Freedom

Good morning. Christmas is coming and thoughts of peace, justice, love and compassion keep floating through my mind. When I was young, I was taught that that is the “Christian” way. However, as I grew up I came to realize that it is only the Christian way for a small minority of believers. These believers seem to be the ones that are willing to accept the idea that Christianity is just an idea; represented in our culture by a set of myths, accepting the idea that other myths are just as valid.
I have been amazed by the news that Bush ordered secret wiretaps on Citizens, and is apparently proud of his action. I am not particularly amazed about his actions or statements about it because I have come to understand that he is one sick puppy. What amazes me is the lack of outcry from the public.
I was taught that one of the worst actions of countries such as the evil Russians was their insistence on using their secret service police without any checks or balances to their power. We were told that the horrible things included spying on their citizens, arresting people and holding them without charging them for anything (we called it “political arrest”). We were told that the evil bastards even put people in jail for years without charging them, without identifying who they were, without providing them any trial or legal representation. They also tended to do some other things like attacking other countries for political power or resources, such as oil. We laughed at them for these actions because it was obvious that they could never succeed in fighting wars that were not supported by the people in the country that they were converting to their idea of the best type of government – in the case of the Russians, communism.
As far as I can determine, we have done all of the things that the evil countries such as the nasty commie Russians, and seem to be pretty proud of it. We spy on our citizens without controls or any checks and balances to “protect” us, even though there are plenty of laws and processes in place to do this type of surveillance with the appropriate checks and balances in place. Bush obviously doesn’t believe that our system will work, or that our citizens are trustworthy. He has to protect us in spite of ourselves – he knows best. We also have many citizens who are “detainees” (political prisoners) in Guantanamo Bay who, after four years, have never been charged with anything, never provided with lawyers or other forms of legal defense, and have never even been identified. It appears that they are treated poorly, probably tortured and surely are stuck in our political trap. Of course there is the little war in Iraq that was never necessary, killed tens of thousands of the folks we were supposedly saving, and is draining our national resources while reaping bad results. In the middle of this we are so bold as to set up torture camps in the countries of the really nasty governments (the “good” countries would never allow such a thing to happen in their country).
This whole story seems to just go on and on. There appears to be much corruption, secrecy, funneling of money into illegal activities, failure to provide real support and protection, destruction of the environment, etc., etc. The part that really amazes me is that there are so many people that still think all of these things are reasonable and appropriate. I wonder what could possibly be going on in their heads to not see what is happening. (I suppose they are wondering the very same thing about me, how could I possibly not see what is going on that demands all of these actions.) In my view, we are clearly doing what the evil Russians (or pick a terrible country of your choice) were doing. I assume that this is clear to all that are watching the actions of our administration. I don’t think we have a difference in seeing what is happening; it is that we have a different opinion on whether it is appropriate or necessary. The Russians were doing this to control their citizens. We are doing it to protect our citizens. The Russians had to use these approaches because their goals were bad, we need to use these approaches because our goals are good. They were evil, godless men – we are good, god fearing men. God was not on their side, god is on our side. Not only that, but god is a Christian American.
If for a second we let our minds consider that the Russian leaders may have actually being trying to help their citizens. What if they thought that they had the right idea, and that they were doing what was necessary to help and protect their citizens of Russia? Oops, if you let you mind wander to that point of view you find that they were doing exactly what we have been doing lately for the very same reasons. They were doing pretty awful things, but the end justified the means. We are doing the same kinds of things, with the idea that the ends justify the means.
I do not understand how smart, well educated people can see all of these activities and not understand that they are not necessary and are in fact hurting the very goals that they believe in. Not only are many of our actions morally wrong, they don’t and won’t work. We say we are “fighting terrorism,” but are making it worse. We are strengthening the economy by giving huge tax breaks to the rich, but it is just taking money out of the economy and is weakening it. We have helping the Iraq people, but we are killing them. We are protecting our civil liberties, but are taking away the checks and balances that protect us. We are destroying the environment for economic gain, but it is only for short term gain for the rich, it will end up being a huge long term expense for all of us. The list goes on and on. The goals are often ok, but the approach isn’t, and can’t, work. We are in the midst of a huge money and power grab by the very rich and powerful, but think it is all ok because they are protecting us from ourselves. Actually, they are protecting themselves from us.