[Curt Chiarelli]

As a matter of fact, I downloaded the forms for Canadian permanent residency a month ago. I scored a 7 out of a possible 10 points on my adaptability test (I'm afraid my understanding of French is, at best, rudimentary). Not that Canada represents all that is perfect in this most imperfect of worlds, but I'm fed up with being undervalued by my country, by being told every day in inumerable ways both great and small that unless you're a multi-billionaire corporate ogre you're not a true constituent of this society - a society of which I've contributed to so much over the past 2 decades.

It would indeed be foolish to look to foreign climes for one's saviour, but my hand has been forced. I've been told by the forces that are presently running this vicious corporation called America into the ground that I and everything I represent is worthless, even antiquated. Funny though, they still demand my tax dollars. I - like all of you - are just being USED. And I can no longer stomach it. I want out.

It's not going to make for easy stages, but I can tell you that present day America is not the country I was raised to love and believe in. She has transformed itself through arrogance into some vile doppelganger of her potetial glory.

To give you a good idea of where I'm coming from and how much this hurts me to say this, I'm the guy who always gets emotional every time I read Thomas Jefferson's lovely wording of The Declaration of Independence. And it's not just because he's such a damned eloquent writer either, it's because I actually believe in the nobility of those words. I still do. They represent a vision of life now forsaken in our land.

Perhaps someday we'll see the reality of America match her promise. But I doubt it. Not on her present course at any rate.