Is it really a time for celebration?

At a time when our collective consciousness has been crushingly assaulted by a duplicitous government that arbitrarily assigns the status of a "rogue nation" or "enemy combatant," while incessantly lying about its true intentions, information, and own lawlessness, how can we cavalierly "celebrate" our nation's independence with picnics, parades and parties as a demonstration of patriotism?

Will burgers, brats and beers discharge the culpability of our silence in response to the senseless slaughter of millions of innocent people? How can we enjoy traditional festivities with our own families, knowing millions of men, women and children suffered incomprehensible losses, their homes, businesses, family members, body parts and lives utterly and irreparably destroyed? Their hometowns suffocated with depleted uranium.

Does a sports event on a big-screen TV allow us to relinquish our responsibility in what it is our government, the people we knowingly empowered with our voices and our votes, has done at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay? Will the final score erase the barbaric torture inflicted upon tens of thousands of innocent people, including mere children, who have been denied any legal recourse to prove their innocence, instead parading before mock trials with predetermined outcomes like a Wild West lynching?

Can a magnificent fireworks display justify our pride in the "liberation" of millions of people who we displaced, leaving them homeless, without adequate food, shelter or medical care?

Can we just continue sleepwalking in this unconscious state of denial and delusion until the election or until January? What will it take for Americans to actually stand up for the ideals upon which this nation was originally founded?

Barbara Zaha

St. Charles