The United States Senate

The United States Senate is the senate of the country that dispossessed Native Americans and restricted them to Indian reservations. It is the senate of the country that officially recognized the enslavement of African Americans for nearly a hundred years, from 1776 to 1865, and then kept racism alive since then, unofficially.

The United States Senate is the senate of the country that arrested and detained more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans for four years during World War II for no more compelling reason than just having what one influential American infamously said was a single drop of Japanese blood in their veins.

The United States Senate is the senate of the first and only country in human history to order the killing of tens of thousands of civilians by way of two nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also in World War II. It is the senate of the country that has refused to strongly condemn and take resolute action against the leader of Myanmar over the genocidal persecution of Rohingya people and the jailing of journalists in that country.

The United States Senate is the senate of a country that maintains a state intelligence apparatus that undertakes assassinations of world leaders that have fallen from grace and then rigs the transition to a change in leadership. It is the senate of a country known to toast and prop up dictators for as long as keeping them remains in its best interests.

The United States Senate is the senate of the country that, with its modern, advanced and sophisticated spying technology, knew exactly what China was doing in the South China Sea from the first shovel of sand it turned until the completion of man-made islands that now host military facilities. It is the senate of the country that, while making noise, simply folded its arms until China finished what it was doing. And then it made noise some more.

The United States Senate is the senate of the country that gave the Republic of the Philippines its independence on July 4, 1945. It is the senate of the country upon whose constitution the Republic of the Philippines' own constitution is based. It is the senate of the country that weaned the Philippines into democracy from the Spanish style of governance that had been in place for more than three hundred years.

The United States Senate is the senate of the country that is now asking to impose sanctions on the Philippines and to ban entry to the US and freeze the assets of Philippine officials who simply carried out their duties in accordance with Philippine laws and Philippine judicial processes pertaining to Leila de Lima and Maria Ressa, both of whom are having their days in court on cases duly recognized by freely-operating Philippine courts.

The United States Senate is the senate of the country that it is asking to compel the Philippines to free De Lima and Ressa and to drop all charges against them, having unilaterally declared them not guilty via long distance and without trial. By the way, in deference to recent events, it is also the senate of the country that once doted and lavished on Iran, until of course the Shah fell. FU, Senate of the United States.

jerrytundag@yahoo.com

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