Letter to the Editor: Patriots make noise

Let me count the ways our US government has lied to the people of the USA: the Vietnam war; the Iraq war; the importing of cocaine by the CIA during the Reagan (just say no) years; and the destructive policy against our citizens, the war on drugs (over two million in jail in the land of the free), mandatory minimum sentences, three strikes you’re out sentences, the redlining of loans to black Americans....the list goes on and on.

This blind patriotism fairy tale is just a mask to hide the scandalous policies of this country, you'd have to be blind to not see the divide that the people of color have experienced in this country. Racism, lynchings, unarmed blacks being gunned down at an alarming rate compared to whites.

The United States kills thousands upon thousands in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan so we can retain military superiority via the military industrial complex (Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Boeing).

We sell bombs and weapons to nasty regimes who in 10-15 years turn around and try and use them against us (Kadaffi,Noriega, Saddam). I'm just waiting for our buds, the Saudis, to get tired of us. For the money we spent in Iraq (not to mention human lives in this so-called Christian nation) we could all have free health care in this rich country of ours, but we'd rather put a "Freedom isn't free" bumper sticker on our pickup truck and go kill some brown-skinned people halfway around the world — God would want it that way, right? What a bunch of hypocrites we are.

And we can't kneel or lock arms to bring these issues to light? Baloney, we have a narcissist madman as our leader bringing us as close to a nuclear war as I've ever witnessed in my 59 years on this planet, and we're not supposed to question what’s going on?

Even the Republicans said it, Trumps not fit to hold office. But we are supposed to roll over and play dead. A true patriot makes some noise during times like this.

Stephen Curley

The Dalles