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Payback Day for the U.S. of A. 
by Darwin Bedford, Spiritual Reality Therapist
e-mail: terror@realitylink.org

You can bully some of the people all of the time, and you can bully all of the people some of the time, but you cannot bully all of the people all of the time.  Didn't the Americans learn anything from Abraham Lincoln?

The U.S. dominates world trade and does so unfairly.  The U.S. also has great influence over the World Trade Organization and it is well recognized that U.S. foreign policies are disliked by many countries.   

The US trade policies cause grievous human suffering in many parts of the world.  According to The Hunger Project chronic, persistent hunger takes the lives of 24,000 people every day.  That equates to 100 jumbo jets crashing every day!  The U.S. must accept responsibility for a significant number of these deaths. 

And according the World Health Organization tobacco use kills 11,000 people every day.  Yet the International Monetary Fund and World Bank forces some countries with international debt to grow export crops such as tobacco, coffee, and cotton rather than food crops for domestic use. The death toll from tobacco within the U.S. alone is 1,300 per day and that equates to five jumbo jets crashing every day.  The two issues of hunger and tobacco alone amount to 35,000 deaths per day.  

Of course the dramatic deaths of innocent American civilians that occurred in the terrorists attacks appear much more senseless and impressionable in comparison to the silent deaths caused from American protectionist policies, however, a death is a death, is a death -- and  what goes around eventually comes around.

The American people claim to live by the Golden Rule of Christianity (do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you), but when it comes to "building" and protecting the American economy then anything is permissible--even murder. 

So my message to any Americans who may be reading this is that the terrorist attacks come as no surprise to me as anti-American sentiment has been building all around the world for quite some time.  Decades of abusive and subversive foreign policies are finally catching up to you.

The U.S. foreign policies are so successful for them that they can afford to be the most generous nation on Earth and still come out ahead.  The U.S. Government is brilliant in the area of public relations and at deceiving its own people.  Actually, the "U.S. Government" is a misnomer because in reality it is largely controlled by the people who pay for its incumbents to be elected.  Multinational corporations now have far too much influence over governments.  The problem lies in that a corporation is not democratic.  A corporation is not responsible to the citizens as a whole, just to its shareholders.  The sole purpose of a multinational corporation is to profit through international trade.

George W. Bush, the appointed president, is just a puppet for multinational corporations and the Religious Right political movement.  With him as president American democracy may as well be on Prozac.  In the picture above he is praying (in public again) while the terrorist attack is occurring.  Does he think a god is going to push his hand through the sky and stop a plane from crashing?  Instead of leading his people into prayer he should be revealing some breakthrough thinking.  

He should be saying to the American people: "Look, we have gone too far with exercising our might over other nations, especially those of other faiths and political ideologies, and we must take corrective action immediately to defuse any hostilities towards us."  And to Osama bin Laden he should say: "We have treated you unfairly and now you have taught us a valuable lesson.  We recognize that you are a good person at heart and that you were just trying to help your country's citizens.  We will leave you alone except for listening to you and cooperating with you in attempt to undo some of our hostile actions towards you.  We will also seek to cancel all trade sanctions against you and we will take measures to curb multinational corporations from taking advantage of the countries of your concern." 

But instead he is leading his people (and the world) into war.  Yes, war might stir the economy up some, manufacturing military arsenal and so on.  And of course the American people have to defend their way of life as decreed by their God against the way of life decreed by other nations' gods.  So then, if there has to be a war then there has to be a war. 

However, if there were no gods (and many know that there are not) and if it was alright for other nations to develop to be richer and mightier then yours, then perhaps the world would flourish in prosperity instead.  

As long as the U.S. continues to purposely disadvantage selected nations then you can count on further terrorist attacks on Americans and their most honored symbols.  America must now decide if they want to develop the same sort of scenario that they have been supporting in Israel.  

Please help America decide because the Bush administration needs all the help they can get.

Thank you for the time that you have taken to read this post.  I enjoy reading comments that people may have regarding articles that I write so I invite you to e-mail me at terror@realitylink.org.  
(Posted September 22, 2001)
   
 

Letter of Apology From Christendom 
by Darwin Bedford
e-mail: darwin@atheists.net

Today's Christians are wanting to separate themselves from the triumphalism of Christendom or pre-modern Christianity.  "Christianity cultivated and imposed its version of 'correctness' on everyone and everything in Western society." writes Dr. Charles Taylor who is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at McGill University.  He goes on to say, "For Christianity to contribute positively to contemporary society, it must pay attention to what has happened.  Only then will Christians shed their earlier triumphalism and seek instead to learn humbly from, as well as contribute charitably to, their neighbours in the new diversity of our times." 

Personally, I think that it is only due to triumphalism that Christianity is so widespread.  If Christianity were to succeed in shedding its triumphalism then its number of adherents would shrink to that of the Flat Earth Society (whose members still believe that the Earth is flat).  Although there are still many instances of Christian triumphalism in our laws and in our social fabric, I, as the Atheist Messiah and provider of spiritual leadership, have decided to participate in this official declaration of its ending.   

Firstly, there needs to be an apology from the perpetrators of Christendom for all the suffering it has caused in our lives.  So lets begin the healing process in the wake of Christendom (and for that matter in the wake of monotheism in general).  Below is my own personal "Letter of Apology From Christendom", the words of which I would like to hear an official of Christianity, such as Pope John Paul II, say to me on behalf of all Christians. 
 

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