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In Reply to: PS posted by Friend on March 28, 2003 at 07:45:38:
This is not 'new leftist rhetoric' -- that is the way any kind of dissent is labeled here...just like in the Cog any kind of person who did not agree with us was a '10:36er' of course or some other 'goat.' Once you have a label for something you can dismiss it easily without thinking critically. Buzz words are used for that reason.
In fact, and truly indeed, being a national of a country, any country, and especially THIS country, means also thinking critically and in moments that count making your voice be heard, too.
What made and makes this country great is not the supporting whatever your govt tells you 'warts and all' but the freedom (and here is the real context for that word) and the ability to question, to do according to one's conscience, to respect due process. That is what is great.
This is not about being en vogue...that is rhetoric again. It shuts down debate.
There are many people who could not care less about what is en vogue...Michael Moore said some very real things...it takes courage to be that kind of American like it took courage for the ONLY American at My Lai (the massacre) who in a moment of incredible pressure said "this is not right" "we cannot do this" -- that is real American courage. The courage to do that kind of stuff when the easiest thing is NOT TO.
You cannot think that there is always a recipe, a way to act, to show citizenship. There are many ways, otherwise what we had to learn in the cult about obeying the party line and singing My Family My Family I know it's right My Family comes Back. Just substitute America for My family and there you have it.
And again, why the polarization....going back to the same false dilemmas...if you don't do THIS, then you do nothing. Why? Not exactly. That is circular thinking. It goes round and round. It boils everything down to black and white. There are many countries that saw alternatives to this war....that saw no COMPELLING, absolute necessity for this war...and those people count too.
Again, history will tell. Maybe there is a reason why this is happening, since it is happening and there must be some Higher Power who can allow and reconcile atrocities because history is full of nothing but that... but it is not what is being spun with the word 'freedom.'
We will all wait and see.
