“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear-fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.”
-Hunter S Thompson
Hunter S Thompson was a lot of things to a lot of people. To some he was a madman to others he was an inspiration. To me he was a man who understood America much more than most. He understood what freedom is and the amount of work it takes to keep it going. He ended his life during the 2 nd half of the Bush administration. A time when freedom in this country began to lose its hold. This brings me to the unfortunate reason for this article: We are not free. Sure we have the freedom to say “Obama is a socialist!” or “Bush was a half crazed iguana!” but when you break it down the freedoms that we have taken for granted in this country are slowly being stripped away. Worse yet, the American people are doing nothing about it. Why? Well…let’s take a look.
1. IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE: This is something I hear on a near daily basis. There is a train of thought that tyranny can never take hold here because THIS IS AMERICA. My counter argument is this: 15 years ago if someone had told you that there would be a Patriot Act that would not only allow the Government to legally spy on you but also detain you indefinitely if you are suspected as a terrorist would you have believed it? You would? Ok try this one on..if 15 years ago someone told you that in certain states a law would be put into action that would allow cops to enter your home without a warrant and without reasonable cause leaving you unable to do anything but stand there and let them would you have believed it? Well it happened. Right here in the Midwest. If 15 years ago someone told you that in order to get on an airplane you would have to go through an invasive pat down by a Government agency (who, by the way, could also perform said pat down on your children) what would you have said? What if you found out that same government agency had agents who were stealing passenger possessions, running drugs, and responsible for 25,000 severe breaches of security since 2002 would you be outraged?
2. IF IT KEEPS ME SAFE I DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT: Yet another argument I hear concerning the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security. In an October 2010 article CBS reporter Bob Orr reported that Anwar-al Awlaki, a Muslim cleric who has been linked to several of the 9/11 attackers, the Fort Hood Shooting, and the Christmas Day Bomber was invited to the Pentagon for an outreach dinner for Muslim community leaders shortly after 9/11. Yes, you read that correctly. Just after one of the worst attacks on our soil, the Pentagon invited a man to dinner who would later be linked to two other terrorist attacks in the United States. While you were having things like the Patriot Act and the DHS forced on you, our leaders were dining with a terrorist
3. AREN’T YOU BLOWING THINGS OUT OF PROPORTION? No. I’m not. Earlier this year the Texas State Government was about to vote on a bill that would make it illegal for TSA agents at airports to touch passengers improperly. The day before the vote the Department of Justice sent the state of Texas a letter saying that if this bill went through that every airport in Texas would be shut down. The Lt Governor of Texas killed the vote that day. Also, in the last year, the Department of Homeland Security has released a series of videos that encourages citizens to report what they think may be suspicious behavior in the form of the “See Something, Say Something” program. Interesting move given that our own government has supplied Mexican drug cartels with weapons that led to the deaths of Americans (see Operation Fast and Furious). I suppose for good measure I will throw in the events that have been taking place down in Quartzite, Arizona where a deranged city council and a severely corrupt Police Chief have ousted the mayor, declared an illegal “State Of Emergency”, and violated other numerous laws. But hey just ignore that I’d hate to be seen as blowing things out of proportion.
4. OK, OK YOU MADE YOUR POINT BUT WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT? Easy. We live in the United States Of America. This country stood as a beacon of hope and liberty in the eyes of the world for YEARS. Our Constitution can’t defend itself. It has no voice. WE are that voice. What you can do is stop letting the Government divide you and use the voices you were given. If we join together in the spirit of Liberty and shout out with one voice that we aren’t going to take their tyranny anymore than we can accomplish something great. Our Founding Fathers weren’t perfect but the idea that they stood for is. After all, the last time I checked it was still “WE THE PEOPLE”.