Misleading its citizens

I just recently returned from a trip to Bogota, Colombia. Now I realize that Bogota has grown as a capital since the 90's and that Colombia's economy has improved since then with the help of US funding esp. for fighting the drug trade. As a person growing up through the 80s and 90s, movies, music and my government led me to the belief that Bogota would be this run down horrible city that I might get kidnapped or shot at for almost no reason. Something like our impression of what the Old West was like in the US(even though that idea of the Old west is wrong). What I found was a beautiful city, I would put it in my list of top three most beautiful cities that I have ever visited. Truly amazing and huge, around 6 million people. It is the 3rd highest capital city in South America and surrounded by these unbelievable mountains. The city was so clean in most parts and the weather was phenominal. Walking around the city was easy and safe, people always willing to help with directions. Bogota was nothing like Hollywood and government reports would make you believe.

Recently, my eyes have been opened to list of misrepresentations by the United States. First, I truly believe that my government and president lied to its citizens about the information, reason and cause for the Iraq War. We ate it up because we wanted blood for 9/11 and we thought that our government would not lie to us and use our troops and money to help free up oil and make corporate donors richer. Second, I am digusted with how our government, media and military lied about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman in order to give people fake heros. This is war, we dont need to invent stories. However, they lied to us in order to keep Americans supporting a war based on lies and greed. Third, White House email scandal is equivalent to nixon tape erasing. How do you lose 5 million emails by accidently erasing them? People need to realize that this administration is lying to us everyday and we need to step up and challenge them on what they do. Take to the streets(which is easy to say when I dont live in the country). Finally, Barbara Walters recently did an interview with Hugo Chavez and I found out that ABC mistranslated the conversation to make Hugo sound like he was calling Bush a murderer. Hugo has said some stupid stuff but why make it up, but most Americans like myself would never challenge this or even really think to challenge a translation by our media esp. in Spanish. However I beg you to really think this through when you hear someone being translated and maybe look for another source to see if the translation is different. I was going to provide you a link to a Youtube video that shows the mistranslation but it is no longer on Youtube. Chavez says in the translation something like Bush has killed people, burned villages and something else. Hugo really said he believes that Bush has made mistakes. Sorry I was going to give you the link but it is gone. Janina watched it with me and she translated, trust me she dislikes Hugo and would not translate in his favor. Sorry. Well have a good day and I will try to keep you updated. I am going to Caracas for a four day weekend coming up and I leave here on June 15th to fly to Philadelphia for a job fair and then to Pittsburgh to drive to DC to pick up Janina and go to another job fair. Then hopefully a good summer with a job waiting for me at the end of the rainbow.