What happened to my country?
Offline I read in the paper this morning and online that the House passed the new detainee legislation and the fact that it will become law is nearly an inevitable conclusion. In it, people are segregated into a group who no longer possess the rights that the Constitution of this great nation has said belong to ALL people. Torture, the denial of the right to a speedy trial, the refusal for self-representation, refusal to allow access to all evidence for defendants, and the allowance of hear-say and coerced testimony are all within this bill, supported no less even by those like John McCain who have experienced first-hand just what the lack of human rights brings.
Where has my country gone? Why has it left the hollowed hills of freedom and inalienable human rights that were bought with the blood of true patriots? Why is the right to dissent, a right designated by Jefferson as integral to the health of a democracy, curtailed at every opportunity?
I'm tired. When more people today believe Iraq had WMD's than they did before this atrocity of a war, when any act is supported by the majority if it means securing the illusion of security, what place do those of us who ask for decent rational conversation have in this country? What is the point of ranting to a people who are more concerned with the next football game than if their government is torturing their fellow human beings?
I don't know the answer to those questions. Maybe one of you does. I simply can't help but hope that I die before the full horror of where we are going comes upon us; when the "shining city upon the hill" that this nation promised to be becomes nothing more than a monument to ignorance and fear.
I wept today for the loss of our honor. Would the cleansing of the blood on our hands be so easily washed away.
Every one of your relationships to man and to nature must be a definite expression of your real, individual life corresponding to the object of your will. -Erich Fromm
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Thanks for posting this wonderful piece. Reading it inspired me to create a blog entry here and on my MySpace that expresses my feelings regarding this horrifc bill.
"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss Bank."-Woody Allen
"Atheism is life affirming in a way religion can never be."-Richard Dawkins
Since when has the Christian majority in America cared about reality. They are just like Muslims and Jews, they care about protecting their respective super heros. Christians just do that with legislation, Muslims are still stuck in violent mode. But give it time, if enough defenders of Jesus pass enough legislation and mask it in "freedom" they will be free to opress whomever they chose.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Both are now appearing on the top of the frontpage, thanks for taking the time to write those pieces guys.
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the thing is, they wouldnt care either way. i mean, sufficiently successful cradel for a middle class life and, more or less, the hordes arent exactly revolting.
so, you have to overtake 'the government'. yknow, the thing that 'those people' see as a friendly neighbor down the street, asking them nicely (or otherwise telling) to stay inside the lines. and not like, once, in 1776. but every 16 - 25 years or so. house needs to be cleaned, people. there needs to be citizen turnover. nobody needs to die or anything like that. but none of this career politician crap either. our pool is too shallow, and retards are starting to boil up to the top. also, i think cheney might actually be satan. no joke. i swear i saw his eyes flash red.
bah, anyway, i still say screw the federal government. its just...such a bad idea these days. we have enough technology to make one kickass federation, and then i dont need to care what you believe. texas could be the cowboy state. oohhh..... i bet theyd love that.
its like i always say: you dont have to be a racist to think the union is a bad idea.
either way, you cant just let powerful people sit in big chairs for several administrations and expect them not to eventually overstep their bounds. this has something to do, i am sure, with our expectations for maintenance of The American Way while solidly in the grip of the lobbies. who comes up with this junk?
anyway, if you dont like it, dont support it. which is sort of difficult to do, since basically every movement you make is totally pwned by the system by which you survive. so, lament, i suppose. or we could try to get some legislation passed that would allow us to burn down the whitehouse given a sufficient vote at 'always open' ballots. i think that would be super sweet. instead of the president's 'approval rate', we would know how close he (or she!) was to getting all their belongings toasted. youd have to give them time to run away, of course. this is a democracy after all.
btw, does anyone have a copy of the social contract you signed? its the funniest thing, i dont think i have one.
"In depriving myself of the acorns... what have we learned? Nothing! Not one of us has learned!
"Which isn't my point, but very well could have been."
— Ashley Raymond, Olympia, 1989
While I didn't personally sign any social contract, the legitimacy of government is to be found in its inevitability and in an analysis of the particular form it takes. Democracy has been called "the great experiment" and, like all experiments, only constant monitoring and a correct ideology undergirding the process will ensure the possibility of its success.
Notice that I did say "possibility" not inevitability. Civilizations have perished in the past and maybe this whole thing called "human life" will perish as well. Those of us who have embraced the humanist ideology know that the universe has no personal feelings one way or the other about our existence, so we cannot sit back and just expect that no matter what we do, we'll continue on or get saved.
Every one of your relationships to man and to nature must be a definite expression of your real, individual life corresponding to the object of your will. -Erich Fromm
the legitimacy of a government in the most general sense has literally nothing to do with your social contract, and very little to do with any conversation, mostly because of its inevitability.
your understanding of the purpose and proper mode of government juxtaposed with the government who claims you, on the other hand, is worth attending to.
and what is the 'correct ideology'? i must have missed that in civics.
democrazy is no great experiment, it has barely been tried since the greeks. government, on the other hand, has been a rather disasterous experiment, with an overall tendency of increase in disaster where girth of government is added.
seems like a good reason to keep the federal government around.
"In depriving myself of the acorns... what have we learned? Nothing! Not one of us has learned!
"Which isn't my point, but very well could have been."
— Ashley Raymond, Olympia, 1989