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Stick it by James Spader
Apr 5, 2006
This is wonderful. ~ Lo

Thanks to impudent crusader


I love this too much to stop reposting it -- impudent crusader


Stick it

When the Weapons of Mass Destruction thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up! ...ha They didn't. Then when the Abu Gharib torture thing surfaced, and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes that specialize in torture, I was sure then; the American people would be heard from. We stood mute. Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so called 'terrorist suspects' and locked them up with out the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly we would never stand for that. We did. And now it's been discovered, the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens; you and me. And I at least consoled my self that finally, finally, the American people will have had enough. And evidently we haven't. In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is "we're ok with it all." Torture, warrant less search and seizures, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial, or any trial, war on false pretenses, we as a citizenry are apparently not offended. There are no demonstrations on college campuses; in fact, there is no clear indication that young people even seem to notice.

We've lost the right to demonstrate at a presidential or vice-presidential appearance as well. The secret service can now declare free speech zones, to contain, control, and in effect, criminalize protests. Stop for a second, and try to fathom that; at a presidential rally, parade, or appearance. If you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. Yet if you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed. THIS in the United States of America! THIS in United States of America! Am I the only one embarrassed?!

And what I'm most sick and tired of, is how every time, somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un-American. Speech in this country is free you hacks! Free for me, free for you, free for anybody to stand up to their government and say 'stick it'!!! I object to the government using its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And God forbid anybody challenges it, they are smeared as being a heretic. We are Americans, we are Americans, we are Americans

Last night I went to bed with a book, not nearly as much fun as a twenty-nine year old, but the book contained a speech by Adele Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live. And fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism." Today it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stephenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principals than to live up to them. I know we are all afraid. But the Bill of Rights, we have to live up to that; we simply must.

You know what I miss most about our country? Not the loss of our civil rights so much as our compassion, soul, our humility. We seem to be becoming a mean people. Learned Hand once said, "Liberty lies in our hearts and once it dies there, no constitution can save it." I want a kinder and gentler nation.

James Spader (Alan Shore Boston Legal)

Brought to you by Anthony

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt
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Posted: Apr 5, 2006 3:16pm

 
 
 
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Lo A.
female , single
Columbia, MO, USA
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