Hello all!!!
I'm a first generation American, and I have an intimate knowledge of
how much better life is in the United States than is the experience of
most people in the world. America enabled my family to prosper in a way
that would have never been possible in Brasil, and I grew up loving my
country for the ideals upon which is was founded.
What I'm hearing from the supporters of Mr. Bush and his policy in
this forum and elsewhere disturbs me. I'm a conservative Christian. I
tend to vote Republican. I support the concept of self sufficiency,
and I don't like the idea of government setting up regulatory hurdles
that make it difficult or impossible to distill ethanol for fuel, or
that I have to pay taxes in order to support government programs that
should be unnecessary if we actually cared about our neighbors. I
believe in resource conservation and private enterprise. These are
hardly views espoused by classic "liberals".
But I think the policies coming out of our current Administration
are based upon a world view colored by Dispensationalist eschatology,
big money and big corporations, and an arrogance that borders on
nauseating when viewed from a non-American perspective. The problems
are compounded by many years of fundamentally flawed energy policy, and
that's the reason why this discussion BELONGS on a biofuels list.
What I'm hearing from some of you fellow citizens is that I
shouldn't disagree with our president. Some of you claim that if I
write against his policies, I'm writing from a "liberal" point of view,
and therefore, my speech should be curtailed. I hear some of you call
dissent "America bashing".
Have you never read the Bill of Rights? As an American, I am free
to speak out against my government. In fact, Abraham Lincoln once wrote
that citizens who are not being represented by their government not only
have a right to speak out, but an obligation to OVERTHROW it! That's
radical talk! Was Mr. Lincoln a liberal?
Deficit spending for warfare is out of control, but as a fiscally
conservative Republican, I'm not supposed to complain? Wouldn't it be
wiser to invest those billions changing our energy use paradigm and
developing renewable energy in the United States, rather than invading a
third rate power on the other side of the planet?
To those of you who think that speaking out against the violence
going on overseas right now somehow demeans the role of our soldiers, I
ask what right have you, or they, or anybody else to dismiss my concern
for their safety? The claim that those soldiers are somehow making my
life more secure by their work in Iraq is not one supported by facts.
(Those people are MY countrymen and women too! Some of them are related
to me, and some of them are my friends.) Most likely, the presence of
our armed forces overseas will make it MORE difficult for me and my
fellow citizens to travel securely abroad. Arguably, it will likely
make our security in North America less certain as well. I was in
Virginia and Maryland when the airplanes went flying into buildings--it
was awful seeing police officers armed with automatic rifles on the
streets. I was very angry when the terrorists struck, but I thought
long and hard about WHY they felt the need to behave that way.
We are sowing seeds of discontent with our actions now. We are only
encouraging more brutality from desperate people against our citizens
and against our institutions. To quote a song lyric: "To blow up his
children will only prove him right."
We like to think that we are morally superior to the great nations
that preceded us because we "brought the boys home" after WWII.
(Although this conveniently ignores the earlier concept of "Manifest
Destiny", in which we thought nothing of taking land from its
inhabitants until our national boundaries stretched "from sea to shining
sea".) We did not go into Europe and Japan to seize territory--we went
to depose nations that had declared war against us.
Where is Iraq's declaration of war?
In fact, what happened to Congress declaring war?
Instead of pouting that people hate us and dismissing the dissent
from citizens of other nations, why don't we start listening? Other
people in the world whom we have considered friends for many generations
have been cautioning against our actions. In contrast, our current
Administration consults with its allies and then pronounces we are
engaged in the final act of "diplomacy". Diplomacy consists of only
talking to people who agree with us? This is conservative?
Insanity is a better word.
Some of you want us to return to directly discussing biofuels, and
that's perfectly acceptable. Start a thread! You fellow citizens who
are trying to limit my speech, or that of anyone else whose perspective
we may not like, are behaving in a very un-American manner. Free speech
that is not extended to those with whom we disagree is not free speech.
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/9782
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Your own Online Store Selling our Overstock.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/rZll0B/4ftFAA/46VHAA/FGYolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuels list archives:
http://archive.nnytech.net/
Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address.
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
