(Cross-posted at CharlieHipHop.com
How well would you sleep knowing that a doomsday cult has its finger on the nuclear trigger and that it considers itself locked in the Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil, a battle that ends up with everybody dead, them in Heaven, and the rest of us in Hell? That knowledge wouldn't make me sleep any better, that's for sure.
According to this great, courageous piece by Mikey Weinstein, former Assistant General Counsel to Ronald Reagan, that's pretty much where we stand. (Everybody needs to read that and disseminate it widely.) I'll start with an excerpt.
To wit:
We can expect violence. The head cleric of St. David's Episcopal Church of Topeka, Kansas came out to support me; five hours later his church was burned to the ground. A synagogue where I spoke was desecrated. My home has been targeted by feces and beer bottles; our tires slashed; dead animals have twice been placed on our front porch. The death threats come in ceaselessly. It is not convenient and safe to confront and defy those in power; I know that but I refuse to back down. They may try to harm me but I will not go quietly; I will be a Jew from the Warsaw Ghetto, not Berlin. I will be an American from Lexington and Concord, not an American from Halliburton and Blackwater.
[Emphasis added.]
Yup, these folks are crazy and dangerous, and right now they hold the reins. It's scary, but we need to show that America is truly the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave by standing up to these nuts, by overwhelming them with our numbers and our determination to preserve our freedom, our democracy, and our way of life. There are very few things I would be willing to die for, and America -- our America, the real, free one -- is one of them.
The America I love is this one:
- where people of all races, cultures, and creeds come to live life in liberty and prosperity
- where everyone who is willing to work hard and play fair is welcome
- where everyone has the right to express themselves and to worship any crazy god they want -- and where no one is ever compelled to express anyone but themselves or to worship any particular god in a particular way
- where the vigorous discourse of competing ideas keeps us ever fresh and moves us forward
- where the rule of law means that everyone is equal under the law and that the system of justice is not a tool of harassment and persecution, but a guarantee of equal protection under the law and an arbiter of fair punishment for breaking the law
- where creativity, unbridled by fear of persecution, expresses itself in a gorgeous diaspora that is the envy of the world
- where a truly free market -- one in which anyone can participate -- leads to enormous aggregate wealth, not only material wealth but a wealth of ideas and innovation
- where taxes are as low as possible but even the neediest never do without
- where tax monies are used for the public good, not the further enrichment of those who are already obscenely rich
- where the military is strong and proud -- lean and mean, not bloated and gluttonous for ever more blood and treasure
- where war is a last resort, undertaken with utmost sobriety, not a first resort begun with glee (and ended, as all wars, with enormous tragedy)
- where all citizens can enjoy baseball, mom's apple pie, or whatever they want so long as they do so without harming anyone else
- where we revere those who take the difficult path -- the pioneers, the explorers, the heroes
- where we honor the brilliance of our founders by keeping their document, the Constitution that has kept us free and prosperous for 228 years, as our sacred cornerstone (not the screeds of the cult du jour, though those cults are free to worship as they wish so long as they neither cause nor attempt harm to our way of life)
Read Weinstein's piece. Weinstein is a Republican. All of us who would prefer to maintain our country as a free, prosperous beacon of hope need to take whatever action we can to take America back from the clutches of the crazy, evil people currently in charge. This is not about right and left. It's about right and wrong.
Good luck and Godspeed. Save your fear for those moments when it might do you some good.
-CharlieHipHop