The United States, despite all our pompous posturing about our democratic (small d) institutions and our supposed opposition to tyrants wherever, has been responsible for two of the grandest scale genocides in history, the slaughter of millions of indigenous people so we could steal their land, and the kidnapping of more millions of Africans, half of whom died on the slave ships on the way here and another half of those still living, in the slave breaking camps in the Caribbean before the survivors reached this land where the founders had signed a document claiming to believe the principal that all men are created equal.

Those of you who still believe the US government ever is motivated by humanitarian concerns in determining its actions (and who didn't know that the peace settlement accepted by the Yugoslavian government is more favorable to them than the one they would have accepted before the bombing started) should know that the invasion of East Timor began the day after President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger flew home from Indonesia, certainly having assured President Suharto that the United States would not oppose the invasion.

I don't know how to go on: it hurts to know that Ayatollah Khoumeini was right when he characterized the US as "the great Satan." I deeply love my country for the things that it is supposed to be; I feel shame and grief when I face what it really is.

--seed