Congress Put The Final Nail In The Democracy Coffin Yesterday...Or So They Think

RestoreGore

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Fri Sep-21-07 12:29 PM
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Congress Put The Final Nail In The Democracy Coffin Yesterday...Or So They Think

Edited on Fri Sep-21-07 12:33 PM by RestoreGore

I will start by stating that I have not always been a fan of Moveon.org. However, I am an American who believes in the Constitution, and what Congress did yesterday in censuring their right to free speech and dissent was nothing less than treasonous to that very Constitution and a slap in the face to every American citizen regardless of party, because that one vote told us unequivocably to shut up and be subservient. That TRUTH is the enemy. That we will be punished for a dissenting opinion in a country born from dissent. That we cannot redress our government for grievances and speak our hearts and minds as any people have the right to do in a free and open society because this is no longer an open and free society. It told us that we are simply pawns to be used when votes or donations are needed, but apart from that we are simply a nuisance... of course, that is until they need to take our children from us into their slave trade of war and death. Oh yes, then we matter very much.

I am sitting here typing this as the tears roll down my face because right now I feel helpless in knowing what to do now because I am so stunned by it all. I have been aware of the encroaching fascism in this country all these past years, but you know how sometimes you sit taking it all in and in one moment of thinking of or looking at something it then suddenly all hits you like a ton of bricks? Well, that happened to me this morning looking into my son's eyes and thinking of the world we are making for our children, and then the anger and sadness set in.

Over the years I have signed mountains of petitions, made thousands of phone calls, stood in the streets in my community, written hundreds of letters and blog posts, and literally talked to hundreds of people not only about the loss of our precious Democracy and OUR responsibility in getting it back, but also about the environmental catastrophe that no longer awaits us, but is UPON US now and the urgency that we must feel in order to do something NOW to mitigate it because we are not only losing our Democracy, but our very way of sustaining ourselves on this planet. And I feel as if I have only been talking into the air, and believe it more and more with every step Congress takes that brings them farther and farther away from what our Founders penned in that Constitution.

So I then have to ask the question: Are we as a people truly too far gone in our own apathy and fear to give a damn anymore? And that question is the reason for my tears, because the reality that it may be true comes up against the part of me that refuses to believe it, because I simply can't believe it and look at my son with truthful hopeful eyes. Is all we do really making a damn difference?

Between the election thefts, the wiretapping, the "free speech" zones, the torture, the evisceration of our Constitution via the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Real Id Act, and countless other votes aimed at declaring the American people the enemy, I see that the enemy is not only some foreign entity seeking to do us harm, it is right here in the halls of Congress and in our own White House, and that enemy is FEAR.

How do we break this cycle? I am actually astounded myself that people favored the treatment of a college student simply because they think he's a jerk who pushed his way in on a line. To me that incident contrary to what some here have stated was not about carrying a grudge for John Kerry, it was about what the actions that took place represented in the causality between our rights and the limits to freedom we see every day in this country that seem to not cause the level of outrage they should be causing...and that is frightening to me becaue I think people in this country are actually AFRAID to stand up for what is right because they think going against their party is treasonous, even if our country is sacrificed in the process.

For anyone to believe that political passion and outrage is grounds for the stomping on of those rights regardless of the demeanor of the person expressing his right is to me counter to all our Founders wrote about in regards to natural rights and natural law. It is an indignity to all Americans because if it can happen to one it can then happen to all of us or any of our children, and that should never stand in a society that claims to be "Democratic." But it did once again happen yesterday in a chamber I had always been brought up to believe was on our side, but now clearly know is not.

But I still won't give up even in my sorrow today. I will still talk to people, still make those phone calls when I am not busy working to make ends meet, write those letters, and continue to post on blogs regarding the urgency of the climate crisis and doing all I can to live the kind of life that I believe will do something to make it a better place for my child and also instill in him not be afraid to speak his mind for truth. Because through all of the anger, the disappointments, the heartaches, the sorrow, and the tears, one thing remains true and strong: Our natural right to freedom is one that NO government or politically expedient vote can or will EVER take away.

You hear that Bush? Cheney? Congress? NO government can EVER take away.

You declared us the enemy yesterday... And now I will fight even harder to make sure the Democracy and the world you continue to seek to kill through your greed and self important arrogance will still have breath in it as long as I'm an American, because as Al Gore stated in Australia yesterday simply and true, "It is about survival."