Proud to be an American

Chemicals so deadly any contact could result in death within minutes, perilous chemical warheads, covert Uranium obtained from Nigeria, treacherous centrifuge tubes, poison training camps and all under the leadership of fear mongering leader Saddam Hussein. What is present in the previous statement is no doubt an attempt to manifest fear but what is absent is the other side of the story, essentially all of these chemicals alluded to have been destroyed by the United Nations many years prior, the trace of chemical warheads remain to be nothing more than leftover debris from years past, and there is an overall complete lack of evidence of any Uranium obtained from Nigeria by Iraq. The presence of these fear inducing stories is not something that in itself should produce anger among the American Public though in many cases these stories have proven to be outright lies. What is not only simply a cause for concern but personally infuriating and outrageous for all those who may value or place faith in mainstream media is the complete lack of coverage and the second untold story of the Iraq war. Any opposition to the war whatsoever by peace activists was denounced as incompetent, they were described to be Anti-American heretics who may as well become suicide bombers for Saddam Hussein. The goal of the press and media is to be a watchdog of the people, by keeping the public informed by way of truth, critical analysis, facts, and investigation (all things that should be present among good journalism) the public can be better equipped to interpret true reality and be protected from the government becoming too powerful. With a truer representation of reality the American Public can then be able to act based upon a more tangible reality, and not simply by an illusion created to be aligned with United States interests.

It is written in our nation's political doctrine that it is our duty to rise up against injustice, especially a government who threatens our civil liberties that were so eloquently and sacredly spelled out by our founding fathers. Our constitutions and the bill of rights were written with the dream and hope to protect the freedom of our citizens. In October of 2001 at 3AM a document of 300 pages was expected to be voted on by 11AM, a doctrine that would allow electric surveillance, access to individual bank and medical records, credit card statements, and even the books individuals take out of the library, all without so much as a warrant to do so. How can an act that infringes on the right of the privacy of it's citizens in over 300 pages be given a mere 8 hours to be voted on? Manipulation using semantics redefines US citizens as "enemy combatants", meaning that any US citizen could be defined this way because the president "says so". They can make it difficult to get a lawyer and even portray mentally healthy people as insane. Severe pain and suffering can be justified as long as there is "specific intent", justifying torture. If a country is keeping it's ordinary citizens under surveillance it keeps them in silence. Police covertly took part in protests to spy on groups even after no illegal activity was discovered. It is the above story that allows me to question the notion of "freedom". I do value the ability to even post this in a blog, but is my freedom to post directly correlated to my negligible number of followers? It is when we are silenced that we are imprisoned. By default of living in a democratic nation we have a responsibility and to hold our government accountable to its people.