USATourist Community

We always believed USA was the land of freedom and democracy.  It was the protector of the weak and the enemy of the tyrants.  It protected human rights and helped the poor people of the world.  We looked up to America and hoped that our own country could be more like it.  We wanted to learn from the USA, so we could enjoy more human rights, more freedom and more democracy. We all wanted to visit this land of freedom.

Now, USA invades other countries like Iraq.  Why?  Because they have oil?  Your president did not listen to the UN.  He did not listen to old friends and allies like Germany or France.  How is this democracy?  Do you believe that you can force other countries to accept democracy when you do not practice it yourself.

Now, USA has political prisoners in Cuba.  These people are in prison for many years without trial and without justice.  What happened to human rights?  For many years, USA denounced other dictators for doing the same thing.  Now USA does it.

Now, USA allows its army and its CIA to torture prisoners.  Your president and his advisors say they must not follow Geneva convention.  They say it is right to torture.  How is this better than any other tyrant or dictator?

 I hear that the people of the USA are losing many of their own human rights since 911.  I hear that they are not so friendly to visitors from other countries especially visitors from the middle east. 

 This is sad for us.  Where do we look for freedom for democracy and for human rights if they are gone from America?

I understand your disappointment with many of the recent changes in the USA.  Some of us living in the USA are also saddened and disappointed by the changes since those infamous attacks of 911. 

Our leaders called it terrorism, because such a sensational act of violence against unsuspecting victims was designed to incite terror in our people.  In the past, they also called such actions destabilization; because they are designed to shake people's belief in the stability of their governmental institutions.  Those crazed attackers  knew that people would fear the repetition of such violence, and would fear the inability of their own government to protect them. 

 As I see it, the attackers succeeded.  

After the 911 attack, people decorated their homes with US  flags and with signs saying, "United we stand", "we shall never forget" and "God bless America". Meanwhile, they cringed in fear afraid to ride in airplanes, afraid to travel overseas.  They begged our leaders, our generals and our politicians to protect us from terrorism at any cost.  Irrationally,  they allowed our leaders to rob us of some of our sacred rights and some of our cherished freedoms in the name of protecting those very rights and freedoms.

Slowly, the good people of America are realizing their mistake.  They begin to understand that we cannot sacrifice our freedom in order to protect our freedom.   In the past year, I have seen our leaders restore some of our rights and freedoms that were curtailed since the 911 attack.  In the coming year, I expect to see more of our rights and our freedoms restored.

One good thing about democracy, is that we may stray from the path of freedom and human rights temporaritly; but eventually our democratic processes tend to put us back on track.

You say the people of America are learning from their mistakes and making things better.

 Who can give back life to all the innocent people who die in Iraq?  Who can give new arms, new legs, new eyes to the people who lost them in Iraq.  Who can give back the many tortured people their dignity?  Even now, many hundreds people are still in prison at Cuba.  They have no justice,  They have no human rights. Today, Iraq is a land of terror for everyone.  How can you fix?

I think the people or America will just forget about all of these poor people.  They will say everything is better.  Now we can go back to our television, our big car and be happy.