Again today, I find myself overwhelmed by the news. I almost don't know where to begin. The past few days have been absorbed by a visit from my in-laws, which most people know can take the life out of one. It did. My in-laws are not progressive thinkers. They represent to a tee what I fight against on my blog. Suffice to say, this was not my best weekend ever.
I spent much of this past Thursday preparing for the arrival of my conservative in-laws, and crying over the loss of my country to our version of Hitler , George W. Bush. His 'torture bill' sailed through with 'nary a bit of opposition. There is debate over the current use in the blogesphere of the terms "Nazi", and "Fascist". The debate being whether it is 'useful' to use such strong terms with loaded histories in regard to the current administration regardless of the similarities in style and content. I have no such debate raging in my head. I call 'em as I see 'em. BushCo is no better than the Nazi regime and more dangerous (if you can fathom that) and I will do a post on it soon to prove what I see as the obvious, dangerous similarities.
What I found today as I opened my mailbox was this email from my friend Bob over at JABob. He included in his email a link to an essay by William Rivers Pitt from TruthOut.org about the 'torture bill'. The first bit is the email from Bob and the link is to the essay. read his essay and Bob's response to it. I give you these valuable documents and attachments to further fill your arsenal and fuel your rage. I believe that unless people are angry they will not feel empowered enough to act, and Action is our last, best hope to restore our Democracy.
In Case I Disappear…By William Rivers Pitt
Bob writes:
Because we lost our freedom this week…
Because the senate & house voted to passed bills that promotes Bush to king...
These bills allow the president of the U.S. to now declare anyone (outside or inside our country) an “enemy combatant” and to have them arrested and held without habeas corpus. Disappeared! In other words you’re imprisoned without the ability to ask why, without the ability to say you’re innocent (because you don’t know why you’ve been arrested) or to even contact anyone. They can now torture you because the president can now (in this bill) define what torture is, otherwise called “aggressive interrogation methods.”
“Well,” you say, “that will never happen to me ‘cuz I follow the law. And, besides, someone will miss me and call the police!”
I’m sorry to say they didn’t tell you what law you broke and the police will know nothing because you’ve been arrested by the C.I.A. The C.I.A. won’t tell anyone and you can be damned well sure the President won’t either. You, or your daughter, or son, or nephew, or even your Mom or Dad will have vanished off the face of the earth with no recourse. No recourse from you, or anyone you know.
Scared yet?
WAKE UP! We have lost our freedom! Corporationism (Nazism) is here! If you don’t believe me go to the Library of Congress website and read senate bill S3039 passed by the house and the senate and see what our politicians have done to us. This bill has been changed so that it does not exclude U.S. citizens and does include anyone who “supports” an enemy combatant. I know, I know, the president hasn’t signed it yet. Who do you think asked for this in the first place? They (he and his cronies) WANT to be the unitary power. That means a sovereign entity. King.
So, if I disappear, just know it wasn’t me taking off. It means I got too “political” and verbal about it. Or, I have the wrong sexual orientation or the wrong religion or even worse, no religion at all. At least I’m not a Muslim. This would apply to me especially if I organized an anti-war anything or even wore an anti-war T-shirt. If I disappear, or someone you know mysteriously disappears, just know that if that happens it’s probably too late to do anything about it.
I’m not scared for myself, just for the future of this world as I now know it.
Write this off as the ranting of a delusional man if you will, but this is what I feel and I had to say it. Please, let me know that I’m wrong about all this. I just hope I can one day look back and say, “Boy was I wrong!” But right now I think THAT’s being delusional!
Now I will sleep on this and either delete it or send it tomorrow. Bob
I slept on it. I re-read it. I still feel strongly about this. I have reached my "tipping point". I'm sending it. If you agree with this in any degree, please forward this on to everyone you know. Thanks, Bob
Please take Bob's advice to heart, I have and Am doing this post. What will you do? And if I disappear, it wasn't because I was going on a trip...
6 comments:
This is something I've thought about for a couple of years now. It seemed a possiblity to me after the 2004 election. It is , obviously, a real possibility now. And, unlike Bob and WM Rivers Pitt, I am scared for myself. Glad I've saved all my protest signs from the past 3-1/2 years. If I end up disappeared, there will be documentation that, at least, I tried.
Shoe...you are a girl I would go out and look for. Thanks.
We've been heading for this since the first citizens were banned from attending a Bush event because they wore the wrong t-shirt or had the wrong bumper sticker on their car or were denounced by a Republican apparatchik.
I keep asking my sister, who lives near DC, if the Washington Monument has bowed down in shame yet.
Swim, It's not paranoia if they're really after you. I re-read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" every decade or so. My last time (2 years ago) I found the parallels between "The Rise" part and Bushco truly frightening. Shirer stressed how every step of the Nazi takeover was done through legitimate means. If it wasn't legal, they got it made legal, then went ahead and did it. And to think the U.S. is starting from such a more powerful beginning than Germany did.
I wonder if the Canadians in my woodpile will entitle me to seek citizenship up north?
The fact that I've seen this coming for a long time doesn't make it easier to watch. Like all such power grabs it will see very selective use at first and won't apply to "ordinary" people for a while - yet. It is a powerful tool for those in power to stay in power.
Watching what has happened in this country is like witnesssing the decline in health of a loved one. The death is no less devastating even though you knew it was inevitable.
Psychologists say there are all these steps one has to go through till you get to acceptance.
I suppose they're right but I'm not at acceptance yet. At least when it comes to my country.
"Give me Liberty or give me death."
"Those who give up essential liberty for security deserve neither."
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for you country."
Disappear me?
Not as long as there are others that can read the above words and carry on.
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