Open Forum

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is world renowned for his delightfully bizarre novels. The history of the U.S. in the last 20 years is bizarre as well- but anything but delightful. Consider: We hired the priggish Ken Starr to investigate President Clinton for seven years, only to catch him (the president) in a lie about an extramarital affair. We nearly removed him from office. Clinton's predecessor vociferously campaigned, "Read my lips- no new taxes", and went on to sign into law the largest tax hike in U.S. history. Just a little lie?

We now have two oil men running the country. One is a self-proclaimed religious man who promotes the death penalty (chew on that meaty oxymoron) and the other wants to go to court to prevent the citizens of the U.S. from knowing who penned our oily little energy plan. Our Secretary of State is an Army General hailed as a hero of a 40 hour war. Bush the elder sounded the battle cry, "This naked aggression will not stand." Meanwhile, unimaginable atrocities were occurring in Africa (but we weren't protecting American interests there). Now, the right-wing controlled major media is wrapping everything in old glory and trying to sell the world on our greatness.

Kurt Vonnegut, please come to the emergency room. Your country is dying.

David Brinkman

Brainerd