I am Continually Astonished at what's happening to my country; to the country my family has fought for in every war, including the Revolution. I did not volunteer for Vietnam so that I could watch my country be taken from me in 2006.
When does it become our right - indeed, our duty - to take our country back from the usurpers - usurpers from both the Left and the Right? Did our dream of a Free Republic pass into history with the election of Richard Nixon, never to be dreamed again? Did Reagan so sap our national character that we were easily led to imbibe the sweet drink of Morpheus and been left with only the appearance of wakefulness?
Our forefathers were not extraordinary people; they were people just like us, only they felt that they had some control of their future. They were not content to be shorn like sheep by the U.K., but they knew all too well the history of man; a history of slaves rising up, conquering their masters, only to suffer the invevitable slide back into slavery. There will always be groups of men among us that feel that they are entitled - nay, appointed by God - to hold sway over the rest of man, and they will always - ALWAYS - gain sway because people find more comfort in being led, whither to better pastures or to slaughter.
Our forefathers knew this about man, so they discussed and wrote amongst themselves how best to warn their children of the forthcoming dictatorship which would be allowed - and encouraged - by the self-centeredness and laziness of man.
Thus, when they wrote the Declaration of Independece, they included very specific warnings and remedies:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. (link to full Declaration)
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. (snip)
I believe that only a Republican or a self-deluded fool of the lowest sort would believe that our government has not shown a long train of abuses. One may argue, and not incorrectly, that the abuses were never absent; that even the Founders, some of whom were slave owners, never truly established a Free country - but they did, at least, try. One may argue that America's administrations have been one long line of smaller or larger abuses, whether imprisoning Padilla for over 3 years without benefit of counsel or bail, or imprisoning thousands and thousands of Americans of Japanese descent during WWII, or speading depeleted uranium all over various countries, despite knowing the eventual consequences - much like they did with Agent Orange in our other major war-of-choice.
The arguments can be made, and I will accept them. However, they are nothing more than a poor attempt at redirection and distraction. For no administration in our history has engaged in so many crimes against so many people. Republicans, since Nixon, sought to spy on U.S. citizens and to take from us our rights; the rights that our forefathers shed their blood for; the rights that the many people in Lexington and at the Concord Bridge, on that day in 1775, gave their lives for. Republicans, in the form of the Project for the New American Century, have now concluded that they are the sole power to rule the world, with America as their war machine. It matters not to them that this is America; they would do exactly the same thing with any country that was all-powerful and that they could get control of. Hitler was but a poor imitation of the current neo-con cabal; Napoleon yet another small, insignificant foreshadowing of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Rice, et al.
Bush, of course, is just the drunk puppet that serves as the front for the truly insane people who are now leading our country to self-destruction.
So, at what point do we demand our country back? Is it as easy as declaring war on the illegal government now overseeing these United States? Is it as simple as declaring, as Patrick Henry did:
Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Unfortunately, it is not that easy. (and please, I don't care if Patrick Henry actually said the words or not) For we are not at war with just a fascist government, but we are at war with our fellow citizens; people who, for some unknowable reason, have decided that living in tyranny shall be called, "Freedom", and that freedom-lovers shall be called, "Traitors".
Well, I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me Freedom or give me death. There will come a time when part of this country will go to war with the other part. Do not say that it cannot happen, though we all hope that it will not happen. What would you have done, had you been a German citizen in 1940? Would you have fought your fellow Germans to prevent the Holocaust? And soon, the even more important question will come: if you had been a German soldier in 1940, would you have rounded up your fellow citizens, and killed those who resisted? Or, would you have joined them, in defense of your country? It may also be phrased: Truly, in defense of the world?
I wish it were that easy now. The playing field is no longer as level as it was back then. Now, our government has cameras everywhere, with face-recognition software to pick out those they wish to remove; can listen in on any phone conversation at will, can monitor any form of electronic communication and they are now building large concentration camps for the revolutionaries (well, the new Halliburton/FEMA camps could be used for that). They also have weapons that Hitler never dreamed of: laser than can destroy a house while leaving all around it untouched; sonic and microwave weapons that disable you from a distance.
Sen. Russ Feingold says, "It's time to stand up - not to cheer, but to fight back."
I would ask: Sir, would you fight tanks with words? Would you fight FEMA camps with rhetoric? Have words ever won a battle?
Yes, I believe that, for the moment, we still give the system a chance. The Democrats will re-take Congress in 2006, but if they do not immediately move to impeach BushCo and remove them from power and hold new elections, I will question whether the system is ever going to work again under the present Constitution. The Democrats have assisted the Republicans in taking food from the mouths of the poor, have enabled corporations to capture quite a bit of our government, and have turned the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the intellectuals into groups to be reviled - groups to eventually be rounded up and disposed of.
America is no longer willing to look into whatever remains of its heart. In Detroit, they are having parties for the homeless this weekend - to celebrate the Super Bowl they say, but actually it is just a means of keeping the magnitude of the poverty from the lens of the camera. The authorities will take the homeless and bundle them up in warmth and comfort - for a day - until the cameras are gone and the country is busy looking elsewhere. We will not be forced to ask how a city of 2 million souls, in 1980, because a city of less that 1 million souls in 2000, and what that has meant for the people too poor to escape the city. It is a very slow-motion New Orleans.
So, eventually, we must ask ourselves: what kind of country do we want, and how do we go about acheiving that?