Saints, Sinners & Hypocrites

                Sophie Scholl and friends. Some would later become members of the White Rose resistance.

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n today's climate of increasing Neo Nazi thought and behavior in Europe and here at home, a must see film is director Marc Rotthemund's  Sophie Scholl: The Final Days ( 2005). Sophie Scholl was a member of the White Rose, an anti Nazi resistance group within Germany during the Third Reich. To see she and her brother, students who cared more about that Nazi plague than just getting good grades, having their heads cut off, unleashed a 'monsoon of tears' onto my face. I don't think I had even cried that intensely after my loving Mom and Dad had passed on. The immense bravery of those Germans in the White Rose is something that every middle or high school civics class should cover along with the story of Chelsea Manning. During the height of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan  she, as PFC first class Bradley Manning, leaked documents revealing horrific and underhanded actions by our government. Manning sent over to Wiki Leaks the ( now ) famous ' Apache Helicopter' massacre of 20 unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007. In the audio of the event, one can hear the crew acting as if it was some surreal video game that kids play. This was only the ' tip of the iceberg' to what the Bush/Cheney Cabal was orchestrating in one of the most horrific, illegal and immoral actions by our country. The damage continues today with the advent of what is labeled ISIS, a fanatical Islamic group that would never had taken root but for our pre-emptive attack and occupation of Iraq. Ms Manning, who then had to spend years in jail and suffer continued harassment... to this day, is to this writer a Saint!! Why? Because, like Sophie Scholl, she cared!

Chelsea Manning—one of only a handful of genuine US heroes in the 21st century. Her moral courage shames most Americans.

We need not go into the depths of Dante's Inferno to find sinners like our very own presidents. From Eisenhower signing off on assassinations during the Cold War, to Nixon and later on to Reagan and then Bush Sr. doing the same, with Clinton following suit with his NATO war on Serbia, and then of course the three presidents who followed them... it never ceases! The objective study of world history will one day reveal how Bush Jr., Obama and now Trump all carry the water for the infamous  Military Industrial Empire, parent of the Deep State. The Bush/Cheney Cabal kicked  over that 'hornet's nest' in the Middle East, and then Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama increased drone missile murders by ten times, and finally Trump continued the feeding frenzy by giving our nation's teat to the MIE to suck on... ' And the hits just keep on coming! ' What is a sin if not what all those presidents have done... or should I say authorized? By now, many of us should finally know who they really work for. All the presidential libraries and all the foundations they stick their names on mean jack shit at the end of the day. Ike could have stood on his head and spit out wooden nickels in January, 1961, and it would not alter what he allowed those two Dulles brothers to do inhis name for eight years! Of course, off all of those sinners, he at least finally showed some true remorse. The rest of them... nothing! Big Money & Big Power have always influenced our political system and our leaders. The sin of it all is the overwhelming number of my fellow citizens who , unlike Sophie Scholl and Chelsea Manning... do not care!

Finally, to be a hypocrite is right up there with being a sinner. Webster's dictionary has it as 'The false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion'. I guess the dictionary creators had in mind politicians and religious leaders. How ' right on' can one get? Imagine all those mostly Republican politicos who can rail on and on about ' Family values ' and then sanction the murder of families through phony wars? The minions who follow these pied pipers are keen to hang the flag on their garages and lapels, not caring in whose name that flag destroys overseas. How about those evangelical hypocrites who call abortion doctors murderers and women who have one as ' Going to hell for killing babies'? Then they don't give a rat's ass about the missiles and bombs that our military uses to kill pregnant mothers and little babies under the banner of Collateral Damage. As if Jesus is right there pressing the bomb button! How about the myriad of elected officials, who have the best health care that WE TAXPAYERS subsidize, standing there shoveling out the BS as to why we ALL cannot have what they have? Like with ' Smirking Chimp' Bill Clinton they all ' Feel our pain', regardless of which of these two corrupt parties they belong to. Yes, there are but a few on the Democratic side , like those they call ' The Squad', who see through the crap and want things to change for the better. Alas, the empire will just not allow it... Unless enough of us stand out there and be even a bit like Miss Scholl and Ms. Manning.

—PA Farruggio
Dog Days of August 2019