Freedom

Good evening comrades. I hope your day has been pleasurable. Mine's been a bit warm, but other than that, I've been rather OK.

My thoughts today eventually curved to freedom. As I laid on a couch, chilling with a coke can on the coffee table, and thought about all the things occuring the MIddle East. How, over here, rockets flying into countries there is a little blurb on CNN, barely visible to the American media. Even ThinkProgress hasn't covered it, making me have to turn to CNN, whom had little as well. In essence, I wondered - where are the protests? Surely, some Israelis aren't happy about Israel's constant attacks on Palestinians, and undoubtedly on Lebanon (again). Then I realized: The cup of freedom we have here does not equip with the drop of Israel.

It happens with every war. We turn our attention away from domestic issues, and war simply engulfs are minds, as our freedoms and stolen rather quietly. In Israel, I imagine mass protests are at little risk. Because Israel slaughtering Israelis is bad press, since the weapons used are probably US-Backed, whom have invested ~$3 billion in aid yearly, most of it going into Israel's IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). So, bad press for Israel is equivelant to bad press for America. And really, we're not exactly the joy of the Earth in these days.

Freedom is something essential. I can't emphasize it enough; nearly everything you do is partly because you are free to make the decision to do it. You're reading my blog, not because somebody forced you to (I hope), but because you made such a decision. These fundamental reasons are something our founding fathers thought were important enough to put in a document that would be around for hundreds of years. The most fundamental, of course, is the very first one. This freedom was so important, that our founding fathers, the brilliance of all that should be (but sadly isn't) America, wrote it down first, and agreed it is something that future generations would look at and say "This is something they thought was fundamental, so we should to." This is what they said was most important, and we know why. Or at least, those of us who have not drank the Kool-Aid that has put so many Americans politically asleep, as our freedoms are stolen from behind us, whilst quiet whispers of calm voices speak "I have nothing to hide." Sadly, this number has not reduced in recent years, but yet grown. It is good news that the number of supporters of our corrupt administration has been reducing, but that is clearly not enough, because not too long ago, days even, people in Congress were considering stonewalling the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This, sadly, did not make news.

There are members of Congress who are willing, even further, to use the Constitution, among our most sacred document, to take away a freedom. Yes, not too long ago, they attempted to pass an amendment that would ban flag-burning, and I'm ashamed that my Michigan Senators voted for this nonsense. I am for America, and I am for the freedoms that it represents. Flag burning is included with those freedoms. Flag desecration has never been an issue, ever. We can go back 300+ years, and you know what? Maybe a hundred or so incidents. MAYBE. We're talking minute figures here, encompassing every war in the history of America, including Vietnam, including WWI, WWII - in none of these wars, even corrupt senators did not consider an amendment that would ban flag burning, because it's never been a problem. However, what is an issue is the millions of Americans living under the Poverty line, the millions of Americans without heathcare, the thousands of dead Americans from a war that was brought on with manipulated evidence, and shreds of our constitution falling on our face.

Those are issues. Flag-Burning isn't. The merits of our constitution aren't. But yet somehow, many of us accept these outrageous attempts to slapstick our freedom down some hole of oppression, and not consider the possibilities of it at all. The PATRIOT ACT, a law that literally pissed on the constitution, laughing in our forefather's faces, passed with but one dissentor in Congress. One person, out of 535, wanted to protect our freedoms. One. That is very scary, to me at least; that means 534 (very rich, mind you) are quite willing to give up our freedom in a way that, in essence, amounts to sticking our tail between our legs and running from Terrorists. That's not the America I would like to see. Our freedom represents America, it is something that is sacred to us. And yet 534 of the (officially, at least) most powerful Americans in this country decided it didn't matter.

It is our freedom that shows our strength. It's not our guns, it is not our nuclear weapons, it is not our money, our vehicles, our technology - it is our freedom. Without it, we are a country of cowards doing what Simon says.

If only America would wake up and smell the coffee. They would know it smells very bad, a stench that goes back to our forefathers and laughs at them.

-Xbot