Mel Packer: Yes, my nation is guilty of torture…

Yes, my nation is guilty of torture, of murder, of discrimination, guilty of waging wars to make campaign donors even richer, guilty of many crimes that I was told in elementary school only “those other nations” commit, and that “we’re not like them.”

If we lived in a democracy, I would blame the US citizenry. But instead we live in an auction house in which policy is set by the highest bidder,

• and those who buy our elected officials also buy the media,
• and the voices of those without deep pockets mean nothing to those who begin planning their re-election campaigns the day they take office,
• and sports and the accidental disrobing of alleged media stars assume newsworthiness greater than world events that affect us all,
• and our government approves the rape of our lands and the disbursement of cancer-causing chemicals on the many to increase the profits of the few,
• and the beheading of an American journalist in all its horror is thought to be far worse than the beheading and dismemberment of thousands of innocent children by our drone missiles,
• and young Black men are murdered by those sworn to protect us all,
• and we cry daily for the loss of the America that never existed but that we can, through our collective efforts, create for the first time if we unite in our common interests and understand that we too are victims of this class war and that once we join it, we can win.

And then live in peace as partners in the world, not the world’s cop.

Mel Packer