[Peace] from CCRA newsletter

Dlind49 at aol.com Dlind49 at aol.com
Wed Sep 11 21:13:40 CDT 2002


News from The Sight M1911

All across the country this week America will celebrate remembrance and
memorial services for the victims and survivors of the 9-11 attack.  It
really got kicked off this morning in the pulpits of churches, synagogues,
and mosques as our spiritual guides wrestled with the eternal conundrum of
forgiveness and justice. It wasn't easy, and my sympathy goes out to
everyone who has to wrestle with that angel.

I continue to hear the talking heads, particularly the media wonks, talking
about 9-11 as "the day that changed America." In my most charitable mood, I
hope they mean that this day shook us out of our complacency and shattered
our sense of being insulated from the rest of the world. But even if this
most hopeful interpretation of a "changed America" is correct,  and I doubt
that, the statement is still an error of the highest magnitude and demands
rebuke. America is not changed. You can't change America with four jet
airliners or a thousand because America is not a building, a piece of real
estate, or even a border. America is an idea, a dream, and a vision. As
long as there is one soul who believes in liberty, justice, and equality
for all people, America will live, undimmed and unchanged. 

That sounds pretty and poetic, but the fact of the matter is that we need a
lot more than one soul to get concerned and motivated about the erosion of
our civil rights that has occurred since the 9-11 attacks. If, in fact, the
message is that we must give up our civil rights and cherished freedoms
because "America has changed" then we have to preach, protest, demonstrate,
lobby, send cards and letters, and whatever else it takes to send the
message that we are not willing to trade our liberty for some talking
head's vision of "security." In other words, get involved. Your letters,
presence, and opinions matter.

It's tempting to look at the situation and say, "What can I do? My voice
doesn't count for anything." The fact is that it does. The campaign to arm
the pilots is an excellent example of how people can get organized and
influence policy and law to the very highest levels of government. That
campaign has been an uphill battle, but the pilots and their supporters
succeeded in making the administration reverse its position, and even
managed to get some long-time foes like Barbara Boxer to jump on the
bandwagon. 

We have done a decent job of defending the Second Amendment. The next
battle is shaping up on the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments. 

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the
argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves" -William Pitt, House of
Commons, 18 November 1783
{{{{{{{Warren comments: There DID seem to be a re-ordering of priorities,
as inanities were buried under REAL life concerns. Even Washington liberals
were compelled to make sense, passing the Declaration of War on Sept 14.
Immediately  thereafter they realized that success of those goals meant
defeat of their virulent liberal policies, and as their careers mean more
to them than freeing the world from terrorism, they have been backpedaling
ever since. Under the onslaught of their petty bickering, and echoes from
TV and east coast news, the citizenry, too, is sliding back to the previous
priorities. WD}}}}}}




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