Think, ACT, Vote.
Sep. 28th, 2006 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsI was thinking about a longer post, but I'll try to keep this short.
Tonight our national governing body decided to allow the president decide what is and isn't torture with only a few caveats.
They have added a clause that would allow American citizens to be labeled "enemy combatants" and be held indefinitely, just like those foreigners that we don't seem to care what happens to them.
The House has passed a bill that would allow the president and his agents to wiretap anyone without a warrant. It waits for Senate approval.
They have decided to forgo human rights for the idea of security and political gain. For a country founded on the ideals of liberty and equality, not only are we allowing our government to get away with horrible crimes, a large portion of the population seems to be for it, or at least uncaring.
When will it affect someone close to them, so they will wake up, and realize their own freedom could be taken so very easily?
I ask of all of you, please make sure you are registered to vote this year. Deadlines are fast approaching, and many of you, like myself, have moved in the past couple of years. At least allow yourself to be heard this year.
There needs to be a change this year before other things get passed. there has to be a break. When senators who have been tortured turn their backs and make political deals to allow them to run for the presidency in 2008, you wonder if anyone in Congress has any morals, any guts, or any sense.
I'm really ashamed of how we've gone in these last five years, and it's all been handed over so easily, so quickly by a populous who's motivated by the boogieman. Let it be known that yes, I think we should be aware, and should fight religious extremism (from all faiths - *looks at Tom Cruise*), but there's a right way to do it. If we're ever going to be a light for the world to see again, we need to step away from these dangerous policies, NOW.
What we're becoming now frightens me more than current terrorism. I wish it frightened others, too.
Tonight our national governing body decided to allow the president decide what is and isn't torture with only a few caveats.
They have added a clause that would allow American citizens to be labeled "enemy combatants" and be held indefinitely, just like those foreigners that we don't seem to care what happens to them.
The House has passed a bill that would allow the president and his agents to wiretap anyone without a warrant. It waits for Senate approval.
They have decided to forgo human rights for the idea of security and political gain. For a country founded on the ideals of liberty and equality, not only are we allowing our government to get away with horrible crimes, a large portion of the population seems to be for it, or at least uncaring.
When will it affect someone close to them, so they will wake up, and realize their own freedom could be taken so very easily?
I ask of all of you, please make sure you are registered to vote this year. Deadlines are fast approaching, and many of you, like myself, have moved in the past couple of years. At least allow yourself to be heard this year.
There needs to be a change this year before other things get passed. there has to be a break. When senators who have been tortured turn their backs and make political deals to allow them to run for the presidency in 2008, you wonder if anyone in Congress has any morals, any guts, or any sense.
I'm really ashamed of how we've gone in these last five years, and it's all been handed over so easily, so quickly by a populous who's motivated by the boogieman. Let it be known that yes, I think we should be aware, and should fight religious extremism (from all faiths - *looks at Tom Cruise*), but there's a right way to do it. If we're ever going to be a light for the world to see again, we need to step away from these dangerous policies, NOW.
What we're becoming now frightens me more than current terrorism. I wish it frightened others, too.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-01 05:34 am (UTC)I read this morning that Congress spent hundreds of hours worrying about how Bill Clinton used the Presidential Christmas Card List, and only has spent 12 hours in session worried about Immigration and Border Security Reforms. In the same article, the author noted that almost nothing was accomplished this past session (aside from *scads* of useless infighting), but there were records set for pork-barrel appropriations.
I was listening to a talk-radio host this week who was discussing how one of the congressional races had devolved into nothing more than a mudslinging contest about how one of the candidates may have used the "N" word *30 years ago*. And the issues: taxes, immigration, healthcare, the war? Nowhere to be found. You know what? I did things 30 years ago when I was an 11 y/o kid that I'm not proud of today, but it's because I was *11 years old*. People grow and change. Let's stick with the things that Politicians are being elected to deal with, not something that the media wants to turn into a scandal 30 years later.
I'm really at a loss as to what to do at this point. I vote, of course. I talk Politics to friends and family. But I just feel helpless to actually make a difference at this point.