(no subject)
Jan. 5th, 2003 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kuangningOkay, first things first.
I'm not political. It doesn't matter to me who holds what seat or what Office, or which party is in power. I could not care less about the "moral fiber" of any candidate, including what religion they are and who or what they screw in their free time. Label me political and you're missing the point entirely. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a Congressman, Senator, Representative, governor, whatever, could argue that women were only put on this earth to give blow jobs and reproduce, go outside and pour libations to the Man in the Moon, and then wind up with ritual self-mutilation, and I might shake my head,I might be disgusted, but I wouldn't be unduly worried. That's because I may not have faith in the officials, but I *do* have faith in the system of checks and balances. That's the point of the system, after all -- to make sure that the country at large is able to shrug off the oddnesses of any one of the officials, because there's a buffer in place. We're not subject to any one person's whims and wants, or even a few people's, and if something does get past the system in one person's term, well, we could pretty much depend upon the fact that things would almost certainly change in the next person's term.
My objection now isn't that a candidate whom I dislike is in office. It's that the system is being changed to allow one person's or three people's or one group's wants to become instalaw and then reality in everyone else's lives, from warehousing personal information to for godssakes indefinite detention without access to counsel or trial by jury. And that most people haven't really taken notice of the fact that it's happening, because they didn't know the system in the first place. Or worse, that people are accepting the changes as somehow necessary in these times. I've heard my own father say, "well, sometimes you have to take away rights in order to crack down on terrorism," and the thing that frightens me is not that he would say it, because he grew up and spent most of his adulthood under a system that resembles what America is becoming, but that Americans agree with him. The only reason I could find to explain that was that people didn't know what they were supposed to have. When I emigrated, I got a wonderful course on American Government. It was mandatory at Dowdell Jr High at the time, along with US History. By the time I was a senior at Lincoln Park, though, three years later, American Government was an elective -- and most students opted not to take it.
If I promised you ten apples, and I handed you five, or three, or one, you'd argue with me. But what if I promised your grandparents I'd give you ten apples, and they never told you? When I handed you three, and you didn't know you were supposed to have more, you wouldn't argue. You might even think I was generous, letting you have any at all, especially if I first explained with a sad face what troubled times these are, how small the crop was, how many parasites were on the trees this year. That's where we are right now. The administration is telling you how many parasites are attacking the country, and so the crop of liberties and rights is poor this year -- it's bound to be better once we kill ___, you understand, it's just that -- and they are handing you fewer liberties, fewer rights, and you aren't protesting because you do not know what was promised to you back in the days when the agreements were made. Thousands of men and women have put their lives on the line to vouchsafe you these. Before you can truly accept and honour their sacrifice, you really ought to know what, exactly, they were fighting to protect. It wasn't the President, it wasn't a political party. It was the agreements that make the country what it is. I also think it's a really poor return for their efforts if, through ignorance and apathy, you cede the freedoms they didn't let anyone take from you by force into the hands of the administration. It's one thing to decide, intelligently and reasonably, that the administration should have a point of control. It's something else entirely to simply let them take it because you did not know.
So, now you know. And that's really what I wanted to achieve.
I'm not political. It doesn't matter to me who holds what seat or what Office, or which party is in power. I could not care less about the "moral fiber" of any candidate, including what religion they are and who or what they screw in their free time. Label me political and you're missing the point entirely. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a Congressman, Senator, Representative, governor, whatever, could argue that women were only put on this earth to give blow jobs and reproduce, go outside and pour libations to the Man in the Moon, and then wind up with ritual self-mutilation, and I might shake my head,I might be disgusted, but I wouldn't be unduly worried. That's because I may not have faith in the officials, but I *do* have faith in the system of checks and balances. That's the point of the system, after all -- to make sure that the country at large is able to shrug off the oddnesses of any one of the officials, because there's a buffer in place. We're not subject to any one person's whims and wants, or even a few people's, and if something does get past the system in one person's term, well, we could pretty much depend upon the fact that things would almost certainly change in the next person's term.
My objection now isn't that a candidate whom I dislike is in office. It's that the system is being changed to allow one person's or three people's or one group's wants to become instalaw and then reality in everyone else's lives, from warehousing personal information to for godssakes indefinite detention without access to counsel or trial by jury. And that most people haven't really taken notice of the fact that it's happening, because they didn't know the system in the first place. Or worse, that people are accepting the changes as somehow necessary in these times. I've heard my own father say, "well, sometimes you have to take away rights in order to crack down on terrorism," and the thing that frightens me is not that he would say it, because he grew up and spent most of his adulthood under a system that resembles what America is becoming, but that Americans agree with him. The only reason I could find to explain that was that people didn't know what they were supposed to have. When I emigrated, I got a wonderful course on American Government. It was mandatory at Dowdell Jr High at the time, along with US History. By the time I was a senior at Lincoln Park, though, three years later, American Government was an elective -- and most students opted not to take it.
If I promised you ten apples, and I handed you five, or three, or one, you'd argue with me. But what if I promised your grandparents I'd give you ten apples, and they never told you? When I handed you three, and you didn't know you were supposed to have more, you wouldn't argue. You might even think I was generous, letting you have any at all, especially if I first explained with a sad face what troubled times these are, how small the crop was, how many parasites were on the trees this year. That's where we are right now. The administration is telling you how many parasites are attacking the country, and so the crop of liberties and rights is poor this year -- it's bound to be better once we kill ___, you understand, it's just that -- and they are handing you fewer liberties, fewer rights, and you aren't protesting because you do not know what was promised to you back in the days when the agreements were made. Thousands of men and women have put their lives on the line to vouchsafe you these. Before you can truly accept and honour their sacrifice, you really ought to know what, exactly, they were fighting to protect. It wasn't the President, it wasn't a political party. It was the agreements that make the country what it is. I also think it's a really poor return for their efforts if, through ignorance and apathy, you cede the freedoms they didn't let anyone take from you by force into the hands of the administration. It's one thing to decide, intelligently and reasonably, that the administration should have a point of control. It's something else entirely to simply let them take it because you did not know.
So, now you know. And that's really what I wanted to achieve.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-06 12:26 pm (UTC)Heads have been firmly planted into anus's before and have always been surgically removed over time. Nixon's list, Hoover's list, watergate yadda yadda have come and gone with the constitution no worse for the wear. While some government's would simply have induced martial law after an attack of the scope of 9-11, this one is floundering about trying to find a way to keep it's populace safe in the most inobtrusive way, no matter how it may seem.
I am not ready to give up on America because a few fatheads have proposed a few wrong headed ideas. Because a copper gets out of hand and beats a suspect doesn't put me in the mood to abolish the police, nor arm myself to defend against them. It only makes me loudly lobby to put his singular ass in jail where he belongs and rid the force of one more mistake.
We have learned from our history before and will again because of the very freedoms that you've so eloguently described over the past weeks. I have yet to see any soldiers rallying round the offices of CBS or the Wall Street Journal to date and let's face it, there is no hiding from the press in this country more than any other on earth at present. If and when there is evil afoot , it will be rooted out and pasted on every lampost from Key Biscane to Anchorage. The end result of that rooting may not please you in it's entirety, but no matter how it turns out in a country of 270 million people, not everyone will have their cake.
Buck up hon, America's not dead yet, nor is it suddenly spelled with a k. Trying times happen to every country on occassion and if it's own citizens are willing to bail on it when the inevitable happens, there is little left to debate. Do what you can to change it and take heart that some of your views will be heard if not acted on...and have patience. A country is a ship underway and a boat of this size and breadth is not turned on a dime. But be assured, it will turn
Re:
Date: 2003-01-06 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-06 09:43 pm (UTC)