I believe it is human instinct: those with power corrupt

I have learned from history and my own 21 years that a government cannot be trusted.

(2-27-2002)

by Matt Kapko
Community editor, The Lumberjack

I believe it is human instinct for power to corrupt those who attain it.

American leaders and politicians have proven this time and again.

I have decided not to focus on the crimes of the past, but the crimes that continue today.

I am against this war on terrorism, and indeed, I am against all wars.

The very words of a war on terrorism shed light on the hypocrisy of its intent.

To initiate a true war on terrorism, the U.S. government must put itself at the top of the list of terrorists.

The U.S. government has stuck its nose into every orifice of the world. They have virtually left no region unaffected by its far-reaching indoctrination of capitalism -- modern imperialism.

In its attempts to push American corporations and their interests into new territories, it has ignored the plight of those who will be most affected -- the poor and the children.

In doing so, it has violated international standards of human rights, then allowing those it supports to do the same.

It created a "school of assassins," the School of the Americas, whose graduates wreak havoc and destruction on the poverty- stricken peoples of Latin America. The military school trains members of Latin American armies in counterinsurgency techniques.

Too often the insurgents are the people of Latin America: the poor, the landless, the suffering.

Apparently these are the insurgents because they demand food, water, social justice and peace.

They have imposed sanctions on Iraq, which continue to cause the deaths of Iraqi children.

Some estimates now say more than one million children have died as a result of the sanctions.

By establishing economic ties through the North American Free Trade Agreement, the government has ignored the words and desires of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.

The trade agreement prompted the Mexican government (their NAFTA partner) to stop distributing land to the indigenous peoples of Chiapas -- the Zapatistas.

In Puerto Rico, the U.S. Navy is determined to maintain its base on Vieques. It has acquired more then 75 percent of the island through expropriation, using the land for war maneuvers and bomb storage.

The island's devastated environment and high level of disease are direct results of the Navy's presence.

In attempts to get the Navy out of Vieques, the people of Puerto Rico have used voting and civil disobedience, only to have the U.S. government consistently deceive them with soon-to-be broken promises of withdrawal.

The war on drugs, backed by pharmaceutical empires, has caused drug crimes -- too often victimless by nature -- to amount to the largest percentage of those incarcerated in prisons.

Earlier this month the Drug Enforcement Administration thwarted the efforts of medical marijuana advocates in a raid, which resulted in the arrests of four individuals with ties to the San Francisco Harm Reduction Clinic.

This dispensary provides medicine to almost 200 patients.

I am inspired by the voice of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a political prisoner serving a sentence for a murder he did not commit.

From death row, Abu-Jamal records a heart-filled message on many issues including race, education and politics.

His struggle and his voice have evolved into a massive movement, demanding a retrial and overturning of the unjust conviction.

On Abu-Jamal's "All Things Censored," Howard Zinn comments, "At the current rate of incarceration, by the year 2010, the majority of all African-American men between the ages of 18 and 40 will be in prison."

In October, the passing of the USA Patriot Act granted new powers to the U.S. government.

The broad terms of the act could be read by law enforcement as permission to pursue legitimate acts of protest as a crime.

Those who question the act or the intentions of leaders are called unpatriotic, un-American.

The government uses words such as freedom, democracy and security to justify its aim.

These policies of the U.S. government are crimes against humanity.

I am not willing to put trust in leaders, acting as collaborate to their crimes.

Anyone who exploits those they control are not my leaders.

In looking for others, I will invoke the names and beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi, Emma Goldman, Albert Camus and Bob Marley, all champions of the poor and all defenders of justice, equality and peace.

Matt Kapko is the Community editor of The Lumberjack and enjoys an occasional Guinness on a Monday night, or two.