Drones: Do I have a line in the sand?

[Demo_Chris]

Throughout my life, I have heard people express the sentiment that if they were present when some historical atrocity took place, they would have done something. They wouldn't have gone along with slavery, they wouldn't have gone along with the holocaust, they would have been right there marching with Martin Luther King.

These folks say that they cannot understand how anyone with a soul could have tolerated these horrors. Not them, they would have fought, they would have protested, they would have worn out the pavement fighting for their principles. I have heard these armchair-heroic statements my whole life, and I have never once heard anyone say, “Yeah, I totally would have voted for Hitler. Did you see his opponent?"

I have heard people make these noble statements my entire life, but I have never seen the slightest evidence that it is true. Just the opposite. I am no better.

What I have found is that it is easier to abandon your principles than your TV show. It’s easier to adjust your positions on the issues than your position on the couch. The folks who say they would have stood up to The Man and spoken truth to power, lack the courage to speak unvarnished ugly truth to their friends or forum members. Again, I am no better.

We do what’s easy, we go with the flow, and we change our position in order to silence that internal voice that says, “What the fuck are you doing?” Worse, all too often we condemn those who take a stand fighting for the positions we only recently abandoned. Those fools are undermining the Jell-O cause, they are not seeing the big picture, its hyper-dimensional chess-- it is any metaphor you can name that allows one to feel good about abandoned principles.

Am I any better? I am not.

I am so cowardly that I hesitate to write this post. My new friends here at DU might not like it; I might even get in trouble. I might even -- oh my god -- get banned from a forum. Speak truth to power? Not me, I’ll talk about Beyonce, or how adorable the President’s doggie is in this latest picture… and did you see Michelle’s dress? It’s Fab-u-licious!

So no, I am no better. But I will post this.

Within a week, I suspect that at least half the people posting here will support our government killing American citizens without a trial, without any oversight, without even a wink at our laws or our Constitution. They will support this KNOWING that it will not stop there, it will expand as it always does, and when it does the eventual outcome will be horrific beyond words. Within a week, the positions these people held yesterday or today will be gone, and they will be condemning those like me who refuse to change.

I am writing this now -- while you are still on my side -- in the hope that next week, when you are condemning me for not supporting our President and the government murdering American citizens, when you are feeling self-righteous and intellectual and super-liberal, that you will remember that you are the one who changed, that YOU are the one who stands for nothing.

I once believed that everyone has their own line in the sand. I now understand that for some, perhaps most people, this is not the case. For them there is no line. Because if you can’t even draw the line at the government murdering it’s own people then you might as well stop looking. You are freaking cool with anything. I am not, and that’s where we part ways.

So am I better?

Yes. This time I am.