America itself, as a Crime Against Humanity

America, originally intended to be a “shining city on a hill” has in its moral priggishness turned out, instead, to be a sinkhole in the valley of the shadow of death.

Guatemala sinkhole (Courtesy National Geographic)

(CALGARY, Alberta) - I am so angry today against the United States and its moral criminality, that I fear I may go a bit overboard. So be it.

We all know what’s happened and is happening, in Mexico because of America’s drug policy. And now the same fate is befalling Guatemala. Mexican cartels working with local gangs control around 40 percent of the country.

Francisco Dall'Anese, who heads a special United Nations panel on corruption in Guatemala says that "there are parts of Guatemala that have been abandoned by the state, where there are no public services, that are being taken over by the capos."

Last May the Mexican drug gang, the Zetas, beheaded 27 farm workers in the Peten region in a dispute with the farm owner. The workers were innocent bystanders who knew nothing of the drug conflict. Little is known about the situation beyond this because the prosecutor, himself, was murdered and his body chopped up and dumped.

You can read the detailed results of American criminality here.

This, and many other global atrocities are the direct responsibility of the American people. It started with Nixon’s war on drugs which just compounded the other horrors visited on the global community by American’s belief in their own superiority and exceptionalism. This is not even counting the horrors visited upon the nation’s people itself which began with Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s imposition of mandatory prison time for marijuana possession—no matter how miniscule or irrelevant the amount.

Instead of pulling a Rick Perry and praying for rain, the American people should be massing together to pray for forgiveness. Sackcloth and ashes are too good some Americans in particular.

The only way to reverse this circumstance is for America to elect a new bunch of politicians. And the only way for that to happen is if America had a new bunch of people, because the current residents, in toto do not deserve what they have. Over the decades they've stuffed their faces with Big Macs and lost their country through their inattention. The nation's decline is its well-deserved fate. No more moral superiority, no more holier-than-thou.

America, originally intended to be a “shining city on a hill” has in its moral priggishness turned out, instead, to be a sinkhole in the valley of the shadow of death.

I feel very sad for those of you who love your country; your country has become almost totally unlovable.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Daniel Johnson as a teenager aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He also reads 100+ online articles per week. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.

He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog.

As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places.

Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a wide variety of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.

It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.

In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)

Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.

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