CHAPTER TWELVE. THE EVIL THAT MEN DO

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jun 28, 2009 7:52 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Dick Cheney, whose sick heart and soul revealed the depth of America's social disease, now in the tertiary stages and affecting our brains and minds. The choices he has made have created the perfect storm of war, economic desperation and despair that will inspire this generation to Take Back America for the People so that we might become productive partners in peace, ensuring the survival of the species, in bright contrast to the Dark side of ourselves that he has shown us.

As we arm ourselves to begin the battle to Take Back America, let us pause to pray for both ourselves and our enemies. Let us fervently pray that we do not lose our souls in venting our righteous fury at the evil that has been done in the name of our beloved nation. 

We cannot afford to forget the admonition to “hate the sin, not the sinner.” The risk is greater than that of becoming sinners ourselves. We all carry within in us the seeds of our own potential destruction until we rid ourselves of the anger and fear that blinds us to our highest moral duty. 

In my work with combat veterans, I have borne witness to the suffering of those who have been compelled to destroy in anger and fear at the behest of ignorant leaders of our former democracy. Please do not choose the path of anger and fear as we proceed to so our work. Let us go forward calmly but with firm confidence in our ultimate purpose: to restore democracy in America.

We must pray for those who we prepare to vanquish as well, for in this war there must be no losers. Our intent is to bring an end to the world of the zero-sum game. We will work together in the future, for the sake of the survival of our species. 

It is therefore fitting that the war to restore democracy in America begins with the battle to establish universal health care. In winning the fight for the right to care which promotes individual health and survival, we will prove that a free people can defeat the corrupting power of corporate influence on Congress. 

With new confidence, we are then prepared to wage the larger war for the soul of America and the survival of its people. As our sick society still has the ability to infect the world with the disease of radical individualism, it is fair to say that the fate of the world may be in our hands as well.

Remember that when the concept of democracy in America was only an idea whose merits were being hotly debated, the argument hinged on whether we believe that men are good enough to put individual self-interest aside for the sake of the common good and the interest of liberty for all. 

Only when a critical mass of citizens was educated about the issues to be considered in making this momentous decision was Revolution possible. Without the advantage of a mass media (or perhaps due to the advantage of its absence), those who understood what was at stake took it upon themselves as their sacred duty to bring the truth to the American people. In partisan newspapers, pamphlets and town hall meetings, they debated these issues until consensus emerged. At this critical time in history, we must learn from our hallowed forefathers and follow their example.

America has never lived up to its full potential because men and women abandoned selflessness when the first stone was cast by one hominid toward another, in anger and lust for what the other possessed. When societies began, so did tribalism. As long as the world was young and there were new places for the passive or vanquished to find a place of their own, the survival of the species was not threatened. 

Now that Man occupies every habitable corner of the Earth, our very existence is at risk because of the greed of the individual. We cannot longer afford the luxury of justifying sinful self-indulgence as serving some higher good. Those of us who understand the danger of succumbing to this evil temptation must act now, for the sake of our children and our own souls.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their countries, for these are the times that try men’s souls. Each of us must look into our own hearts and ask whether we are capable of putting the interests of our nation and the welfare of all citizens above our own. 

The task does not require perfection, but does call for us to always seek to form a more perfect union by endeavoring to perfect ourselves If we regularly engage in rigorous self-examination and pray to whatever power we understand to be greater than ourselves to help us find our way, then we cannot lose this battle or the war. We can and must ensure that the soldiers who have come before us have not died in vain. Let us move forward together and ensure that government of the People, for the People and by the People does not perish from the Earth.

Rick Staggenborg, MD


Skagway, Alaska