http://www.whatourforefathersthought.com/Quotes.html This webpage has a list of some of Benjamin Franklin's quotations. My favorite is “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
I started to write the following sentence with these words: "I cannot believe how many people..." But upon reflection, I am saddened because I find it VERY EASY to believe how many people in this country have shut their eyes and turned their backs because they do not want to know about: the continual erosion of their civil liberties; their complicity in the loss of their civil liberties by their own inactions; the ability of their own government to continue to perform illegal acts as long as it's citizens shut their eyes and look away.
What did the founders of our country fight and give their lives for? I am not thinking about the current issues of today that have this country polarized, but about the right to talk about those issues, to publicly debate, protest, vote on, etc, such issues, any subject at all, yes, even a subject you or I might find despicable, where others are not harmed. I am thinking about all of the rights that are slowly and greedily being taken from us.
The very title of the "USA Patriot Act," while a very clever acronym, is insidious and slaps Americans across the face with how unpatriotic such an act really is. Taking away citizens' rights without benefit of legal recourse is at the heart of the Act, and our citizens just do not know that or just don't care. The same arguments apply to this issue as it does to others - "So long as they leave me alone, I don't care because I am not affected." "They must know what they are doing because they're in charge and they know more than me." and - my favorite: "There's nothing I can do about it anyway, so why bother even voting. I don't even watch the news anymore." I find those popular attitudes frightening. However, I DO care and I believe in oversight. No governmental body should ever be given carte blanche; I WANT to know what the politicians and governmental agencies are doing. I am a citizen, this is my government, I have the right to know, and I vote. Bush and Cheney did everything possible to keep the American people scared and under control after September 11. I wasn't afraid then (I was so, so saddened, but heartened to see my community unite and emerge stronger), but I am terrified of my own government now. Big brother is here and I am NOT being paranoid.
I was surprised at the politics behind this crusade, or whatever this sickening movement really is. But then I thought "I should have known. It's always about the money - and/or sex." . What these men are doing to their daughters in the name of politics masquerading as religion is gruesome and very, very wrong. I did not believe the parents when they said they would continue to love a daughter if she had sex before marriage. I don't believe it; perhaps if the poor girl wore sackcloth and smeared her face with ashes... I am so glad that I grew up as a teenage girl in the 1970's.
Yet, if I berate and belittle them, am I any better than them? Ah, if we could all just preach a little tolerance towards each other. Politics seems to get in the way of any encouraging possibility.
Human Rights: Know Them, Demand Them, Defend Them
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