America's Battered Wife Syndrome

America's Battered Wife Syndrome
by Gail Thomas

Dear America,

As a friend of the family I can't sit back and watch you do this to
yourself without saying something. Consider this a long distance
intervention.

Your man is no good. He treats you like crap, lies to you, abuses you,
bullies you, exploits you, takes your money. As a friend I want to tell
you that you deserve better. You deserve a person that treats you with
respect, cares about your welfare, and your children's welfare, but
that's not George and it never will be.

Do you tell yourself that he'll stop, or that it won't get worse? He
won't ever stop, every insult, injury and death he has caused are a line
that once crossed will never be uncrossed. Forget the dream. You will
never have the American dream with George. You have to forget about what
might have been, what George might have been, and realise that at the
end of the day you are what you do, and look at George's track record.

Notice how he's alienated all your friends? Who can blame them, they
can't understand why you stay with him when he treats you like shit and
embarrasses you in front of everybody. The more his public behaviour
overshadows yours, The more doubt creeps over them, they wonder if they
knew you as well as they thought they did. You seem to have changed - if
you condone his behaviour- and your silence can create the impression
that you do. People are more inclined to take things at face value when
they feel alienated. Your friends remember the good times you had
together, the heroic battles you fought together, all of the intricate
interweavings between their families and yours through time and space.
Do you even recognise yourself anymore America? He is a drunken,
coke-addled loser and he always will be, you should kick him out of your
house today before he can destroy any more members of your family, your
history, your culture, before he decimates your bank account so
irretrievably that China and Saudi Arabia repossess all your stuff.

YOU CAN DO BETTER! You are an amazing country, beautiful, interesting,
funny, positively glamorous, you wouldn't stay single for five minutes,
you know that suitors would be competing for your affections and any one
of them would be ten times better than George. And how can you stand his
god-awful Stepford's answer to Marie-Antoinette mother, piping up with
another casual atrocity every time she opens her mouth.

Because of George and his friends global warming is now upon us - I know
what it has cost your family already, combined with George's complete
uselessness and indifference in a crisis. It would probably now be
possible for a mathematician to calculate exactly how much of all of our
futures we are losing for every minute you stay with that sick,twisted,
idiot.

I see you doing what everyone in your position does - you end up looking
to the perpetrator for comfort because theres no one else left, and look
at how he reacts for Christ's sake, look at what he did to New Orleans,
and you should know that yet again he did it in front of all of your
friends, all of us saw nothing happening whilst thousands died, all of
us heard Ray Nagin and the president of Jefferson Parish (I must heard
him 30+ times now and I still cry every time) and all of us heard
George's bloody mother. We have been trying to help and he won't let us.
We are all appalled and aghast, it breaks our hearts to see him hurting
you like this, and you not fighting back, you just take it and take it
as it slowly spirals down into the pits of hell. What will it take
America, will you let him kill you before you'll kick him out? This is
not rhetoric America, he is killing you every day you stay with him. If
I had described your relationship with George to you back when you were
still with Bill you never would have believed me. He degrades you in
little increments, every day he erodes your assets as well as your
dignity, your reputation, your legacy and your life America.

All of our TV crews were rescuing survivors as they filmed the
devastation because there was nobody else there to help them, all of us
saw the victims being treated like some sudden new insurgency. with
suspicion and hostility. Those poor people, the heart & soul of New
Orleans, the very people whose culture and history made New Orleans
beloved around the world, He just left your brothers and sisters to die.
Can you really continue in your relationship with George after this?
There is a degree at which cognitive dissonance becomes outright
delusion. He is a maniac, he is destroying your life, please, please
leave him, just leave him, only you have the power to make it stop.

He is selling out your family business, if you let him continue like
this how are you going to live? How are you going to feed your children,
what happens if you get ill? Everything he has ever touched has turned
to shit, he puts any idiot that'll kiss his ass into positions of power
and New Orleans is the result. Kick him out America! Do it today! I know
it feels like you would be leaping into a void, but I promise you, you
will be leaping out of one. Your friends will come back as soon as they
see you are back to your old self, they really miss you. I know that
less than 36% of your heart is still in it. Go with the 64% of you, that
36% is just that vestigial, primitive part of the brain that clings to
the familiar no matter how badly the familiar sucks.

It all comes down to you, America. I know no-one likes other people
passing comment on their relationships but this is an extreme situation.
You are in very real danger, he is hurting you everyday and he is
hurting us, your friends as well. But only you can make it stop. We are
all rooting for you, although we don't get to talk to you very often
anymore, because he cuts us off from you. We are on your side, we will
all be over the moon the day you finally kick him out. You know he
really should be thrown in jail for the things he has done to you. Him
and all of his gangster friends.

Please, please, do it America, you know I am right. If not for yourself
then do it for your brothers and sisters and children. Do it before he
kills any more of your family or anyone else's. We are all really
worried for your welfare.

Your friend,

Gail

Gail Thomas is am a British/ Australian dual national living in Sydney
with her American partner. Her website is http://www.12thharmonic.com