happy fourth

Wow, for a nation founded on treason, we've come a long way. We were English colonies once upon a time, and our war for independence was seen as treason by the King and his loyal subjects. I guess our heroes of America were disloyal subjects.

Now we find ourselves discussing treason once again. It's a funny turn to take. Now treason is basically any act that the right wing deems as against their personal wishes.

We are not at war in Iraq. We are an occupying force in a land where we are neither welcomed nor wanted. By virtue of our presence alone we have caused the death of countless thousands of innocent men, women and children. What we are doing in Iraq can only be described as evil and selfish. To top that, our own government has resorted to spying on her own citizens.

So, a nation founded on freedoms now finds that too many of her citizens would happily take away those freedoms. We can make up a bogeyman and give him an Arabic sounding name because nothing scares us like Arabs. We would, not so long ago, have given him a name that sounded "Russian" and been scared of his godless communist ways. The only thing that frightens us more than Arabs are the gays. We are certain that they want to convert all of humanity to their perverse ways. Sadly, this is yet another made up bogeyman.

Now our newspapers, when they point out the crimes committed by those in power are accused of treason. I think that the right wing in our country has forgotten the meanings of words like freedom and treason. They never knew the meaning of words like fairness or equality or justice, yet they would likely use those words to their own ends, if they could squeeze a pair of pennies out of it.