O Say...Can't You SEE????
Sep. 11th, 2002 11:48 amI hold an unpopular view of the tragedy in NYC one year ago today. I hold the view of someone who remembers reading about the burning of the Reichstag, that fateful event that the Nazi's staged in order to achieve the ultimate in power in their country with hopes of ultimate world domination.
I cringe when I hear people singing 'God Bless America' in supposed remembrance of the lives lost in order to further the agenda of a corrupt and tyrannical regime. Would not 'Amazing Grace' or even 'I Will Remember You' be far more appropriate? Why is it that the death of over 2800 people can be reduced to blind and rabid patriotism? Where is the humanity in this?
People accuse me of being unpatriotic like this is a bad thing. I am a child of Earth. I am a human being (although I'm sometimes ashamed of this, given our wretched record with each other and our fellow non-human Earthlings). I was an ex patriot before 9.11.01 and I'm an ex patriot today, probably moreso. Why? Because I see this country being led down the primrose path to ultimate dictatorship. I see history repeating itself not 60 years after millions of people lost their lives because folks were either too blind, too scared, or too filled with hatred to take a stand against the extremists.
Today I grieve for the dead, those who needlessly perished in the travesty of 9.11. I grieve alone, the only one at work not wearing a red, white, and blue ribbon. But I also grieve for the living, those in this country who refuse to see the inconsistencies in 'our' administration's cover story, those who are so caught up in the propaganda spoon fed to the public that they are willingly relinquishing their rights just as the regime had hoped they would.
I grieve for the fact that Americans scream for a war to protect freedoms that are slowly and methodically being taken away from us. I grieve also that these same Americans are incapable of realising that all of us are free to roam only as far as the chains around our ankles are long and that we're really only free to do as we're told.
And most of us do it so willingly..so blindly...and with smiles of joy on our faces.
Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of this nation built on the burial grounds of the Native American, once said: "People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security."
Of course, why would most American's remember this when they don't even remember the Reichstag? As George Santayana said: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
But I will leave with one more quote. Read it and think of a year ago today..and, if you're singing tunes of the Fatherland instead of requiems for the dead, ask yourself why.
"Naturally, the common people don't want war. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism." -Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
So I hold an unpopular view. If Ashcroft's dream of internment camps becomes a reality, my view is probably going to get me a charter membership in a cell with no view at one of the worst facilities. And if that happens, please think twice before you sing 'My Country Tis of Thee' or some other silly mind-numbing anthem.
PEACE ON EARTH
I cringe when I hear people singing 'God Bless America' in supposed remembrance of the lives lost in order to further the agenda of a corrupt and tyrannical regime. Would not 'Amazing Grace' or even 'I Will Remember You' be far more appropriate? Why is it that the death of over 2800 people can be reduced to blind and rabid patriotism? Where is the humanity in this?
People accuse me of being unpatriotic like this is a bad thing. I am a child of Earth. I am a human being (although I'm sometimes ashamed of this, given our wretched record with each other and our fellow non-human Earthlings). I was an ex patriot before 9.11.01 and I'm an ex patriot today, probably moreso. Why? Because I see this country being led down the primrose path to ultimate dictatorship. I see history repeating itself not 60 years after millions of people lost their lives because folks were either too blind, too scared, or too filled with hatred to take a stand against the extremists.
Today I grieve for the dead, those who needlessly perished in the travesty of 9.11. I grieve alone, the only one at work not wearing a red, white, and blue ribbon. But I also grieve for the living, those in this country who refuse to see the inconsistencies in 'our' administration's cover story, those who are so caught up in the propaganda spoon fed to the public that they are willingly relinquishing their rights just as the regime had hoped they would.
I grieve for the fact that Americans scream for a war to protect freedoms that are slowly and methodically being taken away from us. I grieve also that these same Americans are incapable of realising that all of us are free to roam only as far as the chains around our ankles are long and that we're really only free to do as we're told.
And most of us do it so willingly..so blindly...and with smiles of joy on our faces.
Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of this nation built on the burial grounds of the Native American, once said: "People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security."
Of course, why would most American's remember this when they don't even remember the Reichstag? As George Santayana said: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
But I will leave with one more quote. Read it and think of a year ago today..and, if you're singing tunes of the Fatherland instead of requiems for the dead, ask yourself why.
"Naturally, the common people don't want war. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism." -Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
So I hold an unpopular view. If Ashcroft's dream of internment camps becomes a reality, my view is probably going to get me a charter membership in a cell with no view at one of the worst facilities. And if that happens, please think twice before you sing 'My Country Tis of Thee' or some other silly mind-numbing anthem.
PEACE ON EARTH
