A Message to America
Howard Area Alternative High School
By Jusef Wofford
YOUNG VOICES
Note from the Grapevine editor:
Participants in the Urban Youth International Journalism Program, from various
alternative high schools and after school programs around the city, speak
out on some of our most pressing issues. For more information on the program,
visit www.wethepeoplemedia.org.
George W. Bush hijacked our election in 2000 just as swiftly as the terrorists hijacked those planes. He turned into an oil-loving war president. He started funding the Israelis to kill Arabs, therefore how can he say God Bless America when he is cursing the US with war and bloodshed that will never end?
Who told him that he could choose war without caring what the consequences would be?
I know it surely wasn’t God who told him to continually lie and cheat this once peaceful country.
Now this war we are deeply engaged in, some people say it will last forever. So that means there will be soldiers who are hot and thirsty and tired, playing a game called “to do or die”, and that other game called “I must make it back alive”. But to them it’s not a game. They see rapid fire from AK-47s. They aim and fire. They terminate the target with bombs. You know, crazy stuff like that. But I know peace is what they really want to see.
They want to walk around stress-free and just breath the fresh air just like the people you see walking around in your ‘hood. That’s why I think the people I catch the CTA with in the morning be so sad. The war is irritating their brains. All they see is constant news footage of the war and Bush with his half-witted decisions.
For example, the U.S. was attacked by terrorists and then invaded Iraq on faulty intelligence – even though Iraq didn’t have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or the program to build them, and it didn’t share weapons with the terrorists who attacked us. But more than just being faulty, the intelligence shared with Congress by the Bush administration was filtered to make it appear Saddam was more of a threat than he was. The case that Saddam was developing nuclear bombs was based on Saddam’s special aluminum tubes, which were not suitable for nuclear bombs. Now the Bush administration is not looking so good!
And the economy hasn’t been kind to most Americans. The country has suffered a recession over the last three years and more Americans fell into poverty, with women and children hit hardest. Our next president should confront our real problems, not just what he believes exists.
So I say this is time for a change, and not a small change. Not a dumb change but a smart change, a long-lasting change that will help America to peace. So our children’s children will look at their history books and say, “That’s when everything changed and peace came and everybody felt better again.”
Two images of Chinatown by Chantell Suggs of
El Cuarto Ano High School, a participant in the Urban Youth International
Journalism Program and the Picture This! Photo Project