It is time for a Boycott

September 20, 2006

By Christine Bruun

The TV was blaring.  I stood behind the chair, straining to hear the voices that came at me from the live coverage of the speeches from the United Nations podium.  First it was the President of Iran.  Is he crazy, or what?  I listened incredulously at the hatred and vileness that came from his lips.  I won't call it evil, for to say that would give him credibility.  But I will say that in my personal opinion, he was demented!  No rational person could have said such things.  He sees himself as some kind of deity.  That kind of crazy is dangerous.  Yet, we were one of the first countries to rush over after their devastating earthquake.  We funneled millions of dollars and man hours to help them rescue, clean up and rebuild.  Why?  At this point, I just don't know.  We should never do it again, however.  I have had enough of paying my hard earned tax dollars out to people who do not appreciate it.  The people of those countries have to be accountable for the people who they elect. 

Our President, even with all the political divisions that we have suffered, walked to the podium.  He was quiet, calm, assertive, stalwart, determined, and concise.  He said what he had come to say with great dignity and courage.  Regardless of our politics, these fanatics are attacking the American people, not just the President.  After all, we elected him. 

Then we have Chavez from Venezuela.  He was divisive, cunning, arrogant, silly, childish, and obviously nuts! But nuts does not mean he isn't dangerous.  Nuts doesn't mean that he is not able to play the game of politics.  Nuts does not mean that he can't reach out to other dangerous nations and create an alliance of danger.  That is exactly what he is doing.  He is crazy like a fox.  We had better rally around our country and start girding our loins for a battle not just against fanatics, but from tyrants who care nothing about their people.

Chavez was accompanied to Harlem today by none other than Danny Glover, actor.  Regardless of his politics, Glover is a traitor to our country.  He is aligning himself with a very dangerous man in the name of helping the poor, not unlike California's Kinney who BEGGED an Arab Sheik for the check that Mayor Giuliani refused after the Sheik's vile words concerning the attack on our country on 9/11.  That is very dangerous and very subversive.  Using poor people to turn them against our country is so evil.   To beg for blood money, a price paid for by the deaths of almost 3,000 people and citizens of this country is down right awful.  I don't think I can think of a word that is strong enough to describe how I feel about that.

Chavez uses this same subversion in his own country.  He is telling the private business men they have no right to own their companies because the poor people are the real owners.  Since he is the representative of these poor countries, he has a right to take over the private corporations and make them part of the government, for which he will gain, not his people. Yet, he hides behind his fraudulent concern for the poor.  Many people in the far left political regime use our poor people and play right into the hands of these despots.  It is morally, ethically, and should be legally,  WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!  As for me, again, I will vote with my pocketbook.  I will never, ever throw my hard earned money in the trash by funding any films or other entertainment endeavors by those who align themselves with these corrupt and morally bankrupt despots.

Something happened to me even before 9/11, but that infamous day changed my life and my way of thinking forever.  Because of our democracy, the UN is an organization that allows anyone to say anything they want.  And, that goes for even crazy and nuts.  However, it is because of us that the UN exists at all.  We provide the building.  We built it at our own expense and we maintain it at our own expense.  We allow the UN to meet here in the United States.  Perhaps we need to take Chavez up on his offer to move the UN to Venezuela.  I think our tax payers would relish a break on their tax load.  We can surely use the money for more important things like our own people's needs.  We can rent out the space to businesses and recoup some of our expenses over the years.  Are you listening, President Bush?

I have thought for years that the UN had become useless and obsolete.  I looked forward to the time when we would get fed up and "take our ball and go home!"  Perhaps today is just that time.  Our NATO alliance is all we really need right now.  Perhaps that is where we put our efforts in the future.

Today I learned a fascinating bit of information.  CITGO is solely owned by Venezuela.  We are its largest importer of that oil.  I believe that voting with my feet and my pocketbook is the best way of letting people know how I feel.  We need to boycott Venezuelan oil.  That means CITGO. 

I want to say that I used to be a Democrat.  All my life I was raised in a Democratic household and have voted Democratic until 2002.  That is when I became an owner of my own business.  That is when I found out just how much government intrusion into my ability to run my business, affects that business.  That is when I realized that I was tired of people not taking responsibility for their own lives.

You see, I don't mind helping people who truly need it.  That cause is just and important.  It is when people or governments feel it is owed to them and take advantage of the help, that I object.  It is when people or governments refuse the hand up from someone they despise, because they continue to want the hand out.  It is when people or governments accept no responsibility for their actions or lack of, and blame others for their circumstances.  We make choices.  Everything is a choice.  However, it the consequences for the choices we don't like.  Well, I guess I am into tough love.   My eyes are opened!

I have been a Republican ever since.  I don't agree with everything the Republicans stand for.  However, I believe in people working for what they get, learning to take care of their own needs, and then getting out and making it happen.  It is called free enterprise.  It is about freedom.  It is about being free to own your own business if you choose and the freedom to reap the benefits from the hard work no matter what you choose.  It is about taking pride in your own abilities and doing everything within your power legally, ethically, and morally to create a better life for yourself and your family.  Government programs were not created to become a permanent solution to a temporary problem.  They were meant to be a stop gap until people could get back on their feet.  Today, the temporary problem has become generational for our own people as well as foreign countries who take the money and squander it. They do not use the money to improve life for their people, only for themselves and their cronies. We need to instill pride in our people as well as others.  We need to stand up and be counted.  We need to feel good about ourselves again. It has been a long time since I have felt good about our country because of the passive acceptance and fear.  It is time to take our dignity back and you can't do that by standing by and taking the slings and arrows from people we help.  Enough is enough!!!!

We need Secure borders.  We need strong leaders.  We need immigration laws that are enforced.  We need the people who come to our country to respect our laws and come here legally. They need to be willing to do whatever we ask of them...not because it is owed to them, but because they WANT the freedom and the benefits of our way of life and want it so bad that they will wait years, stand in lines, work their way up and save their money so they can participate in the benefits being an American provides them.  WE want people who are willing to work hard for what they get and rise to the top from their own efforts, not on our backs. We want people who march with US as United States citizens, not whine and complain because life is not fair. 

What has this got to do with Chavez and the boycott?  Well, our standing in the world is a direct result of the demeaning of our country by illegals and terrorists and other countries who take our money and stab us in the back when we are not looking.  I say that if we are not good enough, neither is our money.  If we have no respect, we should not hand out the money without the other countries having to do something for it.  We support half the world, if not more, in more ways than one.  It is time we take back our country. It is time we take back our money.  It is time we pulled ourselves back within our own borders and used the savings to help our own people.  It is time we worked with our allies and refuse to help our fair-weather friends as well as those who want harm to come to us.  Let the rest of the world take up the slack.  It is time they helped anyway.

Don't you see, if harm comes to the government, it comes to us also.  We are the government.  We benefit from the government.  We elect the government.  We cannot separate ourselves from the government.  These despots are not attacking the President of the United States, they are attacking our way of life.  They want our demise.  They want to divide us and conquer.  If they can't do it by attacking us, they will take the subversive route.  They come through our back door without us even realizing they have attacked.  They will attack through our weakest links.... the poor, the needy, the disenfranchised, the sick, the lost, the tired....

I realize that many might think that I am suggesting isolationism.  Not really.  I am simply asking for self respect from our government and our own people.  We stand by and do nothing.  We honor our promises while the rest of the world laughs at us.  We forget 9/11.  The pain, the shock, the devastation, the loss and the horror diminishes with time.  They know that.  They plan on it.  They depend on it.  Perhaps we have gotten complacent in our wealth and our freedoms.  Perhaps we have forgotten the sacrifices our military has paid for our freedom.  Perhaps we have forgotten the Holocaust and the attack on Pearl Harbor during a time of peace.  We had not yet joined the war with Germany.  We were happily minding our own business when Japan attacked.  They are now our allies.  Do you think they know something we have forgotten?  Do you think they would ally themselves with us if we were so evil and Chavez and the President of Iran are telling others?  We helped them rebuild.  We tried to fix things after the end of the war.  We did not want to hurt them. We did not want them to suffer longer than necessary.  We just wanted the war ended.  We are not evil.  But, we will stand up and defend ourselves...won't we?  Are the lives lost in obtaining the Declaration of Independence lost for nothing?  Are the lives lost in the war for Independence but a waste?  Were the lives in World War I a waste?  What about the lives on the ships that sunk at Pearl Harbor a waste?  Was this all for nothing? 

It is important to take care of our own people first.  Develop business in our own country.  Create a booming economy that includes our NATO allies and other friends.  Then, let the rest of the countries earn their way back into our limited graces. 

I am boycotting CITGO.  I am boycotting Venezuela.  It hurt France when we boycotted French products.  It can hit Chavez  in the pocket book.  Then, perhaps they will think twice.  If not, it is time to take a stand.  We need to look at China and Russia, as well as France.  Life may get harder at first, but, There are products Venezuela absolutely needs that we can just not care to provide anymore.  We can create a new economy not based on other countries, but our own abilities to innovate and create and build.  We're good at that.  Let's take back our future from the hands of those who would do us harm.  Let us invest in our own country for a change and rebuild a bright future based on our own hands and minds.

After Exxon Mobil's windfall profits this last quarter, despite our having to pay over $3.00 per gallon during that time, I think the billions of dollars of profit they made at our expense is obscene. 

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