Around 3,000 innocent Americans were killed by radical terrorists in the World Trade Center attacks. Afterward our politicians stood on the steps of Congress and declared their resolve to punish the scum that planned the attacks.
Now imagine the planners of the 9/11 attacks quietly lobbying Congress to push an addictive product onto the American public, their goal this time is to simply make money. The product they sell will kill more than three times the victims of 9/11, not just once, but every year. Imagine the outrage when the American people learn al-Qaeda is killing that many Americans, imagine the speeches on the steps of Congress.
A too-close example of that has already happened, minus the outrage from Congress or the press. Just change the name of the perpetrators from al-Qaeda to Big Pharma. The Associated Press’ story “Politics of Pain: A look at Big Pharma’s power” (Sept. 18, The Columbian) tells a story of greed distilled into a too-perfect essence, the corporation. Sadly, we the people are the victims once again.
How can we be so easily driven to attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and so misled as to do nothing about corporate greed that kills?
