FROM THE STREET
By Charles Springer
I am suffering from massive jet lag, but I am writing this column from Beijing.
I am here to help a business with American clients for 10 days, all expenses paid. I’ll be going to Shanghai by tomorrow. It’s kind of ironic that a homeless person would be able to go to China. But it goes to show how hard work pays off in the long run. My friend who set this up has seen the type of person I am and that’s why I was able to go.
I have not seen any homeless yet, but I would imagine that is because even a Communist country takes care of its own before trying to take care of the world. The people are very friendly and helpful. And the country itself is extremely beautiful. I am very happy to have been able to make this trip.
I feel that as Americans we can learn a thing or two about taking care of our own from these people. We are so busy trying to right the wrongs of the world that we do not think about what other people think about our sticking our noses in their business.
How do we know that these countries we are “helping” even want or have asked for our help? And to tell the truth, most of their dilemma is CAUSED by our spreading capitalism to their countries under the guise of “democracy.”
By doing this, the government has hurt more people around the world than our government lets us know about. Then our government goes in and tells them that we will “fix” them while children in this country are lacking in education, medical care and recreation. Families are being forced to live on the streets and are starving. Our government has a lot to learn about minding its own business and clean up its own backyard.
The lies and deception in the government has even gotten on the nerves of the U.N. inspectors. They tell them that Hussein have all these weapons of mass destruction yet the intelligence that our government claims to have has not been fully disclosed.
And now North Korea is thumbing its nose at the world by blatantly defying the U.N. resolutions against nuclear weapons. But they are not a threat, right?
I think that this government has to start being honest and forthright to the people. We, as the citizens, have a right to say whether we go to war with anyone and not be deceived. We have a right to not go to war and to make our government start taking care of the people who vote and hold that power under the Constitution.
We, as citizens, should start taking that power from the ones who will only destroy the freedom we have in this country. And we should start looking at other ideas; we should start taking the things that work in other countries and use them here.
As I said, I have not seen one homeless person here yet, and the person who set up this trip for me tells me that he only saw five in the week he was here before. What’s wrong with this picture? A country that has more people in its military than we have in the United States and nearly two times the population. How do you explain that? How does that make sense?
You, as citizens, should ask yourself these questions. More from China next week.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.