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Healing & Alternative Health: Chinese medicine
The Tao of Voting Against Bush
by Kevin O'Neil, L.Ac |
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The November elections are almost upon us, and thoughts of getting Bush out of the White House are on my mind much of the time. I suspect that most readers of this column are already planning to vote for Kerry, but I may have some more fuel to add to your fire, and there may be some readers who were planning to vote for Bush who will reconsider after reading this.
There are many reasons I feel that getting Bush out of office is in the best interests of people of minority paths, such as Wicca, Taoism, Buddhism, and even atheism. Practitioners and patients of alternative medicine also would benefit from a new administration that respects states' rights to determine acceptable medical practices. Ethical Christians should realize that Bush's murderous wars do not have the blessings of God, despite Bush's claims to the contrary in most speeches. Bush was the man, recall, who described his fight against terrorism as a 'Crusade,' immediately bringing Muslims and pagans to remember centuries of forced conversions, cold-blooded murder, and the worst sort of corrupt fundamentalist politics.
Bush once said, in a comment regarding the military's decision to give Wiccan soldiers the same rights to practice their religion as Christian soldiers, "I don't think witchcraft is a religion." You can Google this quote to find out more. Is this an attitude that the president of a free nation of diverse religions should have?
Bush and his administration are literally war criminals on the loose. This is based upon the clear definitions of United States law and international law. You see, the United Nations Charter as well as the Geneva Conventions are ratified treaties, which makes them part of our law. Instituting a war of aggression is one of the most serious crimes possible, and is a clear violation of the UN Charter, which has been accepted into US Law. The fact that Bush and his administration fabricated and exaggerated "evidence" that Iraq was a danger just shows that they knew they should have the UN's legal blessing to invade Iraq. When it became clear that the UN didn't feel an invasion was necessary at the current time, the US backed off from seeking approval and invaded without the UN's approval. This broke our treaties and has destabilized the entire world. The UN (and Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice before 9/11) was right: Saddam didn't have weapons of mass destruction and had been crippled by the sanctions to a point where he wasn't a threat to his neighbors, much less the US.
Upon invading, Kofi Annan (the Secretary-General of the UN) reminded the US that the occupying power has the responsibility to safeguard the civilians of the occupied country. Bush and crew have simply said that they "don't do body counts" of Iraqi civilians. Leaving this up to independent groups such as www.IraqBodyCount.com, we have a current count of between 12,943 and 14,997 Iraqis killed in the war so far. It has already cost the US taxpayers over $153 billion and the situation keeps getting worse. Bush's administration hasn't even had the courtesy to count the civilians they have killed, much less prevent their deaths. It is illegal under international law to target civilian infrastructure such as water treatment plants and hospitals. They were targeted intentionally in both Gulf War 1 and the Iraq War. It is terrible that 1000 soldiers from the US have died in the Iraq war. They should not have died, as they should not have been sent. Is an American soldier more important than an Iraqi mother? They are ultimately equal. However, I find the death of an Iraqi family being killed in their home by a stray US bomb (paid for with my tax dollars) slightly more tragic than the death of a military volunteer. Even if Saddam had nukes and was planning to use them against us (neither condition was true), the Iraqi families were less involved in his military ambitions than we United States citizens, who at least get the chance to voice our opinions and vote.
Dick Cheney cannot be trusted to keep the interests and safety of the American people in mind. As the former CEO of Halliburton, he still gets some deferred salary paid to him now. He certainly also has some social and emotional attachments to Halliburton. This is most likely part of why Halliburton and its subsidiaries such as Kellogg, Brown & Root have won so many contracts in Iraq, many without any competing bids. Cheney, in a bit of slimy legalese, said he has no "financial interest" in Halliburton now. Why? Because he bought and insurance policy which will guarantee he gets his deferred salary even if Halliburton goes bankrupt. There are many Iraqis waiting for jobs who have experience in the oil industry. US taxpayer money for reconstruction is going mostly to companies such as Halliburton, while Iraqis go hungry in filthy conditions.
What about the "insurgents" such as Moqtada al-Sadr? Let me start by saying that my readings of Islamic history have led me to realize that Muslim governments have been as violent, aggressive, and destructive as the Christian governments who led the Crusades and Inquisition. I am a proud American, in that I believe in a separation of church and state and freedom of the press, etc. Moqtada didn't take up arms against the occupation forces until a very important thing happened to him: he had been publishing a newspaper criticizing the US occupation and the Coalition Provisional Authority shut it down, censoring the paper. This pissed him off and gave him some time and motivation to put together the Medhi Army. I think we'd have been better off with an opinionated newspaper. Later, it was said that Moqtada wouldn't be allowed to participate in elections. This angered him more, understandably so, as fair elections would only be fair if candidates opposed to the occupation were allowed to voice their opinions and run for office (I just read that Saddam is planning to run and that 42% of Iraqis would vote for him according to a Gallup poll!). So, in the grand American tradition, he took up arms against the occupying forces. I don't think that Iraq would be a nice place to live if he has control, but I certainly understand why he is so angry at the US forces and why he has gained popular sympathy in Iraq.
On the home front, Bush's administration isn't protecting American values much, either. On the topic of marriage, Bush and Ashcroft, etc. have shown themselves to be against freedom. Wanting to add a constitutional amendment to limit freedom is absolutely not in the American spirit. If you don't like the idea of gay marriage, you can go to a church that will not condone it. Just don't leave your son alone with the celibate priests! Marriage is a religious ritual, and freedom of religion would dictate that churches get to decide what is OK in regards to marriage between consenting adults. When it comes to inheritance, hospital visitation rights, etc., it is cruel to deny the reality of committed gay couples living together for years. If they really wanted to protect the "sanctity" of heterosexual marriage, they could outlaw heterosexual divorce, or only allow one marriage license per person for life.
I have to go back to the topic of Iraq for a while. It is such a rich topic, which has occupied so much of my mind for the past year. The mainstream media has not done a good job informing most Americans of why the Iraqis are so angry at the US forces. Depleted uranium is a major topic I encourage you to look into on your own. Our forces have used immense amounts of radioactive uranium in the cities of Iraq, leaving a highly carcinogenic dust floating around the entire country. Birth defects and cancers are incredibly high (this affects our soldiers as well). The reason given is that depleted uranium can penetrate better than other metals, and it is used in armor-piercing rounds and bunker buster bombs. Remember the big bomb that they thought had killed Saddam at one of his hideouts? It really hit a neighborhood restaurant. It was undoubtedly made with radioactive depleted uranium, and everyone living within a few miles of that location will suffer for a few billion years or more years from the dust and radiation in contained. This is completely inhumane and is another level of war crime. Many Iraqis, I'm sure, know about it. However, I doubt the term "depleted uranium" would mean much to most Americans. The US has no plans to go in and decontaminate the areas it bombed. The uranium is now in the water supply and food supply, as well as the air.
If for no other reason, please vote to get Bush out of office for the inhumane treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. It is very clear that Bush & Co. consulted with their legal team to find a loophole in basic human rights law. Guantanamo Bay was set up as a detention camp on foreign soil for the explicit purpose of being able to detain and torture people outside of the scope of US law or international human rights laws. The fact that the US military judged fighters to be "non-military combatants" not aligned with an officially recognized governing body to be outside the protection of the Geneva Conventions against torture of war prisoners is a terribly evil manipulation of the spirit and letter of the law. When administrators and CIA interrogators were moved from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib to apply the same techniques of torture to the Iraqi prisoners (around 70% of who have been released later as innocent, as they were simply rounded up in raids of a particular area) shows tremendous contempt for human rights. Clinton may have been slippery with his definition of sex to do it with Monica, but Bush being slippery with the definition of human for the purpose of violating human rights on a mass scale is a much larger crime.
The United States of America is my country. I was raised with a respect for our Bill of Rights, Constitution, legal system, and the electoral process. The USA once had the respect of the world-France even gave us the Statue of Liberty! But that was an America that held to the notions of freedom and fairness the Founding Fathers put into our laws. Without respecting these basic American principles, we are more like the Roman Empire, using our military might to force others to surrender their own freedoms for our financial and strategic benefit. The USA needs to get back on track, adhering to both the spirit and letter of our law and the treaties we have voluntarily agreed to. The American people need to hold Bush and crew accountable for their crimes. They are entitled to trials as war criminals. I don't expect this to happen, but voting Bush out of office isn't too much to ask.
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Kevin O'Neil,
Licensed Practitioner of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine
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Kevin O'Neil, Licensed Acupuncturist, began his Chinese Medicine training in Chinatown, Victoria, B.C. at the International College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, with Henry Lu, Ph.D. .
After one year, Kevin transferred to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland, where he spent 3 years completing his Master's Degree of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
Upon graduation, Kevin went to China and interned in the HeiLongJiang Chinese Medicine University Hospital, before moving to Tainan, Taiwan to continue his studies of Chinese Medicine, language, and culture.
Upon 'repatriation,' he chose to embrace the Taoist tradition of living in the mountains where the pace of life is more relaxed and the air is clean and clear. Finding Klamath Falls, Oregon to suit these characteristics, Kevin opened his clinic there in Spring, 1999.
Ancient Way Acupuncture & Herbs, Inc.
Medical/Dental Building
905 Main St #409
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
541-884-6377
www.ancientway.com |
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