Freedom to Choose (Not!)
I have never voted in my life.
the 10 years I spent in Burma, I was too young to vote and even if I had voted during that tragic 1988 election in Burma, my vote would still have been disregarded by the Military government who didn't care what the people wanted and did whatever they felt like doing. Millions of Burmese people were left feeling helpless, oppressed and they still do to this day.
The next 8 years I spent in Singapore, I was still too young to vote and wouldn't have mattered, I was not a citizen and was not allowed to vote. I was so traumatized by racism and classism in Singapore that I wouldn't have known what to vote anyway. I hear things are improving massively in Singapore and that things are not so iron ruled anymore. I'm glad to hear that.
And for the last almost 6 years I've spent in this country, the great United States of America, I also have not been able to vote due to my status as a "non resident alien". I didn't really care before. At first I didn't care because, like a lot of immigrants who are just dying to be in this "land of the free", I had the vision of the US of A as a just and fair land where freedom was treasured and everythign was equal.
So, imagine my chock and disappointment when Idiscovered that racism and all other kinds of unjustness thrived here as well. Then I got over it. Nowhere is perfect, you have to fight to be heard if you are a minority, no matter where you are.
Even after that rude awakening, I still didn't care about voting because I thought this country was moving in a relatively progressive direction. Moving the right way. I vaguely knew Republicans had some policies that I disagreed with and that there were more conservative. However, I, like most people, were not ready for BUSH and how he changed the world as we knew it.
It's hard for me, someone who has seen freedom taken away rudely, unjustly, so sit there and watch as a country deemed to value freedom the most twist the meaning of the word to use it for other purposes.
Bush pretended to "free Iraq" but instead gained control of the oil industry.
Bush pretended to let the US citizens believe they had the freedom to choose but went on to have the war anyway.
Bush pretended that the word "patriot" and "being patriotic" meant you have to shut your mouth and support whatever your government wanted to do.
Bush pretended that "homeland security" was for the people, but instead, it was just another way of racial profiling.
Bush decided to ignore otherwise proved reports that there were no weapons of mass destruction and led people to belive his words.
Bush has caused millions of soldiers to be killed, not to mention the innocent people whose lives will never be the same again in Iraq.
Don't get me wrong, Saddam was a cruel man. But there was no need for Bush to go in someone elses country and try to "fix it" when the US itself is in enough trouble: Economy is poor; poverty still rampant and because we spent billions in the war, the elementary schools in poor neighborhoods have no money for teachers and much less for kids. And when people are poor and have no education, they might as well have no freedom.
And because I cannot vote in this country and I don't think I will have a chance to vote in the near future (Burma isn't holding elections anytime soon and I am not a citizen anywhere else), I am feeling that nervous feeling of helplessness again.
What if people are still being duped by Bush's policies of "freedom" ?
Please go out and vote next tuesday and please try to vote for the right candidate, not someone who manipulates and lies just so he can be rich, meanwhile causing millions of deaths and causing schools in this very country to be shut down due to deficit.
And if you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for me, because I can't vote.
