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Over a month ago, after returning from Iraq, I wrote:
What happens next?
I don't know!
What happens in the Middle East?
At this moment I don't care!
What am I going to do?
I am going home!
For weeks now, I have stared at this computer.
Never having a clue what I would write next.
Hell, not sure if I would ever write again.
Without inspiration. In Fact, without hope.
Endless hours of watching news, reading blogs, responding to e-mails.
I was lost.
Then I stumbled upon the following:
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic feeling which
thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for
which he is willing to fight, nothing which
is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and
has no chance of being free unless made
or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
At first the quote disgusted me!
The word PATRIOT in itself makes my stomach ache.
Then I asked myself why?
Well naturally the answer is that in 2007 when I hear the word PATRIOT, I think
PATRIOT ACT.
October 26, 2001 (Just 45 days after 9/11) the ACT was made law by the SENATE
98-1!
In just 45 days the King George Regime was able to convince us to give up our
civil liberties and replace our constitution
that are forefathers designed all in the name of HOME LAND SECURITY!
In the name of PATRIOT'S
"My father used to say that people were so afraid that the world was going to
end that they were willing it to
happen. I don't remember much of the century's turn. I've read
about It since but I
don't recall how any of It impacted my life except for the
fear.
I could feel it.
Of the chaos that seemed to swallow the beginning of the 21st century,
there is one thing I do remember. Very clearly, I can remember
that
sound (hundreds of marching soldiers). And I remember those
boots, black
leather that gleamed bright in the morning sun. I had never
seen such
boots. All moving in perfect unison.
It must have seemed so easy to them. They offered such a simple
deal; give up control and we will restore order. At first, the
arrests were
political. Dissidents. Radicals. Liberals.
Overnight, our lives, our entire world was erased.
It was done so quickly and violently, so completely, that it began to seem that
it had never
even existed.
The homosexuals were next. What God had started with AIDS had to be finished
by man. It was God's
work. That's what we were told.
But once they were gone, there was someone else. Someone different. Someone
dangerous.
There were those who understood what was happening, who knew it was
wrong but who kept silent.
And in the vacuum of that silence,order was imposed.
Order that was like those boots, order that required rigorous discipline.
Order that is exactly
the same, where each single step falls with every step. The
order
of the many shaped into one."
EVEY HAMMOND FROM V FOR VENDETTA
How is it that THEY who is really US were able to turn the word PATRIOT into
such a scary and ugly word.
Is not a patriot one who fights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
So with this in mind, I agree with John Stuart Mill there is something much
uglier than war!
It is the FEAR that we have allowed them to install into our daily lives.
A FEAR designed to control and manipulate us.
Oh, I know why we did it.
We were scared. We were scared for our country, our families, our selves.
In the last eight years the American people have allowed a cout de ta of their
country.
This cout lead by right wing religious conservative fanatics.
An attack on their country.
The erasing of The Constitution Of The United States!
A war on a sovereign nation. An unjust war while the true enemy, the true
attackers have never been brought to justice.
A censored press.
Fired U.S. Attorneys that investigate election fraud.
Then another fraudulent election.
The Federal Government to spy on it's own citizens.
Middle class Americans to suffer more job losses than anytime in American
history while big business never enjoyed
better days.
The Federal Government to break all international treaties designed to protect
the environment.
Foreclosures and bankruptcies are at an all time high!
The Vice President to shoot a man.
A congressman to rape boys.
The White House to forge documents to sustain facts for an unjust war.
We have allowed them to build walls around our country.
At the same time by ignoring the United Nations and The World Community we have
isolated ourselves.
By turning a blind eye to the genocide in Africa and in Palestine we have made
ourselves targets to REAL terrorist.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA has never had so many enemies!
By allowing our FREEDOM to be taken away we have made THE WORLD A VERY UNSAFE
PLACE FOR ALL!
Yes, Mr. Mill is correct, there is something much uglier than WAR!
"In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons."
Croesus
Today as I write this ONLY 29% of American citizens believe we are doing well
in Iraq.
90% of these citizens desire the U.S. to pull out of the War.
Our number one supporter THE UNITED KINGDOM is withdrawing from the War.
The U.S. people clearly voted in November for this War to be over.
Yet, the White House ignores the people.
In the last two weeks we have seen the Vice President's right hand man
convicted of perjury and the U.S. Attorney
General's right hand man resign for lying to Congress.
Yet, King George does not feel that his Vice President or his Attorney General
should be held accountable.
In November I wrote that impeaching George Bush was impractical.
I felt that just making him a lame duck would be sufficient.
I WAS WRONG!
The White House continues to ignore Congress, The American People, and The
World Community.
The President and his men continue to arrogantly lie and forge ahead with their
right wing conservative new-nazi
fanatical religious agenda!
As I write this I am not sure the United States or the World cannot with stand
another twenty months of this
administration!
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in
the final sense, a theft from those who
hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in
arms is not spending money alone. It is
spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of
its children. This is not a way of life at all in
any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of
iron.
Dwight Eisenhower
April 16, 1953
It is critical to remember PEOPLE SHOULD NOT FEAR THEIR GOVERNMENT-GOVERNMENT
SHOULD FEAR IT'S
PEOPLE and PEOPLE ARE NOT THEIR GOVERNMENT!
We can no longer look the other way and let this government continue as it has.
We created this-We must end it!
We as FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE WORLD have not only ability but the responsibility
to impact THE WORLD WE
SHARE!
In many ways!
Chose your way.
"Somehow in my heart, I knew it wouldn't last. What they thought they had
crushed, the spirit they believed trampled
and ground beneath the marching of their boots, rose up, rose
as if from an old grave, rose to remind us all.
REMIND US ALL OF AN IDEA!
TO REMIND US OF THE FACT AN IDEA IS STRONGER THAN ANY MAN OR ARMY OF MEN-FOR AN
ARMY CAN BE
KILLED-BUT AN IDEA CANNOT!"
Evey Hammond from V For Vendetta
Remember Jean Valjean Lives!
He Lives Because Of You!
EVERY 15 SECONDS A MISPLACED CHILD OF WAR DIES A DEATH THAT YOU CAN PREVENT
FOR AS LITTLE AS $2!
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