I own a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It’s one of those Pocket Patriot books with a thin leather cover that fits perfectly in the back pocket of good old American denim. I started carrying it around my senior year of college. I also own a pair of dog-tags courtesy of the US Army.
I own a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It’s one of those Pocket Patriot books with a thin leather cover that fits perfectly in the back pocket of good old American denim. I started carrying it around my senior year of college. I also own a pair of dog-tags courtesy of the US Army.
I’m an Iraq War Veteran. I enlisted my senior year of high school after September 11th fully intent on helping get Osama dead or alive. (We still remember that right?) There was a lot of talk about fighting for freedom, for Liberty, for protecting the rights that we enjoy today. Even during the build-up to the Iraq War there was a lot of talk about protecting our freedoms and way of life. Hell, I thought the Democrats were completely wrong about not wanting to go get the WMDs. (Yes, I was one of those guys – but please don’t lecture me I’ve since learned my lesson).
It’s taken some time to process what all happened. Saddam Hussein never really threatened our freedom, much less the capacity to unleash weapons of mass destruction.
But there is this truth to all of this....and that is that the only ones who can take away our freedoms...is us. Yes, the terrorists did murder thousands of people and for that they deserve to be hunted down, shot, and eternally burned in the deepest circles of hell. However, we didn’t lose one single freedom on September 11th. Not one. As bad as that day was, and it was bad, you were still just as free as you were on September 10th.
Until the PATRIOTAct was passed anyway – That’s when you lost some of your freedoms. Granted, I’m sure the evils of the PATRIOT Act have been explored in full here, but you see my point. WE are the ones holding the keys to our liberty and freedom, and not some terrorist.
Our civil liberties have taken a beating these past eight years. Warrantless wiretapping, no-fly lists, private armies roaming the streets, US spy satellites spying on us, the sudden willingness to use torture, and the suspension of habeas corpus. Where we invaded by a foreign power? Did the terrorists win? No, We the People, allowed it to happen.
Of course, this is the Daily Kos and there are several of you who would correctly point out that you raised all kinds of hell about it. And I admit that I’m preaching to the choir on this issue.
But I have to ask, what good is it to fight for freedom overseas if we
squander it away at home. Thomas Jefferson once said that those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for the promise of safety deserve neither. And he was absolutely right.
That’s what the FISA fight for me boils down to. Yes, I would rather be less safe than less free. Call me a radical if you want to, but it’s the truth. What good is fighting for freedom if we’re going to let those freedoms slip away by our own hand? It’s not just the fact that the telecom companies are getting away with trashing the Constitution (not to mention President Bush), it’s the whole concept of a FISA court in the first place.
How sad and terrible is it that we fight in a war to supposedly to fight for freedom and have less of it when we started. I’m sick. I’m angry. I’m frustrated.
This isn’t much of a diary, as I’m rambling more than anything. But it kills me to have been thanked for fighting for freedom when we’ve all watched it slip away these past few years.