i'm writing to you a day late america because i think it might actually do you some good to think that people forget about you every now and then. see, your ego can be a titch much to take sometimes. that's okay though, since i see a very humbling future coming your way. i won't sit and try to list all of the ways you've erred, or crimes you've committed against your own citizenry this year, since what i know, everyone knows, and yet it represents very little. what with your massive corporate media oligarchy controlling pretty much all information dissemination, alongside your own tendencies towards secrecy, you know far better what crimes you have committed than i do. i will not regale you with tales of your sins, anecdotes about your idiotic leader, or cautionary notes about domination by corporate interests. instead, here's my message to you: you need not go gently into that good night.

the sun always sets, and when it comes to the sun (son) of empire, we know that exceeding your reach tends to bring things to a rather hasty (at least as far as history is concerned) end. the sun finally set on the british empire for the same reason it set for the romans - both strayed too far, too frequently, from home. this is a lesson that you, with one hand in afghanistan, and another in iraq, might want to consider before reaching for iran. but it's not too late. the romans and the british endured remarkably different fates. the romans were pretty much crushed outright by domestic conflict and barbarians at the gates. the brits, on the other hand, had some sense of when they had gone to far, and pulled back in time to watch the sunset of empire turn into an everlasting (okay, they're hoping...) evening of enduring importance. they remain the spectre of a giant, and so could you, but not if you keep reaching. not if you go gently into that good night.

the choice you face as you move forward into this new year of your life america, is essentially imperialism or democracy, but be wary. as you play your imperialist games abroad, all is not well on the home front. in a democracy, the people have to know more than their masters would want them to if they are to make any reasonably intelligent decisions. democracy depends on the huddled masses being able to make discerning decisions, a capacity that is increasingly endangered by the consolidation of media motivated by the same corporate engines that even now drive your nation forward. but you do have a choice america. you can choose to not go gently into that good night, but it will require that your people rise up and rage, rage against the dying of the light.