Thanks to fellow Kossak Locust for today's diary, and inspiring me to expound on their diary a bit (or maybe a lot). We'll see what develops below the croissant.
I still have yet to read Russ Feingold's book, While America Sleeps but I plan on starting it this weekend. I digress. Since 9/11, and many thanks to Russ Feingold for opening my eyes, I have been watching our rights get tossed aside by our legislators like ashes from a cigarette. When I talk to people about it, many continue the same old word salad about protecting us from evil, and I call bullshit each and every time. And I tell you, this continual eroding of our rights and freedoms causes me to believe more and more in the New World Order I've read so much about.
I remember when the Patriot Act was first being talked about. Does anyone remember how little air time opponents like Russ Feingold received? Remember how the so many of the journalists who did start to question the bill were also chastised for being unpatriotic? And do you remember how the Patriot Act was sold to us all as being a temporary measure that would not be abused by the government?
Well, here we are, a decade later, and it's still got a stranglehold on us. Remember the proponents of the Patriot Act who would say "If you don't do anything wrong, and have nothing to hide, I don't see what the problem is"? And here's where my blood really begins to boil. Those same people who would say that shit to me, and who I'd hear say it on TV, are the exact same people who bitch about government being too big. They are the same ones who kept repeating the same bullshit line about Obama taking their guns. And just like Locust mentioned in their diary about the left being diverted by Rush Limbaugh, the right was diverted by the threat of their guns being taken away.
And as long as they can keep their guns, they've fooled themselves into believing that they somehow are going to be able to protect themselves from a police state. Well here's my retort. What good is being able to own a gun, when the main reason for the second amendment was to allow for citizens to protect themselves and the state.
With parts of our 1st Amendment being slowly stripped away, to the point of no longer being able to freely assemble or protest, what good will the guns be? If the instant you start to assemble a group of people, whether it be to overthrow a government or to protest, and you are immediately arrested, what good has the 2nd Amendment done for you?
Think about it. Our founders crafted our Bill of Rights much like they framed the constitution. It was done in a manner that put emphasis on those rights based on the order in which they were written in the final draft. They knew that without the freedom of speech, and the right to freely assemble, all of the other amendments would be uttered useless. For without a voice and the call to assemble, and without protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
When I was younger, I was taught that the "pen is mightier than the sword". And until recently, I truly believed that. But, without the full freedom of speech, and the freedom to assemble and protest, what method do we have to petition our Government for a redress of our grievances?