I Want to Pledge Allegiance to the Country Where I Live

It's true. At my heart, I love The United States of America and everything it represents. I believe in the spirit of innovation, of exploration and of perseverance that has been the hallmark of the U.S.A. I believe in the inherent goodness of democracy, and in the notion that government must be of, for and by the people.

The reality of our world does overpower sometimes. It happened again this week.

Yesterday I learned that my government is considering something called "Operation El Salvador" in an attempt to change the direction of the war in Iraq. In a nutshell, we are considering the organization of elite, anonymous squads (as were used in El Salvador in the 1980's) to hunt, kidnap, and perhaps execute those suspected of insurgent activities. Due process and the presumption of innocence have no place in this plan, and it stinks of everything that we as the ideological grand-children of the Enlightenment should oppose with our very physical beings. We should fight this attempt to counter terror with tyranny, and I know I should do something to stop it, but I don't know how and I don't know what. I tried to make a difference a few months ago, with a black felt marker, a paper ballot and a vote counting machine. A few months before that, I tried to make a difference by registering others to vote. It didn't do a damn bit of good. I could have stayed home and wept and had the same impact on my world. As Gil Scott Heron wrote in "Winter In America," nobody's fighting 'cause nobody knows what to say. I wish I knew what to say, and I wish I had a voice strong enough to say it.

I love my country, and my fellow citizens. But I am deeply troubled by and horribly afraid of the things one will do to protect the other.