People forgetting basic U.S. freedoms
Brian Beck | January 17 2006
If you support a king-like presidency, if you don't believe that due process is important for everybody, if you don't recognize a right to privacy, if you think freedom of religion means freedom to use public money to support the most popular religion, if you don't think it matters that our leaders lied to us about reasons for going to war, if it doesn't bother you that we torture prisoners, what exactly is it that you think makes this country great?
We have been a beacon of hope for more than two centuries because there was always the idea that these things are not acceptable in our government.
There have been stumbling blocks of course, but there were guiding ideals and the potential for what we could be generally outweighed the sins that were committed.
I get the sense now that those guiding principles are being thrown away. As the tyranny that sparked our existence gets forgotten in history books, we have collectively forgotten why so many of our rights were so important to the founding fathers.
It's not necessarily that they were smarter than any of us, but they saw first hand why those rights were so valuable.
Now, out of fear and ignorance, many in this country have decided that those rights really aren't that important. I hope it doesn't take another round of complete tyranny for people to again realize the importance of the liberties that we have been given.
If you support a king-like presidency, if you don't believe that due process is important for everybody, if you don't recognize a right to privacy, if you think freedom of religion means freedom to use public money to support the most popular religion, if you don't think it matters that our leaders lied to us about reasons for going to war, if it doesn't bother you that we torture prisoners, what exactly is it that you think makes this country great?
We have been a beacon of hope for more than two centuries because there was always the idea that these things are not acceptable in our government.
There have been stumbling blocks of course, but there were guiding ideals and the potential for what we could be generally outweighed the sins that were committed.
I get the sense now that those guiding principles are being thrown away. As the tyranny that sparked our existence gets forgotten in history books, we have collectively forgotten why so many of our rights were so important to the founding fathers.
It's not necessarily that they were smarter than any of us, but they saw first hand why those rights were so valuable.
Now, out of fear and ignorance, many in this country have decided that those rights really aren't that important. I hope it doesn't take another round of complete tyranny for people to again realize the importance of the liberties that we have been given.
posted by transduction at 7:39 PM
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