With so many humanitarian atrocities continuing to happen here locally on the Central Coast, in our state, across the United States, and globally, I’ve spent many sleepless hours pondering how I’ve become so disillusioned and frustrated with Americans. Until this year, I’ve been proud to be an American and part of our society that I believed fundamentally stood up for human rights and spoke out when we encountered examples of human rights abuses. But, alas. We have mistakenly elected a government that places a high value on power and profit. Not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with that. This is, after all, the land of capitalism. But everything goes awry for mankind when power and profits stomp all over human rights. We are now witness to this happening every day, and yet we’re largely silent.
We have watched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as 300,000 Russian soldiers, 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and more than 12,000 civilians have been killed, yet we’re silent. We have watched the genocide being perpetrated on Palestinians in Gaza—the constant bombings of civilian targets, the systematic mass starvation and famine, the estimated 93,000 Palestinians killed, with almost 60 percent of that being women, children, and the elderly. And yet Americans are not only silent but continue to support Israel with the funds, weapons and tools they require to continue this genocide.
The war in Sudan has caused the largest humanitarian crisis on record, with civilians bearing the brunt as international humanitarian laws continue to be ignored with the continuation of rampant ethnic cleansing and sexual violence. Americans don’t even talk about Sudan. Myanmar is now one of the top three global crises due to the worsening military conflict and the devastation of that country’s water and health systems. I would bet that more than half of Americans have no idea what or where Myanmar is. Burkina Faso remains in the top 10 of global crises for the third year in a row due to armed groups continuing to displace millions of civilians and viciously attacking hospitals, schools, and communities. Raise your hand if you even know what Burkina Faso is. I’ll wait. And this list goes on with Lebanon, Syria, Mali, Haiti, Somalia, etc. And Americans remain silent.
In our own great country, which daily seems to be getting less great, Americans remain silent on racial abuses of American citizens perpetrated by people who are paid by us to protect and serve our communities. Americans remain silent on the horrendous mass murders of our children in their classrooms by lunatics with guns. Americans remain silent on the politically motivated violence and murder that is becoming the new normal. Across this “land of the free,” people are being swept up every day by unidentified, masked, and heavily armed groups headed for detention, deportation, or just being disappeared. But all we hear are crickets.
It’s no wonder that I feel this disappointment and frustration with Americans. And I’ve been trying to come up with a simple phrase to express it. Then the other night I attended the Steve Earle concert at the Fremont Theater in downtown SLO. Great concert, by the way. But I was particularly struck by Chris Pierce, the singer/songwriter who opened for Earle.
He is known for his compassion and humanity, which is evident in his lyrics. He uses his public platform to speak up about the things we should all be making noise about. One of his songs in particular struck a chord with me, because, in it, I found that simple phrase I’ve been looking for to describe the growing apathy and detachment of Americans. “American silence is a crime.” That’s it. Not complicated at all in a time where Americans, especially our elected officials, should be standing up and strongly speaking out against humanitarian atrocities. “American silence is a crime.”
R. DeMilo
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Aug 21-31, 2025.