The Karma of Empire

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s one flows into the ' senior years' questions never really asked become prevalent. Why are we here, or what does this so called ' life ' mean? Setting aside those who feel that the earth and this 3rd dimensional life was created strictly by random , this writer still holds dear to an afterlife. If then in fact there is another dimension beyond this ' veil of dreams ', as the eastern philosophies teach, then there must be some sort of order to all of this. If there is an order ,then , to quote from the New Testament " What we sow so shall we reap."  When the Judeo- Christian religions preach " The Lord said vengeance is mine" to this writer that may translate into Karma.Webster's dictionary defines Karma as ' The force created by a person's actions that some people believe causes good or bad things to happen to that person.'

Look for a moment at the Karma our own nation has experienced. When we were first a nation look how we exterminated many of the Native American population, taking their lands as we destroyed them. Now, generations later, as many of them still reside on reservations, Karma gave them the ownership of gambling casinos nationwide. Not a great trade off, but a move in the right direction metaphysically. Look at how our young nation ramrodded ,via the bullshit of Manifest Destiny, our way to take the territories of Mexico: Texas, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The Karmic consequences of this are evident, as we continue to have the undocumented living and working in those states and many others. The whole ' border wall ' is a testament to the heights of hypocrisy: Keeping the descendents of the very people we stole from OUT of what was rightfully theirs! How about the whole racial divide issue that has polarized our nation since its inception? This was fermented by the institution of slavery. Let's be truthful here. Many white Americans, especially those of the far right way of thinking, hate having Afro- Americans live nearby, when it was the elders of white America that wanted them here in the first place: to slave for them!

Karma can be an international thing folks. Look at the terrible problem of refugees coming into Europe and parts of the Middle East. Well, a grade school kid should be able to comprehend the fact of why there are millions of Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans and Syrians coming into the NATO countries for safe haven. Duh, if Bush Jr., Obama and now Trump did not make pre-emptive war upon those nations, with help of course from our ' Coalition ' allies in Europe, there would be NO refugee crisis to such a great extent. You bomb the shit out of a weaker nation , destroy its infrastructure and culture, and then occupy it ( or attempt to ) and you have chaos! Between the aforementioned refugee crisis and our upcoming financial crisis here ( right around the corner, sadly) the cost of phony wars will bankrupt us! How few of my fellow citizens even focus on all this. That is the real Karma.

You know, people in my Italian American neighborhood of Brooklyn always had the saying, when someone got screwed around: " What goes around comes around." Well, I pray that my fellow Americans finally see the light and stop this madness of empire.

PA Farruggio

April 2019

Main photo: Miniconjou Lakotas chief Spotted Elk (aka. Bigfoot) lies dead in the snow after massacre at Wounded Knee. (photo of January 1, 1891). He had been shot several times. Wounded Knee was an emblematic event mirroring the brutality of the settlers and their cavalier racism toward the indigenous population. The systematic extermination of native Americans was an act of indisputable genocide.