And here we are again... Nine years after the third edtion. The note to that edition was a bit exasperated... It was eight years after the first edtion (1999) and warfare had only accelerated and spread and evolved. ...Not that I expected a discernable change towards peace, mind you. My resentment came from living with the unhealing abrasion to my optimism and bruised view of my own species. A side effect of tracing and recording our warfare. My ache still persists, but I've grown more used to it.
I offer this fourth edition of my little persevering record, as an American, living in a failing United States. A citizen of Invader, Arms Supplier and War-Maker to the World.
My country's economy is clearly dependent on selling weapons and waging war, yet the American populous seems to range from willfully oblvious to cynically invested. Moreover ~ Our infastructures decay and rust. Our programs of social support and connection are emaciated political targets. Our public schools have wasted away from cut budgets and neglect. And our universities are more debt factories than institutions of intellectual growth. It is a familiar picture of a culture's downward arc... But America adds to this old scenario our own violent twist:
We are "Gun Dealer to the World"
The United States has the highest volume of arms sales - 31% of all sales in the world. U.S. international arms sales increased by 35% in 2014 to $36.2 billion. 20% of the entire U.S. budget ($718 billion) is spent on "Defense & International Security Assistance." {A euphemism both ridiculous and nauseating}
We are "Armed to the Teeth" & (Way Too) Ready to Fight
There are 300 million privately owned guns in the U.S. (almost one gun for every adult and child in the country). There were 372 mass shootings in the U.S. last year (more than one a day).
Maybe 2016 Will Be Better?
Nope: The first U.S. death by gun occurred on January 1, 12:15 a.m. Only 15 minutes into the New Year.
Darn, I meant for this to be less dismal, or at least more philosophical... Did not even hope for poetic... Perhaps in the next edition. I will be better. We will be better."
Lists all open and declared armed hostile conflicts that have taken place between the year 1 and the year 2015.
"Years with no acts of 'open and declared hostile conflict' are indicated with a perpendicular line. ....Perhaps they were periods of peace."|Accordion folded, printed on cream colored paper with a gilt fleur-de-lis pattern. Issued in envelope style trifold portfolio.