Chinese Curse
An old Chinese curse says, "May you live in interesting times." It seems this curse has come to pass for us in the times we face today. We are very much in danger of going down a path that will forever alter the face of the future for many generations, upon generations. We face a new dilemma, a new problem which if not stolidly and preseverantly challenged may end all we have known to be our country, our dream, our hope, the very soul of our nation. We are facing an enemy which has expertly and cunningly manipulated the fears we have all experienced following the tragedy of September 11th. It is no less cowardly to have manipulated a peoples fears, than it is to be the perpetrator which created them. We are being preyed upon by our own, with little to no consideration for the good of the nation as a whole. We are on the verge of no longer being a nation as a whole.
The first attack was made first on exactly that saving grace, the unity of "we the people." We are entering into a time when the fabric which has so long held us together, which was won under such dire consequence, is beginning to fray and may before long, no longer hold. The divisiveness which has been so openly paraded in front of us by the current administration and even reveled in by our president, is a danger to us now. We have been separated into the "us" and the "them" by a kind of rhetoric which uses the phrases like patriotism, rule of law, and homeland security which is now being shown to be reminiscent of dicatorship and monarchy. We are being divided along the lines of those who agree with the opinions and now transparent ideals of the current administration, and those who don't. Those of us, like myself, who disagree with the views and perspectives of the current administration are being portrayed as the enemy, unpatriotic, in sympathy with so called "un-American" ideals. A smirk and a quip are meant to push us aside and to label us as silly, childish, soft, without the backbone to do all that is necessary. We have now been divided on a kind of ideological line which some forty years ago threatened to tear the foundations of our society apart. If we do not find a way to cross this divide, we may be lost already.
We now have proof, hard and fast, that it is not the opposition to the current administration which is trying to tear the fabric of our great nation to shreds, but the administration itself. With the emergence of this controversy concerning domestic wiretaps, it is clear that the very freedom they have claimed to be protecting is not at all what they have been protecting. Can you protect the freedom of a people by violating it? Possibly, you can. Do you have to? I would say decidedly no. What we're experiencing is a consolidation of power which is absolutely uprecedented in our history. It is not unprecedented in its actual nature, but more so because of the secrecy with which it has been attempted. There will be those who will site Abraham Lincoln's repeal of Habius Corpus as an act of the Executive branch on par with this one. In most perspectives, this would be true. The exception is that there was no secrecy involved with what Lincoln did. He was upfront with all who asked about what he was doing. Our president is not so forthcoming. Let's not be distracted here either. It isn't the president who is attempting to gather and hold power, but more that the president is gathering and holding power for the future of the body he truly represents. The truth is we don't necessarily know who that body is, it may be the Republican party, it may be the coporate structure which has so well clothed and fed our representatives for a long time, but we can no longer be lulled by sweet promises and pinches on the cheek, the president is not acting in the best interests of the people of this nation.
To trample on the freedoms of "We the people," is to undermine the very thing that has not only made this country great, but also gives us the promise of being a leader in the global stage in the future. We have the capability to be the power which leads to a new level of peace, a new level of understanding between the people of the world, because we do now, more than ever live in a global community. If we can not preserve, and hold dear these freedoms, we will lose all that we have to offer as a nation and as a people. It is precisely these freedoms which have made this country the destination of choice for generations of poor and oppressed. How can we shelter the oppressed when we begin to shelter the oppressors of our own freedoms? The first and fourth amendments are being blatantly violated by this entire wire tapping project. We can not stand for this. If we let this go, if we sit on the sideline and let the freedoms which have made us great which have been the cornerstones of nearly every great achievement this nation has ever made, we are giving away the nation entirely. We will be giving away the thing this current administration is claiming to be bringing to other people's of the world, the democratic ideals our entire country was based on. How can we bring freedom and democracy to other places while we undermine it at home?
It's time for us, we the people, to assume the responsibility we have so long left unrecognized. If we sit back and do nothing, freedom and democracy will die to the sound of a sigh, instead of the sound of thunderous opposition as it should. Do something, anything, this is not something we can leave to "them" to find the way to "deal" with. This is where the people of this nation have the responsibility to stand up and be heard, be known for their importance, their voices as one under the banner of true freedom. It probably doesn't matter if those voices are in unison, the nature of democracy and freedom is not to be strongly united in anything but the rights which allow those voices to be heard without fear of repercussion, intimidation, or oppression by the current government. That freedom is about to be lost. Look down the path which our nation is heading, and look really at what we see, not what we hope to see, not exclude what we think what could not be. It can happen to you, it can happen to me. Our phones and computers could be put under surveilance today, if we happen to believe differently than the people in power currently do. If you don't think I am right, if you think I am blowing things out of proportion look up the Truth Project, and anti-war group whose target is to fully educate high school students about the pro's and con's of military enlistment. All they were doing was providing information. That's all they were trying to do, not even protesting the war with signs or in the media or anything. Their philosophy is adverse to that of the current power structure, the current administration, the current administration. It has nothing to do with Iraq, Al-Qaeda, Iran, China or any other foreign enemy. They are only a domestic enemy of the things the president and his administration believes in. It's time to do something. When peaceful people are being considered an enemy because of their beliefs, where are we going?
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13470058.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_state