“Dear America: This is a difficult letter to write, because I’m no longer sure who you are,” Atwood begins in her essay published in The Globe and Mail and The Nation magazine.
“You stood up for freedom, honesty and justice; you protected the innocent. I believed most of that. I think you did, too. It seemed true at the time.”
Describing the Iraqi conflict as an “ill-advised tactical error,” she claims the government is “running up a record level of debt“, “torching the American economy” and “gutting the constitution” in its pursuit of war and security.
“Already your home can be entered without your knowledge or permission, you can be snatched away and incarcerated without cause, your mail can be spied on, your private records searched,” she writes.
She said the U.S. could go the way of the USSR if it continues with its spending habits: “lots of tanks, but no air conditioning.”
Atwood asks how long before the faltering economy leads the U.S. “not to produce anything yourselves, but to grab stuff other people produce, at gunboat-diplomacy prices?”
She ends the piece saying America needs to summon up the great spirits of its past: “men and women of courage, of conscience, of prescience.”
“Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you. You need them.”
4 comments on “U.S. has lost its way”
She sounds like a very smart lady to me.
I believe she is too. Her books, from the little I read, seem quite good.
I haven’t read much by her, but I do respect her, especially after this letter.
Ok, I’ll try to pick it up this summer.