The failing of small towns across America is a canary in the coal mine.

Jobs are disappearing everywhere across the country. We can no longer sit silent while Washington denudes the U.S. of its farms, ranches, factories, defenses, and wealth. Make no mistake - this country is being gutted like a corporate takeover. The people are being left with nothing.

Our military is being wasted in Iraq to enrich defense contractors. Oil is just a small part of that picture.

And when there are no factories left to manufacture a defense, when we are importing everything, food, fuel, weapons, letting rot the riches and heritage of this great nation, who will stop someone under their economic control from coming to take it? Nuclear weapons? These people have the codes. They even have most of the news media in their back pockets. Perhaps they will even have convinced al of us with their TV news it’s better to be taken over than to starve, Since none of us will have work by the time they are done other than "services" to the few wealthy in control.

These people talk God but they speak with a forked tongue while they slip their hands in your wallet pocket. They are NOT the friend of rural America. They are NOT the friend of megalopolises. They are only friends to their wallets.

All this talk of "doing it for yourself" is horse puckey. That’s to divide us. There is a Reason why our coins are stamped "United We Stand." Because if we are working together and helping each other, we succeeed, because we are greater than our individual efforts, struggling alone - and dying off, like these small towns over America. You can take that to the bank, but you might have to work your passage overseas first.

Dan Stafford