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What this country needs is truth and reconciliation. South Africa did it. So should we. 

What this country does not need is more killing. No more war making. No more death penalties, not even for certain mass murderers like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, the Carlyle Group, Haliburton and anybody else that is pushing for the carnage that is occurring throughout the world as a result of our government’s foreign, domestic and covert policies. 

And what this country does not need is more prisons, or more prison torture, or more people making more money off of putting people in prison. In fact there are some people that need to get out of prison: like Mumia Abu Jamal; like Leonard Peltier; like every young promising mind that was robbed of childhood opportunities by an inequitable public school system, every young mind chased into a life of crime by a power structure that is afraid of an underclass that can think and organize and work for itself. 

And what this country does not need is another phony election, foisted upon the American people to convince them that democracy is alive albeit slightly  

flawed. Americans in 2004 will not pick their next president any more than my dog chooses what she eats for dinner. My dog would choose carrots and left over burritos were she to choose what she ate for dinner. Instead she eats processed dog food. My dog does not choose what she eats. I choose what she eats. 

And the American people do not choose their president. The power elite chooses the president. No self-empowered and self-respecting public would stand for an election where the top two candidates, the only two viable candidates, were in favor of expanding a war that most citizens think is wrong and many think is genocidal; where the top two candidates are unwilling to even consider a universal system of health care favored by the majority; where the top two candidates are on record supporting measure after measure that transfers wealth from the poor and working class to the wealthy. 

And what this country does not need is another 9/11, because the last one was used to take this country down the path of war and repression. At a time when the Bush administration wanted to establish a greater military presence in the Middle East (the plans for the Afghan invasion were on the table before 9/11) yet could not because of the political climate, 9/11 was the perfect catalyst for the U.S. military aggression that we see today. And whether you believe that the Bush administration was innocently caught off guard, or that they helped facilitate the attacks, it is indisputable that the Bush administration and the military industrial complex are profiting mightily from the attacks. And the rest of the world is suffering. 

Yes it is time that the truth come out in this nation: truth about the real motives of those in power today; truth about why wars are waged, about who controls the media and why and how, about who wins and who loses with globalization; truth about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001; truth about the real perils that are facing mankind in the near future (like the energy and population crises) and an honest assessment of what needs to be done so that solutions to these problems are effective, compassionate and sustainable. 

The United States government is not a democracy. It is a crime against humanity. It is time that those in control of the U. S. government be shown the door. The American people need to stand up for what is right for humanity and the world. We need to firmly, nonviolently and compassionately take control away from the corrupt men in power in Washington D.C. The world is begging us to do this. 

World power currently resides in the secretive halls of the Pentagon, in the secretive commissions of the Bush administration, in the secretive meetings of the World Trade Organization, and in the secretive back rooms of big corporations. 

Power in this world belongs in local communities. It is time that we create societies that govern themselves locally and with wisdom, where the intricacies of democracy are known by all and practiced daily in every corner of the nation and indeed in every corner of the world. 

This vision of a new country, of a new world with real democracy and local power can only evolve when retribution is an idea of the past, when citizens understand that every one of us can and must be a positive part of a healthy society. To say that we need a paradigm shift is to understate things a bit. 

It is time for truth and reconciliation. South Africa did it. So should we. 

George Palen is a school teacher and a Berkeley resident.