5 posts tagged “liberty”
The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it..
The Andrew Meyer case has disturbed me greatly. What disturbs me is the lack of perspective through which most people seem to be viewing what took place. People who only saw an obnoxious person being disruptive and getting what he deserved have missed the point entirely. Whatever Meyer's motives were, his actions were classic dissent.
Dissent--the stuff that built the United States of America.
Dissent--the quintessential act of patriotism.
Dissent--freedom spreading its wings and demanding to fly.
There was a time when people understood that dissent is the American way. Unfortunately, now it's considered obnoxious, unpatriotic, and even treasonous in some quarters. History has shown us that when government/authority turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to the will of the people that dissent is how Americans demand change. One only has to look as far back as the events leading up to the War for Independence to find the facts that bear this out. Our culture is now conditioned to hold dissent in disdain and that will the undoing of our freedom.
Oscar Wilde said "Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation." When the voice of dissent is silenced because the speaker is deemed to be a disruption, we are sacrificing progress in exchange for the status quo. We have become a nation of sheep.
In 2006, Timothy Sexton of Associated Content wrote Dissent Built America; Why is it Considered Un-American Now? It was relevant then and is even more so today. I strongly recommend it as a good read.
Related to the my previous post Papers Please: This Is A Free Country?, check out what the ACLU is now up to!
The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the launch of a new "Surveillance Society Clock" to symbolize the reality that we are fast approaching a genuine surveillance society in the United States. The clock is set at six minutes before the "midnight" of a dark end to privacy. Also being released is a new report summarizing the state of privacy today and the video of a new piece about surveillance by spoken-word artists Steve Connell & Sekou (tha misfit).
"We are rapidly moving toward a future where our every move, our every transaction, our every communication is tracked and may be used against us," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. "Too often that big picture is lost amid the stream of daily privacy stories. The Surveillance Clock is part of our efforts to keep people focused on that big picture and dramatize what’s happening to America."
Papers Please: Arrested At Circuit City
I haven't seen any coverage of this story in the media, but then, I've not been watching the news much lately, so who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if the media turned a blind eye to this.
...the fundamental job of the president is not to protect the people of America, but to protect their constitution. This president has gotten things exactly the wrong way round. In a terror war, we have to acclimatize ourselves to the fact that many Americans may have to die as a consequence of a collective decision not to become a police state or a presidential protectorate. A free country that remains free in the face of terror will necessarily have many casualties. A police state would have fewer casualties. Given a choice between a loss of life and retaining constitutional liberties, what would you pick? And what would the first Americans have picked?
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