"People see what you show them."

Frank W. Abagnale (from Catch Me If You Can)

This page aims to raise awareness of topics that deserve more attention. A topic may deserve more attention because the stakes are high, e.g. crimes against humanity. Or, because Americans tend to have strongly held but uninformed opinions about it, e.g. our foreign aid generosity.

Credibility is a focal point. There are many Web sites which air claims like that found here. They tend to come off as bomb-throwing self-described "anarchist-revolutionaries" attempting to call attention to themselves with extremist rhetoric. Typically, there is little documentation, or the documentation seems authored by bomb-throwing self-described "anarchist-revolutionaries" attempting to call attention to themselves with extremist rhetoric. Such work merely preaches to the converted. Our sources have credentials meaningful to skeptics, and something to lose from being discredited.

This page provides some examples of why some people express contempt for America. It is important to recognize that characterizations of the U.S. as imperialistic, corrupt, or greedy do not merely stem from jealousy or jihad. Those opinions may be wrong (or right), but people do have reasons for holding them.

Critics are quick to point out that we focus "only on the bad and none of the good" in America. That is true. But, it is irrelevant, because the point of this page is not to sum up America. The point is to call attention to issues that merit it (and perhaps can be fixed). In general, the good about America is well represented in mainstream media and people's thoughts; facts and theories that nobody wants to believe end up in society's attic. Americans are more conversant with the Britney-Is-Still-a-Virgin theory than the "October Surprise" theory. Successful democracy requires more from us.

Finally, this page demonstrates the value of free speech.

Notes

If you find any of these articles useful, it is probably wise to save them to your harddrive. Things tend to disappear. See note #1. If you'd like this page and the cached articles on disk, contacting us might work.
  1. This Web page existed for years as part of the Yale University's Diana Project, which concerns human rights law. A month or so after the attacks on the World Trade Center, it was gone. The page was "Not Found." Searching the Diana Project for the Web page using Yale's own search engine yielded no results. We at lovepeoplenotmoney.com promptly saved a cached version from Google to our harddrive. We recently checked the link again; now the result is that we are not authorized to see the page. It is "Forbidden." If you find the page useful, save it to your hard-drive. There seems to be an interest in keeping it from the public.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
(Edward Abbey)
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Why of course the people don't want war...It is the leaders...who determine policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along...all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
(Herman Goering, Nazi Gestapo Chief)
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Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech...
(Benjamin Franklin)
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Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
(General William Westmoreland)
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I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.
(Harriet Tubman)
~

Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent

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