What I’d like to see them say…

The Republican party – We’re sorry we have deliberately engaged in a decades-long anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-truth, anti-democracy campaign which has caused America to lose its status as a world leader, making us into a fascist Third World country. We’re also sorry for using 9/11 ads, homosexuals, fake patriotism, taxes, etc to scare you into voting for us. Terrorism is defined on Wikipedia as the “systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion”. By that definition, the Republicans are the terrorists.

The media – We’re sorry that we allowed so many to be so dishonest for so long without calling them on it. People have mis-used our instinct to provide “balanced” coverage to cause a country which is paralyzed with hatred, ignorance and religious extremism.

The religious right – We’re sorry we have taken advantage of gullible Americans for our own personal power and financial gain, we have lied to you about evolution and made science and expertise into a bad thing. We have promoted “faith healing” over real medicine, and people have died because of it. We have deliberately kept Americans ignorant to advance our own political agendas.

Some stats:

- The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world (over 1 in 100 as of 2008, with 5% of the world’s population, the US has 25% of the world’s inmates) (another source).

- In 2007, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan carried out more executions, and Iraq trailed close behind. Most civilized countries have abolished the death penalty.

- America is the only industrialized country in the world without universal health care.

- In a 2006 poll of 34 countries, the only country with a higher percentage of the population that reject evolution is Turkey.

- Among 18 countries ranked in the UN Human Poverty Index, the US ranks 3rd from the bottom (and has a policy of “welfare racism”).

- In 2003, Reporters Without Borders ranked the US in a tie for 31st place in press freedom.