"The true horror is in losing sight of who we are" - AZ Daily Star

[havocmom]

Of all that has been lost in the past five years, what is saddest is the promise of liberty, of America, lost in the rush for an illusion called security. Editorial writers at the Tucson Star got it right. There have been changes in America which would never have been possible without the terror attacks of 9-11-01.

http://www.azstarnet.com/opinion/145800.php

...
In a nation of immigrants, immigrants and their native-born children are in the very strange position of fearing terrorists as well as those who fear terrorists. In short, the artifacts of 9/11 have gathered into troublesome changes that invade everyday life.
...
One month after the attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Congress adopted the 800-page Patriot Act with only one senator voting against it. Only in retrospect, when it came time to reauthorize the law in 2005, did a lively debate develop over the measure's challenge to constitutional guarantees of free speech and privacy.

The political debate that ensued over due process and the detention and trial of suspected terrorists uncovered one of the most disturbing after effects of 9/11: Many well-intentioned Americans seemed — and still seem — too willing to abdicate basic civil liberties and guarantees of due process in the interest of prosecuting suspected terrorists and anybody else who might look suspicious.

This is our greatest threat, that as a nation we might lose sight of who we are. The nation's strongest reaction to the tragedy of 9/11 must be a complete reversal of any laws that threaten to erode what terrorists most fear — freedom and liberty for all.

Changes in the very structure of our government and its interaction with citizens, only possible since the terror attacks of 9-11-01. And who has gained the most?

[file83]

1. Excellent point - it isn't "democracy" if we pass legislation, then debate

about it later. America has lost the War on Terror - we need to regain what we have lost. Until we regain that, the terrorists remain the victors.

[Demeter]

2. Democracy ISN'T Who All of Us Are

There are today increasing numbers of our fellow citizens who are fascists, who have been raised to be fascists, and who have accepted fascism as their paradigm. I am using fascism as a catch word not only for the corporatism but also for the religiously self-selected.

This is a serious problem in a representative democracy. The nations of Europe have been dealing with this problem for ever--but then, they are still trying to transition out of their legacy of Rome, then Catholic Rome, and then smaller feudal and autocratic units.

Here in the New World, we were supposed to have utterly rejected such a legacy along with our native lands, to build that city on the hill in a wilderness that never knew such restriction. But the seeds of destruction in the form of slavery and the colonists that supported and profitted from slavery meant that our efforts were corrupt from the start. We went through the fires of the Civil War, and then Civil Rights, to cleanse the nation, but have been not totally successful.

Democracy REQUIRES that all people are equal and are treated equally. Sadly, too many of our people reject such a notion.

[havocmom]

3. Democracy is NOT a spectator sport

Nor was 'freedom won' long ago by long dead patriots. The fight is everyday or is it lost.

[Demeter]

4. You Got It

Now try and tell that to the plugged-in generation. Couch potatoes arise!

[havocmom]

5. Actually, I know more politically aware young people

It's the older people who have been slow to wake up in my circles.

But they are waking up. Life long Republicans are ranting, railing, and planning to vote DEM.

[GetTheRightVote]

6. How true, our freedoms we must defend over fear, fear is the enemy

not liberty .......

:kick: