To the Editor: Is our country great again yet? I'd say it's getting there, but maybe not for the reasons the governing plutocrats give. Capitalists are tripping over each other in the race to see who can become the first trillionaire. Get used to the term. They're coming.

The America of today no longer says, “Give me your tired, your poor, … the wretched refuse of your teeming shore … " This would-be-great America insists on $5 million for a golden passport.

On the first Saturday in April, in pouring rain, 43 degrees, and biting wind, thousands of people turned up at the New York State Capitol in a show of resistance. If this country was ever great, it was at times like this when people banded together to fight injustice.

Not with the so-called Greatest Generation. America was not at its greatest in defeating two competing imperialisms in World War II. Not unless you think of imperialism as a mark of greatness. If it is, that view has to encompass the dropping of twin atomic bombs on a helpless, defeated population.

Let's back up a second. We say America as if it is clear what we are talking about. Think of yourself. You have nothing to do with the America that is portrayed to you. You don't get to write the history. You don't get to write the laws. You don't get to build the missiles. You don't get to drop the bombs. You don't get to keep the secrets.

America is untouched by your conscience. Unaffected by your desires. Cold to your approaches. See America as it exists today, picking up people off the street and handcuffing them. The choice is to obey, or disobey.

James Rothenberg

North Chatham