Howard Uhal: America and the 'Good People'

Please stop trying to punish America

By Howard Uhal

April 19, 2013

By now many of you have read Patton Oswalt’s heartfelt comments following the Boston Marathon bombing.[1] I agree with Mr. Oswalt that good will triumph over evil. I strongly disagree that this is happening in America.

Would good people invade the New World, slaughter the native inhabitants while stealing their resources, and then justify it all in the name of "Manifest Destiny"?

Would good people continue to imprison the remnants of that native population in prisoner of war camps called “Indian reservations” so the stealing of their resources could continue?

Would good people build a nation in part on the institution of slavery and then refuse to pay any reparations to the descendants of those slaves?

Would good people be as racist and/or as sexist as most Americans are?

Would good people be the greatest purveyors of violence in the world today?

Would good people spend more on weapons than on food and medicines for the hungry and the sick?

Would good people have used atomic weapons in Japan, biological weapons in Korea, chemical weapons in Vietnam, and radiological weapons in Iraq?

Would good people torture their prisoners of war and other detainees?

Would good people have cheered when Osama bin Laden was murdered by their government?

Would good people need as many prisons and jail cells as America has?

Would good people be the world’s biggest consumers of illegal drugs such as heroin and meth?

Would good people tolerate and even support an “entertainment” industry that fills their homes and their children’s minds with violence and depravity?

Would good people step over the body of someone who had just been shot or mugged, stopping only to take a picture with their cell phones?

Would good people build and attend mega-churches while doing little or nothing to help the growing crowds of homeless people huddled outside those structures?

No, they would not. From this perspective, Americans are wicked and uncaring down to the very core of their withered souls.

But I have the following advice for all of you who hate America (a plea, actually):

Please stop trying to punish America. These terrorist attacks serve no useful purpose. Their chief outcomes are to reinforce our somewhat delusional belief in America’s fundamental goodness, and to divert resources from potential acts of charity to acts of repression and revenge.

If anyone is going to punish America, it should be God. If He does not punish America, then what right does anyone else have to do so?

And I have a companion plea for those who love America:

Please don’t let your love of America blind you to the horrible things we are doing. Every day, in nations all over the world, human beings are being blown to pieces by bombs paid for by your tax dollars or in conflicts started by your government’s misguided “diplomacy”. You have blood on your hands. Open your eyes and deal with it.

[1] Boston. F--king horrible. https://www.facebook.com/pattonoswalt/posts/10151440800582655

Howard Uhal is a Vietnam era veteran of the US Army and a former nuclear submarine officer. He writes the satirical blog “The Apocalypse of Saint Howard” (http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/).