The greatest threat to our American values and way of life is not Osama Bin Laden or his terrorists. Unless they secure and deploy nuclear weapons, their threats are very limited in scope and impact. Yes, their attacks are tragic and we will never forget 9/11. However, those kinds of attacks pose no danger to our national security or our way of life.
Step back and think about it! It is not Osama that has taken away our right to privacy, our protection against warrant-less searches, our right to to counsel when accused, our right to face our accusers, our rights against self-incrimination (torture?), our rights to a trial by a jury of our peers, our protection against cruel and unusual punishment, or the writ of habeas corpus. We have taken these rights and liberties from ourselves - or allowed the administration to do it to us with hardly a wimper of protest. Don't the terrorists ultimately win the war when they produce in us such a gutless panic that we allow these fundamental rights to be eliminated?
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2 comments:
Why don't you ask a few of the widows and orphans of the 9/11 attack if the threats are real. You need to get out of Northern Minnesota and and expand you political horizons.
Actually, I have been outside Minnesota. Unlike so many who supported the Iraq war, I served in an actual war (Vietnam). I know that the reality of war is so different than the PR spin of war
at home. I've also traveled abroad so I have a world perspective as well as a local one.
But this post is not about terrorist threats. It's about election misinformation and dirty tricks.
My first thoughts about the 2008 presidential election were that more than anything this country needs either a woman or a person of color as leader. It is unfathomable to me that a position often called, “leader of the free world,” should still be, in 2008, an exclusive white boys club.
News anchors bloat about how great it is in America that we should have both a woman and an African-American running for president.
What’s not great about our current situation is that this is the first time that’s ever happened. What’s not great is that Minnesota has not had a woman or person of color as governor. What’s not great is that few corporations have women CEOs. Or that women make on average 77cents for every dollar earned by male counterparts.
Or that prejudice and discrimination is so alive and well from sea to shining sea.
A woman or an African American president can speak with credibility that has been missing by recent presidents. Torture? Sexual harassment in the White House? A woman or person of color can speak with urgency and truth about harassment like no white male can. It may be what is needed to remove the tarnish from the land of the free.
Our country is facing a dangerous dilemma. We are poised for one of the most important elections in our history. The world opinion of the United States is near a record low. The value of the dollar on world markets is limp. Millions worry about what happens if they get sick. We’re involved in a costly war, we’re ruining the planet, and we're mortgaging our grandchildren’s future.
But the outcome of this election is likely to be decided, or at the very least heavily influenced by, misinformation and dirty tricks rather than substantive issues. The Internet efforts mixing spam and hateful politics against Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama are disturbing but indicative of this condition. The current Republican candidate was himself a victim of dirty tricks and misinformation in 2000. Could anyone really believe this garbage?
Yes they could and do.
The annual Edelman Trust Survey released last month shows once again that people mostly trust each other rather than government or news media. They are most likely to believe a message or opinion of a friend or peer. Increasingly, they are getting their information from personal media sources and social network sites, rather than traditional news media.
News media, it seems, are too devoted to Britney or Sir Paul’s divorce news.
This country may decide against electing Hilary or Barack, but if they do, let it stand on honest terms. If this is an era where we trust email and texting as much as the evening news, then email a friend the truth about hateful spams and misinformation. If we stand idly by and let hate mail pass itself off as truth, then we will get the government we deserve.
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