After posting my recently written song Pax Americana on a freegan e-mail list, I received the following reply:
"This seems like propaganda to me! have you noticed the homeless people on the streets of NYC? according to you only non-Americans feel pain and have rights?
if you don't like America, leave."
See: my retort.
I have noticed the homeless people on the streets of NYC. Indeed they feel pain and have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Just like the slave workers in third-world countries who produce everything that we consume, going hungry and naked in the mean time only so that Americans will waste much of it in the end, causing further harm to the environment and low-income communities here (around which landfills are invariably built).
The homeless in the US have many an advocate (apparently both of us included); but who advocates for the rights of the slave laborers who produce for us? Their abuse goes largely unchecked as most Americans consume blindly, frivolously, and excessively, oblivious and ambivalent to the labor, animal, and environmental abuse that has gone into their products. That is why I wrote this song. It was inspired by the fact that the peace symbol has become a fashion trend that you can buy at Wal-Mart, emblazoned on mass-produced t-shirts manufactured by slave workers in third-world countries. This fact is not a little oxy-moronic and disconcerting.
There are many things about America that I don't like. I wonder whether I should stay though, just to spite you? Just kidding, of course. I do not recognize national boundaries so it would be impossible for me to leave (or "go to") this or any other country, as denoted by political boundary lines. As long as I happen to live in the region known politically as the United States of America, I'll go on appreciating the fact that this nation values the freedom of speech and expression. I expect that you will do the same?
I apologize if you took offense to my song. Nevertheless, I do hope that you found it thought-provoking; and if you are a freegan I hope it inspires and motivates you to keep fighting the good fight. Shalom aleichem,
Gio
"This seems like propaganda to me! have you noticed the homeless people on the streets of NYC? according to you only non-Americans feel pain and have rights?
if you don't like America, leave."
See: my retort.
I have noticed the homeless people on the streets of NYC. Indeed they feel pain and have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Just like the slave workers in third-world countries who produce everything that we consume, going hungry and naked in the mean time only so that Americans will waste much of it in the end, causing further harm to the environment and low-income communities here (around which landfills are invariably built).
The homeless in the US have many an advocate (apparently both of us included); but who advocates for the rights of the slave laborers who produce for us? Their abuse goes largely unchecked as most Americans consume blindly, frivolously, and excessively, oblivious and ambivalent to the labor, animal, and environmental abuse that has gone into their products. That is why I wrote this song. It was inspired by the fact that the peace symbol has become a fashion trend that you can buy at Wal-Mart, emblazoned on mass-produced t-shirts manufactured by slave workers in third-world countries. This fact is not a little oxy-moronic and disconcerting.
There are many things about America that I don't like. I wonder whether I should stay though, just to spite you? Just kidding, of course. I do not recognize national boundaries so it would be impossible for me to leave (or "go to") this or any other country, as denoted by political boundary lines. As long as I happen to live in the region known politically as the United States of America, I'll go on appreciating the fact that this nation values the freedom of speech and expression. I expect that you will do the same?
I apologize if you took offense to my song. Nevertheless, I do hope that you found it thought-provoking; and if you are a freegan I hope it inspires and motivates you to keep fighting the good fight. Shalom aleichem,
Gio
