By now, most people are familiar with the controversy surrounding Seth Rogen's Tweet where he compared the Chris Kyle (based on a somewhat true story) biopic "American Sniper" to a fictional Nazi propaganda film that appeared in Quentin Tarantino's (fictional) WWII movie "Inglorious Basterds".
Rogen's comments ruffled many right wing feathers, but seemingly no one as much as Craig Morgan, a man self-described as an Iraqi War vet and country singer, (and I have to trust him on this, as I've never heard of him before this week). Morgan ripped into Rogen for having no right to criticize the film, and Kyle himself, based on the fact that Rogen had not served in the military. (Which is an odd criteria to demand before anyone is allowed to state an opinion, because if that is the new fundamental guideline which must be satisfied before any of us cast future judgement, then we better shut down every internet message board immediately. Particularly those populated by those who attack and disparage President Obama, when none of them have ever been President themselves. But that's a discussion for another day).
Morgan then went on to write, “I’m sick and tired of people like you running your mouth when you have no idea what it takes for this country to maintain our freedoms. If you and anyone like you don’t like it, leave.”
It was this latter comment that provoked me to jump in the fray and respond to America's decade-plus inculcation of the concept of fighting for freedom.
Sorry Mr. Morgan, but Kyle the Super Sniper shooting Iraqis has nothing to do with my freedom. None of those "savages", as Kyle so ineloquently labeled them, had the power to eliminate my freedom, or the freedoms of any other American.
What freedoms are you referring to?
The Freedom of Speech? Because if you are, it appears that YOU, and not any so-called Middle-Eastern terrorist, are attempting to take that away from Seth Rogen by stating that he has no right to comment and/or he he should leave the country.
The Freedom to Vote?
Nope. Those rights are being narrowed, or stripped completely from us, by Republican and Tea Party politicians.
The Right to Choose?
Again, it is Republican and Tea Party politicians who are doing what they can to remove those rights from us.
The Right to Assemble?
Nope. You need to add an over-aggressive and over-militarized police force to the above culprits in order to find that answer.
The Right to Walk Freely In Public While Black? Actually,The Right To Do Just About Anything While Black?
Sorry. That has nothing to do with foreign terrorists ~ only the domestic variety. And no one is doing anything to stop them. In fact, Republicans and Tea Party politicians encourage them!
Freedom of Religion?
Not really ~ the far right is going out of their way to turn America into an actual Christian Nation, with laws based on Christian dogma. So much for the freedoms of the non-Christians in the country.
(On a side note, why is it that when folks on the right disagree with us on the left, rather than attempting to have an honest, rational debate, they automatically suggest we leave the country? Why have none of them taken your their advice over the past eight years? Also ~ stop threatening us with bodily harm and/or wishing we would die because you don't like what we say. None of that does anything to further or support your positions. But I digress).
So, if they weren't fighting for our freedoms, what exactly were people like Kyle the Sniper doing in Iraq?
To start, they invaded a country that had NOTHING to do with 9/11, tore apart it's structure, demolished it's landscape, and killed many innocent people who probably were only trying to defend their family, neighborhoods, cities, and country, from the invading horde of Americans.
Don't believe me on that last point? Consider the film "Red Dawn" ~ a movie that reinforces the dreams of the NRA and survivalists to orgasmic proportions. It's an idealized paramilitary right wing fantasy about True 'Mericans that defend their land and fight back the foreign invaders. Funny how jingoistic patriots in this country are in favor of this premise when it happens on U.S. soil, but call it "terrorism" when it happens against us elsewhere in the world.
Oh, and since so many on the right fringe love the idea of grassroots, let us not forget all of the grassroots terrorists that men like Kyle created when they shot, maimed, killed, abused, and tortured, Iraqi citizens.
Don't glamorize the murder of foreign citizens in their own land as "protecting our freedom", because that's bullshit. Bush claimed that we had to fight them there before we had to fight them here, yet he was the one who's ineptitude, ignorance, and apathetic disinterest in CIA warnings is most responsible for when "they" actually did "fight us here".
The only way Americans will lose their freedom is if our laws are changed to remove them from us. And the only way for that to happen is if the wrong people are elected. With increased gerrymandering, and their push toward voter suppression, the right wing are the folks who are the most dangerous threat to our democracy, and it's loss of freedom.
Mr. Morgan. go back to singing country songs ~ I've never heard you, but you have to be better at that than you are in explaining Civics and History.