; and to do it on a mass scale is as near impossible as growing wings... On the other hand, people shift paradigms all the time, and this accounts for the sudden changes of history... When it's time it's time... It's time..
I am trying to recall a quotation from one of the books I am in, and I can only get a part of it... It had to do with a certain group, I think the middle Platonists considering politics as a branch of Ethics... I think Aristotle held this view... In any event, all human activity can be viewed through the lens of Morals...
Thanks...Sweeney

Re: Masako;... Thanks; and as long as the owners don't stop me, I will try to have my say...
Thanks... Sweeney

Re: Wesley Johnson. Don't we all. It's called the human condition. The expression of gratitude and contrition is a vastly under-appreciated key to civilized living. Cheers. And best luck with your own special problems.

Sir;... From Jean Jacques Rousseau:.. Where is the man who owes nothing to the land in which he lives??? Whatever that land may be, he owes it the most prescious thing possessed by men, the morality of his actions and the love of virtue...

I would suggest that there has never been a relationship that did not demand a sacrifice, if not of self, or of life; at least of what we most hold dear... It is easy to say love of country; but that love must be proved if not an idle boast... Think of what you buy, and at what price... How often are the children of the poor called upon to purchace their misery with death for their country???... I can not imagine a free man in a land of slaves, but the rich are certainly more free and more powerful in their own affairs than the poor... Since they are allowed to set their own price; what shall it be??? What will they pay for their association with us??? Because we do not need them... Let them ship all their money abroad and we can make new, and replace the old... Old money could be replaced with new money over night, just as old rich could be replaced with new rich over night... But we should never let anyone by on their good looks alone... If we pay for this relationship we will love it all the more, and we want the rich to love this relationship with us... If we do not demand that they sacrifice according to their ability and benefit; then they will never respect or love us...
Who loves their door mat??? If they think they can wear out their welcome here and always be welcome some where they should understand that all their money could be turned to paper in an instant... It is the people that give forms like government, and law, and money their meaning...
Thanks...Sweeney