Because the world is all sunshine and rainbows

America is the land of the free and home of the brave. The shining beacon of democracy for the world. A land of God-fearing people upholding the standards of liberty and free commerce for the world.

That's what we were taught to believe. That's the story the American media tells.

What's the real story? Bear with me:

Over 90% of the world lives at or below (often well below) poverty. America is responsible for some of this in the name of free markets. For example, to get an economic development loan in the 90's it desperately needed, Haiti was forced to lower the tariffs on rice imports by the World Bank (run by Americans). Up to this point, Haiti could feed 95% of its own population. Once the tariffs were lowered, cheaper American rice flooded the market and forced Haiti farmers out of business. (The rice was cheaper because American rice farmers receive big subsidies.) Their agriculture infrastructure was wiped out - driven out of business.

Now that rice is expensive, the Haitians are starving and literally eating dirt. This is the onerous requirements of free trade. Governments needing loans for development are forced to cede natural resources to international companies who take them over and raise prices on the people it should belong to! Is this humane? Do you care?

President Bush tells you people around the world hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because we oppress them. Governments like Egypt and Saudi Arabia are among the most oppressive governments in the world. The US likes them because they're predictable and they can get the job done (what we tell them) without internal interference. Israel is turning into the monster that had before persecuted them by slowly oppressing and driving out the Palestinians (I know, this isn't the story you're being told in our media). The Germans did it to the Jews and Slavs for Lebensraum (living space) for their people. The Israelis drive out and suppress the Palestinians and give the land to their people. Lebensraum? The US is squarely behind them (which is why you don't hear much about it) and supply them with all the arms necessary to do the job.

What does the American government do here at home? The military has done domestic experiments on its own people without consent. Soldiers were set close to atomic test sites so they could test the results of radiation on people. They sprayed supposedly harmless biological agents in California, which actually sent people to the hospital (and still does). There is almost 100 documented cases of the military testing biological agents on the American people without their permission. Land of the free?

And there is so much more. Honestly, chemtrails isn't the place to start. If you haven't considered those other things, if you really haven't thought about why the world is the way it is and the underlying forces driving it, chemtrails won't make much sense to you.

You've got your TV and your house in suburbia, so what's the point in asking questions? Why ask why so many people around the world are facing food shortages and what it means to you. Don't ask why 32 mpg is the norm for cars when, in the same time, every other major technology in the world has made HUGE advances in the last 50 years. Don't ask if people aren't manipulating the energy markets (again) like Enron did. Don't ask about the Bush family's relationship with the Saudis and what it means to America. Don't ask if there has been rampant election frauds in this sparkling jewel of democracy.

Don't ask why. Don't ask anything. It can't be true. Just keep watching TV. There's a good citizen.

But... if you do ask, don't start here. Pick up a thread - any thread - and follow it and see where it leads. It will lead to other threads - some pretty frightening. Then a pattern will begin to emerge in a larger tapestry. Then the stuff going on up there in the sky might make a little sense.

It's scary. Much easier and more pleasant to keep your head in the sand.