Vicegerent
2005-07-06 15:51:09 UTC
Please answer my question! WHY ARE AMERICANS TOO
CRAVEN TO DIE FOR THEIR IDEALS YET ARE WILLING TO
LET THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, THEIR OWN
POSTERITY, DIE FOR THE IDEALS, OR LACK THEREOF,
OF OTHERS???
Not one man, or woman, who has died or been wounded
in combat since the Reveloutionary War has done so
in the defense of this Country but has done so to
promote the interests of International Bankers and
the New World Order!!
Please forward!
Billy-Joe of the Family Mauldin (Texas)
************************************************
Are Americans too craven to die for their ideals?
By Chris Satullo
07/04/05 "Philly.com" - - Some men, flawed but rising
to their moment, signed a document 229 years ago in
Philadelphia. It ended with these words: "We mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor."
No idle vow, that. They were rebels, and an army of imperial
power lurked nearby. Before that July was done, they might
all be captured and hanged from trees.
Their rebellion had arisen from tangled reasons, some less
admirable than others. But the men in Philadelphia arrived
at a fresh, ennobling idea for a new nation: that men were
meant to be free and that free men could govern themselves
to uphold justice and the common good. It was a breathtaking
vision.
They were willing to die for it.
Are you willing to die for the idea called the United States
of America? Are most Americans ready to die for their country?
On this patriotic weekend, most of us would blurt in reply,
"Of course."
We are lying. At best, kidding ourselves.
That is the sad message of the days that have passed since the
awful one we call 9/11.
Die for the idea called America? Many of us aren't willing even
to conserve a little gasoline. Or pay our fair share of taxes.
Or spend less than we earn.
Nor, it seems, will we accept the slightest personal risk to
defend the ideals the founders sketched in the Declaration,
then spelled out in the Bill of Rights.
Sept. 11, the instant cliché proclaimed, changed everything.
Yet few Americans, least of all our leaders, seem to grasp what
really changed on that day of fire and fear.
To defend the American idea in the face of this novel threat,
every last American must be willing to risk death rather than
let our ideals be trampled in a rush for "security." For most
of us, the risk is infinitesimal, less than we accept when we
merge onto the Schuylkill or board an airliner. But it's there.
Bravery isn't just for soldiers anymore.
Yet too many of us cower and cry to our profoundly inadequate
leaders, "Do whatever you want; just protect us!"
The propagandists call it patriotism; they call it toughness.
It is cowardice.
If we all had the guts to die for the idea we call America,
the halls of Congress would be jammed, the White House encircled,
by citizens demanding an end to the sinful violations of our
ideals: Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and "extraordinary rendition."
They would proclaim they'd rather die at a terrorist's hand
than watch America move from "rule of law" to "arrogant outlaw."
Instead, near silence. Alibis. Self-absorbed complicity.
America must never torture. But we have.
America must never contract out its torturing to some of the
world's most brutal regimes. But we have.
America must not imprison indefinitely without evidence or
fair trial. But we have.
A beacon for the rule of law must never claim unilateral power
to thrust prisoners into a Kafkaesque world where they are
neither criminal suspect nor prisoner of war, lacking the
legal protections of either. But America does.
These are not the raving allegations of some Left Bank leftist.
These are cold facts to which honorable people in our military,
law enforcement agencies and courts have attested beyond
reasonable doubt. The offenses go beyond the photos from Abu
Ghraib, or Korans in toilets. They are even darker and more
violent.
We are not excused because some of the prisoners harmed are
brutes who mean us harm. We should be ashamed that, at Abu
Ghraib, some were innocents swept up by the chaos of a war
we started.
What matters most is that we are America. We are called to be
better than that. How can we hide behind the apologists who
mewl, "We're not as bad as Saddam, or Stalin, or Hitler"?
Those men in Philadelphia did not call us to be better than
the very worst. They called us to exemplify the best.
Yes, we were attacked. That was supposed to summon the honor,
the principles, the bravery inside us, to show what a nation
inspired by the idea of liberty and justice can do. We have
failed our founding fathers.
Americans are privileged to live inside a rare space in history
- where the ideals of the Declaration have often (not always)
preserved us from the ancient habits of tyranny and savagery.
This privilege demands from us nothing less than our lives,
our fortunes, our sacred honor.
I love my country, and the idea it stands for. I am willing to
stand for it. I am willing to die for it.
We have a right to defend and protect ourselves. I'll defend
the Afghanistan mission against its critics. I'll stand in
any airport line as long as need be or flash an ID as often
as asked to enable prudent precautions.
But I would rather have terrorists blow me to bits in an
airplane or gun me down on an escalator at King of Prussia
Mall than let a single person be tortured in the name of my
safety.
I'd rather take my chances with terror than ask brave young
Americans to protect me by serving as sitting ducks for suicide
bombers halfway around the globe. Closer to home, I'll accept
the remote risk of disaster rather than see Independence Hall
be encircled with Jersey barriers like a prison camp.
I'd rather risk death than see the idea of America embodied in
our Constitution be mocked and soiled the way George W. Bush,
Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld have done in the last four
years.
I think of the men who pledged their sacred honor so many years
ago in my city, and this is the very least I can pledge in return.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Satullo (***@phillynews.com
or 215-854-4243) is editorial page editor.
Posted by: Vicegerent
CRAVEN TO DIE FOR THEIR IDEALS YET ARE WILLING TO
LET THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, THEIR OWN
POSTERITY, DIE FOR THE IDEALS, OR LACK THEREOF,
OF OTHERS???
Not one man, or woman, who has died or been wounded
in combat since the Reveloutionary War has done so
in the defense of this Country but has done so to
promote the interests of International Bankers and
the New World Order!!
Please forward!
Billy-Joe of the Family Mauldin (Texas)
************************************************
Are Americans too craven to die for their ideals?
By Chris Satullo
07/04/05 "Philly.com" - - Some men, flawed but rising
to their moment, signed a document 229 years ago in
Philadelphia. It ended with these words: "We mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor."
No idle vow, that. They were rebels, and an army of imperial
power lurked nearby. Before that July was done, they might
all be captured and hanged from trees.
Their rebellion had arisen from tangled reasons, some less
admirable than others. But the men in Philadelphia arrived
at a fresh, ennobling idea for a new nation: that men were
meant to be free and that free men could govern themselves
to uphold justice and the common good. It was a breathtaking
vision.
They were willing to die for it.
Are you willing to die for the idea called the United States
of America? Are most Americans ready to die for their country?
On this patriotic weekend, most of us would blurt in reply,
"Of course."
We are lying. At best, kidding ourselves.
That is the sad message of the days that have passed since the
awful one we call 9/11.
Die for the idea called America? Many of us aren't willing even
to conserve a little gasoline. Or pay our fair share of taxes.
Or spend less than we earn.
Nor, it seems, will we accept the slightest personal risk to
defend the ideals the founders sketched in the Declaration,
then spelled out in the Bill of Rights.
Sept. 11, the instant cliché proclaimed, changed everything.
Yet few Americans, least of all our leaders, seem to grasp what
really changed on that day of fire and fear.
To defend the American idea in the face of this novel threat,
every last American must be willing to risk death rather than
let our ideals be trampled in a rush for "security." For most
of us, the risk is infinitesimal, less than we accept when we
merge onto the Schuylkill or board an airliner. But it's there.
Bravery isn't just for soldiers anymore.
Yet too many of us cower and cry to our profoundly inadequate
leaders, "Do whatever you want; just protect us!"
The propagandists call it patriotism; they call it toughness.
It is cowardice.
If we all had the guts to die for the idea we call America,
the halls of Congress would be jammed, the White House encircled,
by citizens demanding an end to the sinful violations of our
ideals: Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and "extraordinary rendition."
They would proclaim they'd rather die at a terrorist's hand
than watch America move from "rule of law" to "arrogant outlaw."
Instead, near silence. Alibis. Self-absorbed complicity.
America must never torture. But we have.
America must never contract out its torturing to some of the
world's most brutal regimes. But we have.
America must not imprison indefinitely without evidence or
fair trial. But we have.
A beacon for the rule of law must never claim unilateral power
to thrust prisoners into a Kafkaesque world where they are
neither criminal suspect nor prisoner of war, lacking the
legal protections of either. But America does.
These are not the raving allegations of some Left Bank leftist.
These are cold facts to which honorable people in our military,
law enforcement agencies and courts have attested beyond
reasonable doubt. The offenses go beyond the photos from Abu
Ghraib, or Korans in toilets. They are even darker and more
violent.
We are not excused because some of the prisoners harmed are
brutes who mean us harm. We should be ashamed that, at Abu
Ghraib, some were innocents swept up by the chaos of a war
we started.
What matters most is that we are America. We are called to be
better than that. How can we hide behind the apologists who
mewl, "We're not as bad as Saddam, or Stalin, or Hitler"?
Those men in Philadelphia did not call us to be better than
the very worst. They called us to exemplify the best.
Yes, we were attacked. That was supposed to summon the honor,
the principles, the bravery inside us, to show what a nation
inspired by the idea of liberty and justice can do. We have
failed our founding fathers.
Americans are privileged to live inside a rare space in history
- where the ideals of the Declaration have often (not always)
preserved us from the ancient habits of tyranny and savagery.
This privilege demands from us nothing less than our lives,
our fortunes, our sacred honor.
I love my country, and the idea it stands for. I am willing to
stand for it. I am willing to die for it.
We have a right to defend and protect ourselves. I'll defend
the Afghanistan mission against its critics. I'll stand in
any airport line as long as need be or flash an ID as often
as asked to enable prudent precautions.
But I would rather have terrorists blow me to bits in an
airplane or gun me down on an escalator at King of Prussia
Mall than let a single person be tortured in the name of my
safety.
I'd rather take my chances with terror than ask brave young
Americans to protect me by serving as sitting ducks for suicide
bombers halfway around the globe. Closer to home, I'll accept
the remote risk of disaster rather than see Independence Hall
be encircled with Jersey barriers like a prison camp.
I'd rather risk death than see the idea of America embodied in
our Constitution be mocked and soiled the way George W. Bush,
Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld have done in the last four
years.
I think of the men who pledged their sacred honor so many years
ago in my city, and this is the very least I can pledge in return.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Satullo (***@phillynews.com
or 215-854-4243) is editorial page editor.
Posted by: Vicegerent