July Fourth: What Has Happened To Our Great Country?

All of us will spend time today reflecting on the state of our Nation, and more importantly the world at large.
I am old enough to have lived through the horror of the killings of Jack and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the shootings at Kent State, Vietnam, Watergate, and The blatant disregard of the rule of law and the United States Constitution during Iran-Contra.
What do all these events have in common? The answer is the progressives, the peace marchers, the working poor always get killed.
I had friends that traveled to Central America in the 1960's. They told me that every small house had two pictures on the wall; one was of Jesus and the other one was President John F. Kennedy. What has happened to the benevolent nature of our good country? Have we entirely lost our way? For those of you out there that have children, what are we leaving them to deal with in the future?
In countries like Russia or China, when the population gets a little uppity they simply roll out the guns and tanks to quiet things down. In our country, very sophisticated propaganda is necessary. So between the Paris Hilton news stories there are complex "framing" issues, such as terms like "healthy forest initiative" which allows nearly unlimited logging, and the "clear skies initiative" which actually allows for more air pollution. We are currently experiancing a case of "the pot calling the kettle black", in which those who are charged with protecting our great nation are the ones who will sacrifice one of their own CIA agents in a shameful cover-up of the lies that were used to lead us to war. We all know this is but the tip of the iceberg, with our Titantic steaming along loaded with torture scandals, illegal spying on United States citizens, stolen elections, huge corporate scandals and generally the most corrupt administration in recent United States history. For the first time in memory, it is against the law to hold a protest sign in view of the President. To question the actions of government is considered un-American. We all know this is wrong. Those that follow history realize the founding fathers of our country are rolling over in their graves. Let's hope there is time to turn this ship around, to save it's passengers and live to sail another day.
Our friends are sharing quotes of famous Americans today, so I too will offer these:
"If Fascism comes to America it would be on a program of Americanism" - Huey P. Long, governor and senator from Lousiana, 1935 -- and
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and sacred right- a right we hope and believe is to liberate the world". - Abraham Lincoln, 1848