Notes from Norton

Below are some personal statements. I understand that these views may not be your views, however, as a Citizen of this great nation, I can no longer be silent (I never have been silent). As I highly respect and honor your rights to voice your opinions, I hope you will respect my rights for that as well, for I do so as a patriotic and involved citizen of our great country.
I love this great nation that I was born and raised in. I also love this enormous beautiful globe we live upon. I pray that we can make the changes needed to guarantee that humans can continue to live on this planet we call Earth. I write these words, not as a Democrat or Republican, but as an American citizen who feels that it is my duty to speak out, and urge us all towards positive change. In electing Barack Obama as President, I believe, we as a nation have taken the first step in beginning this change.
In order to help implement change, we must first, study, and learn the issues at hand, a huge but important task. With knowledge comes power. Truth is only found when we seek it.
Pray, to whatever deity you believe in, that we can make a positive change. That any action we take will be blessed and will bring good to this nation and to all peoples of the world ... but that is just the beginning.
Stand up, speak out and be accountable for our beliefs, what ever they may be. In this way, we can make change happen. Use our power and numbers as citizens of the world to deliver whatever message will convey our truths. This is one of the most essential freedoms that we are blessed with here in this nation. I feel that it is imperitive now that we use it.

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Take a close look at this number. Over a million Iraqis have been killed as a direct result of the illegal war that the United States has waged against this sovereign nation. Over 2 million more Iraqis have been left homeless and displaced by the bombing and the violence that this administration has wrought. That's more damage and more death than ever caused by Saddam Hussein. That our great nation, which I love so dearly, has policies that allow this, hurts me deep in my core.

Please read "Three Cups of Tea, One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time"
By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
This is a wonderful, true story about how one man brought about positive change, in an area that has long been considered "hostile territory". Greg did this by building schools, and by honoring the culture, traditions and religion of those people, and through this, has been spreading hope and goodwill through education and peaceful acts of kindness and respect. These are values that I always thought our nation stood for. Somehow we got way off track.
I urge you to support Greg's organization,
The Central Asia Institute (CAI)
The CAI has been a force of good and goodwill for years in the same areas that we are now dropping bombs and causing terror and sadness. Greg's story is proof that there is a better way!!!

Remember that the absolute and undisputed truth, is that there was no involvement of the people nor the government of Iraq in the events of 9/11. Almost all of the persons who were involved in committing those acts of terror against our nation that fateful day, were not from Afghanistan, but rather were Saudi Arabian citizens. Our government has done nothing to either chastise or punish Saudi Arabia for what their citizens did. Instead, the Bush administration allowed members of the Bin Laden family and an entourage of their Saudi friends, to fly out of our country, even as all other planes in our nation were grounded.
At this time, along with the above mentioned Iraqi casualties, our nation has lost well over Four Thousand of our brave and noble soldiers, both men and women, as a result of this war. I honor all of our brave men and women who stand up to protect our nation from harm, and I pray that no one ever misconstrue my disagreement with our nation's policies regarding this war, and my respect and honor of our military from the lowest to the highest levels. They are bound to follow the directives of their Commander In Chief. I have never, at any level, meant to convey any feelings of disrespect or dishonor to any of our soldiers present or past.
It is long past time, however, to hold the Bush administration accountable for all of these deaths, the horrible damage that has been brought to Iraq, and the lessened security, safety and stability of our nation and it's economy here at home.
Please note, that this is not the first nation that we have invaded and created such death and havoc. If you research and study the "true" history of our nation, you will discover the reasons why so many nations have become disenchanted with the U.S. It is not the "public policy" that we Americans are being spoon fed by the media and the government here at home. Most Americans truly believe that we have done nothing to upset any one! "Why do they hate us" ....
Keeping us ignorant of those truths, is what has allowed the Bush administration, and others who are reaping great profits from the "war machine" and our government's "silent" imperialistic foreign policies, to continue rallying our support. It is rather the secret agendas and clandestine acts that are commited, that somehow never end up in the books that are used to teach our students the history of our nation. These acts have, year after year, caused so much death and suffering around the globe, all for the sake of the financial gains of US corporations and their global interests. Do we as a nation truly wish to embrace and endorse such policies? I believe that if all our people knew the truth regarding this, that we would rise up against it.

I urge you to read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins
Reading this book will help to give you an understanding of some of the policies that have been carried out, without the knowledge of most American citizens, and which have, in great part, led to some of the frustrations and anger directed at our nation. This is told by a man who was right in the middle of it all and since has come to tell his story. If we change these policies, we can slowly begin healing our reputation in the world.

If you are in for some more serious reading regarding some of the root causes of the growing conflict in the Middle East, especially pertaining to Afghanistan and the rise of Islamic militancy,
I highly recommend Ghost Wars by Steve Coll.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning book details "The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion in 1979 to September 10, 2001". In this 2004 release, Coll's writing is very in depth, and includes insights into what the Soviet Military and KGB were doing, along with how the CIA was acting in cahoots with Pakistan's ISI and the Saudi GID intelligence agencies, in their efforts to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. In reading this, it becomes obvious how the CIA's involvement in Afghanistan helped to fuel Islamic militancy and give rise to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Click Here for some details from the book regarding that issue.
As the dialogue we hear from Washington today, seems to focus on pulling out of Iraq, and upping the ante in Afghanistan, I think this book should be imperative reading here in the U.S., so that more people will begin to understand, in depth, the complexities of these issues, why and how Afghanistan became involved in this mess, and the huge role our nation played in creating this "terror".
The Soviets already blew Afghanistan back into sand and dust in the 80s. Their nation had not fully recovered from the misery and destruction of that war, when the U.S. invaded and began blowing it up again. True that some of those who committed the acts against our nation on 9/11 organized and trained in Afghanistan, but is their entire nation to be put to blame, and destroyed for that? These men were, after all, of Saudi blood and nationality not Afghan!
Critics say that the war in Afghanistan has been mismanaged and left with too few troops. Is more "boots on the ground" and more firepower truly the answer to our problems there, or will we keep this up until, like the Soviets, we leave with our tails between our legs, our nation in financial troubles from the money foolishly spent in a war that should have never been.
What other path can we choose that will lead us to peace? What other means can we find to lead us to a better ending than more death destruction and misery??

Despite all of the wrongs that I may note here, I truly believe that The United States Of America, is indeed a great nation, filled with amazing and hard working people, most whom do not want our nation to be the "Bad Guys" of the world. It is imperitive that WE THE PEOPLE educate ourselves, stand up, speak out, and take back this great country that has been stolen out from underneath us by our silence and apathy. We can do so at the voting polls, we can do more by organizing and creating a movement that will be seen and heard and which, through that visibility, will promote a positive change. If only 40 percent of our nation's eligible voters go to the voting polls, can Democracy truly continue be alive in our nation? Even in the most underdeveloped nations in the world, the people do all they can to get out and vote. What has happened to us, that we have grown so complacent and uninvolved??