I Am Ashamed of My Country

[whitehall]

I am 68 years old, secure in retirement, led a storybook life, was a Navy Fighter Pilot, live far better than most Americans, and consider myself a patriot, a loyal American, a Christian, and a solid citizen. Upon my retirement as a Financial Administrator for the City of Fort Lauderdale, the City Commission dedicated the day I retired to me in my honor. Despite all this something is very wrong. I am ashamed of my country and believe that, for the past 100 years, the true history of this nation is one of deception, shame, and dishonor. Compounding my problem is that fact that as a Christian I believe God is truth. Therefore, I cannot lie to myself even though I loathe thinking what I believe to be true.

I began my walk which led me to where I am when Congress enacted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. At the time, on my way to work I picked up a copy of the Sun-Sentinel and read these words; tossing sovereignty issues aside, Congress passed GATT. Upon so doing, I asked myself, “How the hell can Congress toss sovereignty issues aside? They are paid to protect our sovereignty.” Subsequently, I purchased a copy of the GATT accord and read it from cover to cover. I was shocked! Congress didn’t just toss sovereignty issues aside they tossed them in the shitter. What I learned was that a condition of our membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was Congress had to agree to subordinate itself, our President, and our Supreme Court to the WTO’s Ruling Panels and take steps to ensure that all our laws, regulations, and procedures conformed with those of the WTO.

My anger motivated me to write a book entitled, “While We Sleep, A Story of Government Without Law”. I also took it upon myself to sue our President and Congress over GATT’s Constitutionality acting as attorney pro se for the voting citizens of this nation. I also hosted a website called the Constitution Forum and recently, I wrote an open letter to the citizens of the United States which I mistakenly posted on this message board as my first thread. I say mistakenly because entire articles should not be posted because of legitimate concerns about possible copyright infringements. In any case, the purpose of my letter was to lead Americans down a similar path to the one I had taken in the hope they would finally wake up.

If you are interested in learning more about these matters, please use the following links.

My Open Letter to the Citizens of the United States:
An open letter to the citizens of the United States of America « The PPJ Gazette

A free copy of my book, “While We Sleep”:
While We Sleep - A Story of Government Without Law by Alan R. Adaschik

A transcript of my Lawsuit against the Federal Government:
A Constitutional Challenge To The WTO

If you have any questions about anything I have written or would like clarifying information, just ask. If you find anything in this material that you disagree with, please bring it to my attention and provide me with the reasons for your disagreement. I sincerely hope one of you can demonstrate where I have gone wrong so I can sleep better at night.

Hey bro, if you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem. Just because you served honorably in the Navy and held a decent job you think you can sit back and enjoy life? Lefties ridicule a hockey mom who didn't like what was happening in her city and ran for mayor and later was elected governor. Get involved in the system instead of whining and cursing the greatest Country in the world.

 

[Synthaholic]

As a Christian I have a duty and obligation, if I see something which I strongly believe is wrong and not Christian, to show that person the error of their ways.

Wrong. As a Christian, you have an obligation to live your life according to Christ's teachings. Nothing more. You do not have a duty to inform others that they are not living up to the standards that you have decided meet Christ's goals.



If you are deciding that others are not living up to those ideals, then you are making a judgement; about that person, and those standards of conduct. Please tell me, then, what Jesus meant by "Judge not, lest ye be judged".

Was it just a throwaway line?



Better late than never.



Yet, you have found time to answer many posts that have come afterward, including this one, that you replied to.

I fully intend to do this after the furor over my next post dies down. This one will be a doozy, but everything in is God's honest truth. To see this, all one has to do is open their minds and think. It all does really make a lot of sense. In fact it makes the most sense, but most Americans are not interested in truth. Instead, they are interested in feeling Good. False and misguided patriotism feels as good as real patriotism, so they bury their the sand and feel good not realizing that reality is about to give them a swift and very hard kick in the butt.

In your very narrow worldview, coupled with your bigotry, coupled with yet another judgement about what 'god' wants. Which god? Oh yeah - the one that you have decided is the one who lines up with your narrow worldview. Got it!

I stand by my previous replies to you and do not wish to continue this discussion any further on this thread. Its about who is governing us and not about me and my religous beliefs.

Thank you for your cooperation with this and have a nice day.

Thank you for demonstrating that you are unable to defend your bigotry or your narrow interpretation of Christ's teachings.

 

[Synthaholic]

To the "awakened" OP. Google up Boquete Panama. There are a bunch of you ex-meatheads there, English is widespread, and they are on the dollar. Go hang out for a month or so.
GTFO and enjoy the time you have left. murka is finished.

That's what they said in the 1930s. But FDR saved this country with massive works programs that got people out of the bread lines and back to employment and contributing to a growing tax base that saw the highest standard of living in the world.

 

[Synthaholic]

Seeing obama's name on the same paper as my Dads is insulting and offensive. I haven't even told my son, he'd rip it up and send it back.

I remember when Bill Clinton was elected. The new reenlistment "kudos" paperwork had Clinton's signature on them.

Many people reenlisting spoke to their Career Counselors and had leftover commendations with President Bush's signature presented instead.

Didn't want any honors bestowed on them by a draft-dodging individual who was on record as "loathing" the military.

Bill Clinton has to be the worst President this Nation every had. The following quotes by him prove it.

"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans..."

It's fun to cherry-pick half-quotes, isn't it?

.

Bill Clinton Quote Taken Out of Context

Q: Did Bill Clinton say, "We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans"?

A: Yes, but that's a snippet of his full quote, and it's used unfairly to make Clinton seem to dismiss all rights of ordinary Americans.



FULL ANSWER:

This partial quote is as misleading as those that one often sees in political ads or movie reviews. Clinton was talking about gun rights and had much more to say.

On March 1, 1993, Clinton (who had been sworn in as president a little more than a month earlier) was in New Brunswick, N.J., talking with volunteers about national service. One volunteer asked him about the New Jersey Legislature's attempt to overturn a state ban on assault weapons. At the time, the Brady bill that would require a waiting period for handgun purchases was pending in Congress; the National Rifle Association opposed it. In addition, a day earlier, federal agents had raided a Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, resulting in the deaths of four agents and six Branch Davidians and beginning a standoff between the government and the heavily armed Davidians that would last into April.

In other words, firearms were in the news. Here's what Clinton said, which was a critique of the NRA:

Clinton: You know, you can't have – be so fixated on a desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles. It's something that I strongly support. You can't be so fixated on that that when you're unable to think about the reality of life that millions of Americans face on streets that are unsafe, under conditions that no other nation – no other nation – has permitted to exist. And at some point, you know, I still hope that the leadership of the National Rifle Association will go back to doing what it did when I was a boy and which made me want to be a lifetime member of it – (laughs) – because they put out valuable information about hunting and marksmanship and safe use of guns. But just to ignore the conditions we face today in a lot of our cities and other places in this country and the enormous threat to public safety is amazing.​

.



What do you think we are, fucking idiots? We all know how to Google, and a good many of us have some political smarts.

If you think you are going to come into this forum and get away with this kind of bullshit, you are going to get slammed, and will not last long.

 

[Intense]

When are we going to ge started on that canal from Brownsville Texas to South of San Diego Canal? You know, the You keep on your side and We'll keep on our side Canal?

 

[Synthaholic]

Bill Clinton has to be the worst President this Nation every had. The following quotes by him prove it.

"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans..."

why not finish the quote?

FactCheck.org : Bill Clinton Quote Taken Out of Context

"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly ... [Now] there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it."

Ms. Soren. What's your question for the President?
Crime and Individual Freedom
[A participant discussed Singapore's sentencing of an American student to be caned and asked if a similar penal system that was not based on a strong belief in individual rights would be beneficial in combating U.S. crime.]



The President. Well, that's not where I thought you were going with the question. Good for you.
Ms. Soren. He's obviously talking about the caning in Singapore.



The President. Yes—the young man, Michael Fay, in Singapore. As you know, I have spoken out against his punishment for two reasons. One is, it's not entirely clear that his confession wasn't coerced from him. The second is that if he just were to serve 4 months in prison for what he did, that would be quite severe. But the caning may leave permanent scars, and some people who are caned, in the way they're caned, they go into shock. I mean, it's much more serious than it sounds. So, on the one hand, I don't approve of this punishment, particularly in this case.



Now, having said that, a lot of the Asian societies that are doing very well now have low crime rates and high economic growth rates, partly because they have very coherent societies with strong units where the unit is more important than the individual, whether it's the family unit or the work unit or the community unit.



My own view is that you can go to the extreme in either direction. And when we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly. That is, when we set up this country, abuse of people by Government was a big problem. So if you read the Constitution, it's rooted in the desire to limit the ability of—Government's ability to mess with you, because that was a huge problem. It can still be a huge problem. But it assumed that people would basically be raised in coherent families, in coherent communities, and they would work for the common good, as well as for the individual welfare.


What's happened in America today is too many people live in areas where there's no family structure, no community structure, and no work structure. And so there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities. So that's my answer to you. We can have—the more personal freedom a society has, the more personal responsibility a society needs and the more strength you need out of your institutions, family, community, and work.

Read more at the American Presidency Project: William J. Clinton: Interview on MTV's "Enough is Enough" Forum William J. Clinton: Interview on MTV's "Enough is Enough" Forum
​

Got a legitimate (i.e. interview, speech transcript) source for that quote?

A joke during a speech, while being heckled. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/political-science/whitehouse-papers/1993/Jun/Philadelphia-Speach

Clinton didn't say this.

There is no reason for anyone in this country, anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use a handgun. I used to think handguns could be controlled by laws about registration, by laws requiring waiting periods for purchasers, by laws making sellers check out the past of buyers. I now think the only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns. And the only way to do that is to change the Constitution.
Michael Gartner Glut of Guns: What Can We Do About Them?, USA Today, Jan. 16, 1992, at 9A


Has been attributed by the right to both the MTV interview and the speech I linked above. Please point out where in either this appears.

You're getting close.

Washingtonpost.com Special Report: Clinton Accused

"If a President of the United States ever lied to the American people he should resign." - Bill Clinton running for US Representative in 1974

Yay! You got one right! Congressional Record Vol. 145-Part 2: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th ... - Google Books

"It depends on what the meaning of the word is is. If the...if he...if is means is and never has been, that is not - that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement"

You're on a roll!

Emma beats me to the citizenal beatdown, and does it more completely.

So, what else is new?

 

[Synthaholic]

On your list of 20, you mentioned the 9/11 attacks.

Who do you think attacked us? Who was behind those attacks?

I certainly am not a 9/11 expert, but I know enough about to know some things are very wrong about the official version of what happened. The fall of tower #7, the fact that the terrorist airplane were in the air so long without being intercepted, the mysterious plane over Washington during the attacks, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

What I think happened is that a bunch of amateur Arab terrorists of Saudi extraction planed and executed the attack which could have been and should have been foiled before it even got off the ground because both Israeli and American intelligence agencies knew everything they needed to stop. Instead of stopping it, they sat back and did nothing which in effect was aiding and abetting it. The reason they did this is because letting the attack happen and succeed would provide George Bush the excuse he needed to attack an Arab nation, any Arab nation provided it was a defenseless one. This in turn would allow us to begin fighting Israel's battles in the Far East.

This is a time worn story and the same strategies have been used over and over again by the Zionists to get the United States to fight their battles. We are dupes and suckers to the Zionists time and time again and the armchair patriots of this nation sit back and think what a great nation we have going here. They want to see us kick ass and they don't care whose ass we kick even if it is the wrong one. The best example of this is our invasion of Irag; the wrong country justified by lies and deception; and most Americans have no problem with this (crank up another Toby Keith song). I am appalled that we have become a nation which invades and murders at the drop of hat all to the cheers of clueless morons who think killing and fighting is the best way to run a world. In fact, killing and fighting is now our premier national pass time eclisping both baseball, football, and car racing.

So to clarify, you believe the US government allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place in order to appease the Zionists.

He's a LIHOP!

 

[Synthaholic]

I did not say that I believed that the twin towers were rigged with explosives. What I said was that building 7's collapse was suspicious and not in keeping with the facts. The the point is that there are a plethora of legimate reservations about the facts surrounding 9/11 and most of the them cannot be explained away. The point is there is ample evidence available to indicate that our and the Israeli intelligence services were in the know.

No there isn't. But that won't stople people like you.

Building 7 had issues before 9/11. Remember The City Command Center was also located there. Allot of wasted money. Foundation damage on 9/11 left it in-salvageable. It was a total loss.

You left out that it was RUDY911 who put that command center there, after the WTC had already been attacked with explosives, and against the warnings that terrorists considered the WTC a prime target and they would likely strike it again.

RUDY911 has a lot of WTC blood on his hands.

 

[Synthaholic]

I am 68 years old, secure in retirement, led a storybook life, was a Navy Fighter Pilot, live far better than most Americans, and consider myself a patriot, a loyal American, a Christian, and a solid citizen. Upon my retirement as a Financial Administrator for the City of Fort Lauderdale, the City Commission dedicated the day I retired to me in my honor. Despite all this something is very wrong. I am ashamed of my country and believe that, for the past 100 years, the true history of this nation is one of deception, shame, and dishonor. Compounding my problem is that fact that as a Christian I believe God is truth. Therefore, I cannot lie to myself even though I loathe thinking what I believe to be true.

I began my walk which led me to where I am when Congress enacted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. At the time, on my way to work I picked up a copy of the Sun-Sentinel and read these words; tossing sovereignty issues aside, Congress passed GATT. Upon so doing, I asked myself, “How the hell can Congress toss sovereignty issues aside? They are paid to protect our sovereignty.” Subsequently, I purchased a copy of the GATT accord and read it from cover to cover. I was shocked! Congress didn’t just toss sovereignty issues aside they tossed them in the shitter. What I learned was that a condition of our membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was Congress had to agree to subordinate itself, our President, and our Supreme Court to the WTO’s Ruling Panels and take steps to ensure that all our laws, regulations, and procedures conformed with those of the WTO.

My anger motivated me to write a book entitled, “While We Sleep, A Story of Government Without Law”. I also took it upon myself to sue our President and Congress over GATT’s Constitutionality acting as attorney pro se for the voting citizens of this nation. I also hosted a website called the Constitution Forum and recently, I wrote an open letter to the citizens of the United States which I mistakenly posted on this message board as my first thread. I say mistakenly because entire articles should not be posted because of legitimate concerns about possible copyright infringements. In any case, the purpose of my letter was to lead Americans down a similar path to the one I had taken in the hope they would finally wake up.

If you are interested in learning more about these matters, please use the following links.

My Open Letter to the Citizens of the United States:
An open letter to the citizens of the United States of America « The PPJ Gazette

A free copy of my book, “While We Sleep”:
While We Sleep - A Story of Government Without Law by Alan R. Adaschik

A transcript of my Lawsuit against the Federal Government:
A Constitutional Challenge To The WTO

If you have any questions about anything I have written or would like clarifying information, just ask. If you find anything in this material that you disagree with, please bring it to my attention and provide me with the reasons for your disagreement. I sincerely hope one of you can demonstrate where I have gone wrong so I can sleep better at night.

Hey bro, if you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem. Just because you served honorably in the Navy and held a decent job you think you can sit back and enjoy life? Lefties ridicule a hockey mom who didn't like what was happening in her city and ran for mayor

...and promptly left that town millions of dollars in debt.

and later was elected governor. Get involved in the system instead of whining and cursing the greatest Country in the world.

And then was found to abuse her office by using her power to target a relative she didn't like.


Clarity.

 

[citizenal]

citizenal, you have to offer responsible and reasonaly supported assertions.

Do that, and I will gladly respond in the same way.

Jake, thanks for the suggestion. I am about to. Standby.

 

[citizenal]

No there isn't. But that won't stople people like you.

People like me? I have the same comment to you as I had for Jake. Disparagement is not a legitimate tool of debate. I am a "people like you" so there is not further point in listening to me. End of story, go to another post. Thanks Artevelede! You really have made a contribution to understanding the world we live in.

Hatemongering does not equal understanding.

Saveliberty: I am not hatemongering form my perspective. I do not hate anyone.
To hate means you are not in control and they own you. Zionists are far too efficient at capitalizing on hate. They are masters at it. Look what they accomplished through Adolph Hitler.

If what I am saying is true, then it is not hate mongering, instead, it is the reality we have to deal with. You, unfortunately have been brainwashed such that saying anything negative about Zionism is tantemount to hating Zionists. I do not hate Zionists, I only hate what they do and my purpose is not to hurt them, but to end the hurt they are doing to me, my fellow citizens and the rest of the world.

 

[citizenal]

No there isn't. But that won't stople people like you.

People like me? I have the same comment to you as I had for Jake. Disparagement is not a legitimate tool of debate. I am a "people like you" so there is not further point in listening to me. End of story, go to another post. Thanks Artevelede! You really have made a contribution to understanding the world we live in.

In order to understand the world you have to be able to seperate fact from fiction. You fail on that score. Your problem, not mine.

Artevelde: Tsk Tsk. I am wrong and you are right. With a handle like Artevelde I would expect more out of you than a childs playground taunt.

 

[citizenal]

Back to some real work. Have to rototill the garden today. People like me have to eat.

citizenal

Definition of a weed: Any plant you don't like.

Psst! The dandelions are Zionists.

My definition of weed is any plant that you can smoke which gets you high.

Pssst! Zionists are like Kudsu.

 

[citizenal]

Hey bro, if you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem. Just because you served honorably in the Navy and held a decent job you think you can sit back and enjoy life? Lefties ridicule a hockey mom who didn't like what was happening in her city and ran for mayor and later was elected governor. Get involved in the system instead of whining and cursing the greatest Country in the world.

Whitehall: All you have said me is be a good little ass wipe and join in the madness which will be are undoing. Do your really think dealing with folks like you is enjoying life. Sorry Charilie but I can't abide by your suggestion to become a jerk.

 

[Sweet Willy]

Citizen.... there is no mystery to the fact the we, and others, including Israeli intelligence, knew that those guys were up to no good. We have our own paper trail that says "Bin laden coming.." "Planes might be flown into buildings.." "Suspicious guys in flight school.." "terrorist would like to pull of something BIG on US soil.." It's no secret or conspiracy that the chatter had turned into a constant buzz.... we knew they were coming. Yes. Israel knew yes.... but the logistics of knowing when and where and who and how are, and were, just near impossible. It's not unlike the fact that Israel KNOWS that there are Pals with bombs coming. They know it right now. They know just about who it will be.... but they still can't stop them.... not even with the EXTREME security atmosphere they subject themselves to, to try and stop them.

The more you talk, the more you sound like a kook man. Don't get me wrong, there are people manipulating governments and people and decisions.... but that has ALWAYS been the case. Conspiracies happen out in the open.... there is nothing much left to guess about most of it. Maybe a secret or two but most of it is hidden in plain sight for those of us who chose to understand and accept the way the world works. We live in it, we do what we can to be good people and work with the truth. It does not help to get side tracked with cloak and dagger conspiracies.

Yes.... there is a large contingent of Jews, who for religious reasons, have worked their way into a position to help their religious prophecy look real.... they've done it with guns and lies and blood shed and IT IS NO SECRET. The Israelis make no secret of it. Their national policy is an open book "JEWS COME HERE PLEASE, WE'LL TREAT YOU SPECIAL HERE. WE'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU."

There are likewise, countries who are openly and hostilely Islamic, with the same message "COME HERE FOR JIHAD..." "COME HERE TO HATE JEWS AND AMERICA."

There are likewise, large Christian organizations who toss their dogma around, making American politics and interest reflect as much Christianity as possible.

These things can all be good and bad at times. They can all be problematic. But what they aren't... is a secret. It's all out in the open, warts and all. To be diverted by the window dressings people put up doesn't mean that we can't see inside if we want.... it just means you are one of the people distracted by window dressings.

 

[citizenal]

What do you think we are, fucking idiots? We all know how to Google, and a good many of us have some political smarts.

If you think you are going to come into this forum and get away with this kind of bullshit, you are going to get slammed, and will not last long.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP.

Excuse me!

 

[JakeStarkey]

What do you think we are, fucking idiots? We all know how to Google, and a good many of us have some political smarts.

If you think you are going to come into this forum and get away with this kind of bullshit, you are going to get slammed, and will not last long.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP.

Excuse me!

In other words, you have no new anything to offer.

Condolences.

 

[citizenal]

I wish to start our by complementing all of you for behaving so responsibly. What I have posted in this thread, to say the very least, is shocking to the core and I anticipated a much stronger reaction from the members of this board. This tells me that you truly are thinking individuals who care about the truth. Having said this, I also must say to those who disagree with me to open your minds so instead of seeing what you want to see and hearing what you want to hear, you hear and see what is really there.

No sane person wants to believe what I believe and no sane person wants to think the worst of the government which made us what we are today, but that government has changed and no longer is worthy of our trust, confidence, and support. Accepting this despicable reality goes against everything we hold dear and sacred in life. This I understand. However, as citizens of this nation we all share a responsibility to know what is going on, so we can responsibly fulfill our obligation as citizens. We all know that something is wrong with our ship of state. This is why many of you agreed with my first post. However, when I told you what is wrong with our ship of state, I lost almost all of you.

Before proceeding, I have a request. Forget you are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, and most important, Americans. Thinking you are any of these things colors you perceptions and becomes a veil which hides the truth. In order to fulfill your responsibilities of as a citizen of this once great nation, you must know and see the truth and in order to this, you must divest yourselves of a personal interest in the reality you are seeking. In other words, to find the truth you must not have a personal stake in it. Most of the reactions I have received on this post indicate your preferences and these preferences have nothing to do with the truth.

From this point forward, you are not human beings, you are not citizens of the United States, but instead of these things, you are a crew member of a UFO studying us for the purposes of reporting back to your seniors what is happening to the United States of America. I am the facilitator of a meeting of these aliens and my job is to provide you with information and my analysis of this information. Your job is to question everything I say so our final report does not contain any inconsistencies or delusions. This is the mind set you must have properly comprehend and digest what I will present and this is the mindset which will allow us to find the truth. Anything else is not a search for the truth, but instead, a search to find mental well being and security.

P.S. From this point forward, no disparagement, no name calling, no depreciating remarks. I am just as guilty of everyone else in this regard and it should stop. No one in history ever became convinced of anything through a put down. All they are is mental masturbation. It feels good but accomplishes nothing.

 

[JakeStarkey]

citizenal, you have offered little of worth and much that is nonsense.

Begin with solid, incontrovertible facts. Do not expect us to believe that you and a couple of others here are privy to secret Israeli intelligence and foreign policy operative information.

That won't fly here.

 

[Sweet Willy]

citizenal, sorry for saying you sound a bit like a kook. I know where you are coming from but the problem I have with getting on board with the idea that there is some reason to be ashamed of our country NOW, as if there never was before, as if there is some new and special level of deceit, is that these things have LONG been going on. This stuff you are talking about with Israel goes back to WWI. What? It wasn't shameful then that some back door politics and influence pedaling was going on? How about the trail of tears and the Sand Creek massacre? How about wagon loads of small pox infested blankets... early biological warfare... genocide even? How about slavery, lynchings and witch trials?

Exactly WHEN was there NOT something terribly horrid going on man?

The answer is NEVER. There are always evil plots and sinister deeds going on. We do our best to rise above them, learn from them, raise our civil standards to discourage them. It's an ongoing struggle.

What it is not, is something new in our nation that suddenly we should be ashamed of. If so, then we were born of same and have never risen above it. But most of us chose to not be absolute in either direction. We take pride in the good things and strive to do more of them and yes, we take our dose of shame when we need to and try to learn not to repeat those things.