For more than three years now I have worried for my people. America, the place I grew up, has a dark shadow looming over it today. It is an ominous harbinger unseen by many, and one which most people are reticent to deal with. The people of my country are completely isolated and separate, from those who govern. This is a short story on how America is being lost.
The United States is bitterly divided along socio-economic lines, but especially where government for the people is concerned. While most people have realized this for some time, having recourse to do anything about it is another matter. The recent DNC rigging of a convention is proof that government is not on the up-and-up, but the people still stand idly by. Our internal and external policies are a disaster. The world grows to hate us. And millions suffer underneath the gaze of their fellow countrymen inside the US. We all know this instinctively, and concretely, but we choose to turn a blind eye. Our leaders, our media, our corporations are destroying what America once stood for, and the world around us. And they are calling their efforts progress. The lie has become the truth.
Since the US orchestrated coup d’état in Kiev in February of 2014 I have known war was coming to the world. In the months and years hence, I have taken the side of moderation; I’ve tried to uproot the truth in 1000 reports, investigations, researching 100,000 or more media and academic sources, and in interviewing or communicating with the principle people involved in conflict. My “journey” began with a series of reports about the unsportsmanlike policies aimed at Russia’s Sochi Olympics that same February. The day RT called me for a surprise interview, I was astonished more by Barack Obama’s and western media’s unbelievable assault on those Olympics and Vladimir Putin. The lies and defamation that ensued were unprecedented. But the whole affair was, as I have learned, part of a larger plan to bring Russia to her knees. Euromaidan and the Sochi mud slinging were orchestrated to humiliate Russia, and to put Vladimir Putin on the defensive when he was focused on good.
The rest will be catalogued in one of the strangest volumes of human history ever written, I have no doubt. The level of lies and deceit, of misinformation being disseminated today, it’s beyond normal belief. We may as well be in a nightmare, a collective and unending Greek tragedy where heroes are villains and vice versa. Something I was studying today brought this reality spinning home to me – how a great gift from the Russian people shows our unnatural divide. The Tear of Grief memorial is a titanium, bronze, nickel and marble icon of friendship, and a human offering spit upon by our elites.
Some reading this may have seen Facebook shares telling about how Russia was the only nation to give such a monument to us in consoling for 9/11. You may also have wondered how come it took a Facebook post for you to learn of Russia’s condolences. A friend of mine actually shared the Tear Drop with me the other day. He asked; “Phil, how come we did not know about this?” The friend’s name is Bobby Mallard, he’s a high school chum, so he won’t mind me telling you. I told Bobby it was because our leaders cannot afford for the people to revise their history, to which he replied:
“It was a lie so politicians and arms suppliers could profit even during the Cold War years. I am just amazed how our lives are controlled by the media.”
Bobby was always a nice guy, someone who loved cars. He’s now a business manager of a large auto dealership in Georgia, not too far from where we grew up. He is, maybe the best example I can give of hard working decent Americans waking up to the fact we’re in real trouble. What Bobby may have already discovered, is the in depth and ghastly story of this present from the Russian people to us. So let me tell you.
This 10–story sculpture created by Zurab Tsereteli, was given to the United States as an official gift of the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The solid Nickel tear drop at its center is a haunting reminder, of the tears shed by out nation after the dastardly destruction of our safe-secure nation’s essence. After 9/11 everything changed you know. It may also interest you to know, it was Vladimir Putin who attended the official dedication of this monument of caring and friendship. But this irony is puny compared to what I am about to tell you.
Not only were Americans uniformed about this magnificent gesture, the city of New Jersey turned down the offering from the start. A mighty friend across the seas wanted to give a reminder of solidarity, and New Jersey refused! And on behalf of all Americans! Finally, the monument was put at its current location in Bayonne, roughly five miles across the harbor from where the Twin Towers once stood. Bear with me, the insult and injury gets much worse.
After the Tears Monument was unveiled US media began its battle to either ignore the gift, or to criticize or belittle the gesture and the artwork. Now get this, the Fox News headline read “Bogus Names Feared on New Jersey Sept. 11 Monument” – as some of the marble plates contained the wrong names. Other media railed at the Russians for having created an ugly monstrosity. The Foreign Policy Magazine said it was “one of the world’s ugliest statues”, while Pro Arts Jersey City called it “an insensitive, self-aggrandizing piece of pompousness by one of the world’s blatant self-promoters”. The media and our leadership were severely unkind (as nice as I can be), insensitive, and bombastic against a genuine offering of care. I know some of you feel me here, but wait.
The scant stories of Russia’s uncommon gesture back in 2006 can now be looked at objectively. When The New York Times or the Washington Post fail to report on the other side of Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, or Libya now, we can gather that misinformation and propaganda are also about what is “NOT” said. Americans have no idea the depth of kindness and good spiritedness Russians feel for them. All that most people know is that Russia is aggressive! Putin is a strongman! And that Obama is good. That is it. Now the plan is to move the Tears Monument someplace else! Yes, it turns out the climate of America-Russia relations, the business need for the property the monument stands on, it’s made for a call to put the memorial someplace else. Hoboken maybe? But here’s the conclusion you were waiting for.
When the Foreign Policy magazine was belittling this monumental gesture, guess what the American people who visited had to say? The everyday person who visits says the monument is a “breathtakingly beautiful creation”, or that it’s “incredible and meaningful”, the park visitors are awestruck at the way artist Zurab Tsereteli has captured the magnitude of grief. And guess what else? Bayonne’s own Robert “Captain Bob” Terzi, a taxi driver has started a petition to fight the monument’s relocation. Forget that officials fought to locate Russia’s singular gesture at the butt-end of New York harbor. Please ignore the fact ALL of our media tried to cover up the gift. But you must remember that a people our leaders now make vile villains, a leader our corporate owned lackeys ridicule daily, gave when giving counted.
Think about how divided we are, with our press and government on one side, and decent caring people on the other. I’ll leave you with your thoughts now, but consider one last thing. No Russian flag adorned American Facebook profile pictures, the White House did not weep when Russians were blown out of the Egyptian sky by terrorists. There is no 10 story tall titanium, bronze, and nickel statue in Russia. All they have is venom, ire, and ignorance from us.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.