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LETTERS / It’s Becoming Impossible To Pretend We Live In A Free Country

Dear Editor.

“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” – Thomas Paine

I’ve heard Americans ask, “How could the German people have allowed the Nazi regime to commit its evil acts?” Germans had the same concept of patriotism Americans have today. Most Germans believed their duty was to unconditionally support their government. Good citizens didn’t question government but trusted its judgment and decisions. For the fearful, the national-security state is everything; it’s god.

It’s becoming impossible to pretend we live in a free country. How long until we’re required to carry a biometric National ID card and submit to a scan/grope before entering a public building? “The law” already requires surrender to random roadblocks. How soon until you must surrender to scans/gropes at roadblocks? The Supremes have said; you have given “implied consent” to random stops, interrogations and searches by being on public roads.

There’s the fiction of “Probable cause” which amounts to “I will search your vehicle”.  Refuse the search and the federalies will detain, and search you anyway. Being “uncooperative” might include declining to answer questions, or, more dangerous, daring to question anything done to or demanded of you. Move too slowly and expect to be Tazed.

Many Americans have already given up. In the name of the “war” on drugs, we’ve accepted invasions of everyone’s lives. For the sake of “getting drunks off the road” and seatbelt safety checkpoints, we cheered random dragnets that subject everyone on the road to a soviet style once-over, and demand for your papers.

Freedom to depend upon our own judgment, question, and demand to be unmolested if we’re not being aggressive, is gone. We’re all children now, fearful, obedient, and punished, if we’re not. We’re told what to do, how, and when; submit, Obey. That’s the New America.

America hasn’t reached the level of Orwell’s “1984” and “V for Vendetta”, yet. We’re moving steadily in that direction. Surveillance, spying, censorship, secret prisons, predator drones, and conforming to increasing state regulations put citizens further under the thumb of our owners. Freedom to be left alone, speak against injustice, disagree with government, and to present your ideas without fear of reprisal are essential in a democratic society.

TSA agents haunt airports, though we hear about including trains and busses, so that all public transportation will be harassed by the TSA. The TSA is so embedded in American life that tired people quietly accept further control. We see regular horror stories about TSA harassing passengers. They haven’t prevented any terrorism, yet all airline passengers are treated as suspects. The No Fly List is notorious for “false positives,” that have kept people like Sen. Kennedy from flying. They’re good at humiliating handicapped children and women, but little else.

The DHS actively encourages Americans to spy on one another. Where does this lead? East Germans knew the Stasi didn’t keep them safe; only frightened. When other countries watch their citizens, we call it tyranny. Your government doesn’t trust you. Why should you trust it? If police act like citizens are their enemy, police shouldn’t be surprised if the people believe them.

America has two sets of laws: one for government/corporations, another for you. Do you see corporations being spied on as they do us? The reign of St Reagan brought us managed slides into ruin as a neat trick for corporations to escape pension obligations, cut employee compensation, and bust unions.  Steelmakers, auto manufacturers, airlines, you name it; once a competitor succeeded at unloading pesky liabilities, industry after industry followed. Once a company is reduced to a few MBA’s at the top and insecure wage slaves below, its life expectancy is close to a sixer of Mountain Dew in a meth house after they begin to strip the wiring.

We’re taught that patriots of 1776 were fighting foreign oppression. They were fighting against the crimes of their own government, the British, who considered them terrorists and traitors which is how “our government” sees opposition here. Official powerful, secretive elements track you based on what they suspect about you.

BroncoBama’s crushing whistleblowers is about assuring America’s secret police its business as usual in controlling Truth. “Explanations” are we’ve got to watch theorists’ all the time. It’s for your own good.

Who violated international law; someone who decided to tell the truth of espionage by the empire against everyone, or “our government”?

We celebrate 7/4 as reminder of the oppressive government we removed but there’s room for more holidays; America’s flag now symbolizes aggressive militarism, crushing dissent, and a pathetic approval of authority.  We allow “our government” to kidnap, imprison, harass, steal and kill us, so that we can be protected from such things.

America is now so corrupt that it’s unchangeable. We’ve been taught to be docile and encouraged in that by the lies we’re fed to make you think; why bother.

“Our government” hates whistleblowers because they identify dirty business concealed from citizens.  The real “national security” issue involved here is protection of hypocritical politicians and career bureaucrats. NSA spying prevents truthtellers inside government because they know they will be locked away forever.

I believe in the principle of Nuremberg in 1945: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”

Don’t forget your flag pin.

Craig Dudley