I think about the innocents that we have arrested, imprisoned, and tortured without a trial because we suspected that they could have done SOMETHING, and we made hardly a sound.
Pastor Martin Niemotlier
When the Nazis came for the Communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a Communist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a Social Democrat.
When they came for the Trade Unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Trade Unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
How could we as a nation do this stuff? Will McCain continue the same policies if elected? Will NBC, ABC, CBS or Fox ever serve the public interest by presenting documentaries about these transgressions?
I know 9/11 changed everything. Did it really?
It would not exactly be inspiring to me if it is true that John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the President's wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight.
It has been reported that McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, speaking for the campaign, disavowed certain statements attributed to McCain, and for the first time cast McCain's views on warrantless wiretapping as identical to Bush's. That is just great.
Does it matter that in the recent past he has said: "I think that Presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, no matter what the situation... I don't think the President has the right to disobey any law."
Should he become President, will he avail himself the opportunity to violate other parts of our constitution? He is so inconsistently scary to me that a Bush third term might appear to be an improvement over McCain's first term, but then again, maybe not.
I now digress for a moment or two that will allow me to change the subject and steal a few lines from something I had written before. I am not exactly sure how this relates, but what the hell; I am just trying to make a point.
As a kid growing up I learned at an early age how to manipulate my Mother. If she wanted me to help with the dishes I learned to tell her that ... "but Mom, I'm tired, I'm sad, or I'm reading, or I'm doing my homework etc" but sadly she was smarter then that and it rarely worked for me.
What did work almost all of the time became my favorite which was "M o t h e r, (said while whining,) I don't feel well".
My Mom after a while became aware that my willingness to manipulate her knew no limits. It was my early on training in creativity. I was never again able to match the "Mom, I think I'm getting sick" line, yet when I was married, I was forced into new levels of story telling and creativity in order to protect myself or to get what I wanted.
Now well over 60 years since my last use of the "I'm getting sick" scam I have had an opportunity to admire the creativity of the current administration that has managed to use derivatives of "the war on terror" to justify everything and anything in order to get what they want. After all why not violate the constitution; we are at war with the terrorists.
Sadly this administration uses "the war on terror" to excuse and explain EVERYTHING that they do.
A while ago, Tony Snow, in his daily televised briefing had been quoted as saying: "Traditionally in this country in a time of war, members of the press have acknowledged that the commander in chief, in the exercise of his powers, sometimes has to do things secretly in order to protect the public." I expect that translated loosely into English, the President can do whatever he chooses to do and can do it secretly by saying "the magic word" which at one time was "please" and now has morphed into "terror,"
George Orwell's "1984" says in part "There are nations that are in a state of perpetual war with each other. The state of war is used by each of these countries to justify the control of their populations by artificially creating fear and hate of an enemy, the actual existence of which is never made completely certain, the governments provided an excuse for their failures and enforced obedience to Big Brother "siege mentality" in which hatred of the enemy and love for the government's protection were social norms."
Sadly we are living an Orwellian nightmare wherein the threat of terrorism is with us at all times, sold to the public over and over again.
Since 9/11, our government has been "selling" America that the President is allowed to fracture major parts of the Constitution because we are "at war" with terrorists.
We need more Police, FBI, CIA or Border Patrol people to fight the criminality of terrorists and terrorism, but most certainly not to wage a war or violate our constitution in order to do what needs to be done.
I recently listened to one of our congress people imply that it was OK to use harsh interrogation techniques (aka torture) on prisoners that we SUSPECT are planning the deaths of innocent American civilians, That words "torture" and "suspect" scares my simplistic American soul.
I do understand that it is a cruel world out there, HOWEVER...
The system should once again please spare me the "... these people are terrorists and if one of them has information that will save American lives we can and should use whatever interrogation procedures that will give us the information we need."
It is time once again for me to re-read the Constitution while listening to our National anthem and contemplate the notion of America as it once was.
9/11 was a horrid "criminal" event. It should not have given this administration reason to violate our laws, our Constitution, and our standing in the World.
Norman Horowitz
Whiner