after further sleep and thought:

[thanate]

I hate politics. I have been attempting to avoid it for nearly the past twenty years. (Before that, nobody expected me to pay attention.) I don't like the way people react in large groups, the mindsets of most of my fellow americans, or the way that discussions labeled "political" turn heated and ranting even when all the participants are on the same side. The polite guest does not discuss abortion or equal rights at the dinner table.

Unfortunately, my upbringing as a conscientious citizen seems to have finally caught up with me. It offends me, deeply and urgently, that those of you (not from my readership in particular, but from the american public at large) who care about what is happening in the world have allowed something this big to slide by. I hear things about Bush's crimes against the state the way I hear about episodes of the X-files, and most people seem about as willing to act on them. Possibly I'm just not looking in the right place, and certainly it's harder to make a difference to people who are not currently feeling the need to get re-elected. I don't know. But this is what I'm upset about:

*It took until Bush was nearly out of office anyway for anyone to attempt to bring charges against him. We as a nation, and our media specifically, have spent the last year cross-analyzing his possible successors and their minor and not-so-minor faults (a process which I also consider a travesty, but this is unrelated) but cannot be bothered to take notice of whatever evidence we have that our current president is making the job they are trying to inherit more and more difficult by his continued willful ineptitude.

*Someone finally has made an effort (for whatever reason) to make the government recognize that this is a serious problem. It is somewhat sensationalist, and most likely meant to be, but we the public are discouraged from attempting to judge this for ourselves, as the itemized points are not made available by our media. (If this is not the case, please let me know where in-country I can find them)

*True or not, any five of the thirty-five points would be far more severe than any of the stupidity that Clinton was dragged through in his day (through his own fault and errors, but ultimately unrelated to running the nation). And they are in the process of being deliberately brushed aside on the grounds that it would be too divisive, and probably wouldn't work anyway.

If a private citizen were accused of making war illegally and concealing evidence which might have prevented thousands of deaths, I sincerely hope that the case would not be thrown out of court before examining the evidence. The point is not even whether any of the articles are true. I personally believe that most of them are, but I know that other people disagree. The point is that we don't know, and we're not likely to know until it matters about as much as the details of Teapot Dome or Watergate do today. And a congressional hearing will certainly not bring us absolute truth either, but it will give us a larger range of facts to form our opinions from.

Whatever Bush has or has not done, of the crimes listed, I believe that he has by his insistence on war created more and better supported terrorists than there were when he began. He is busy doing his utmost to prove right those people who hate America and Americans for meddling. And he has in the mean time supported a noticeable loss in our civil liberties in the name of security. The soldier on the street in Iraq, being ambushed and suicide bombed, (and-maybe-once-or-twice-I-hope having the training or culture or language skills he needs to make peace instead at a crucial moment because of my father's work) should not be fighting the wrong war so that we can have our supposed freedom taken away from us by our own government.

(...and this is what I mean about politics bringing out the inner rant in all of us...)

I am seriously considering writing concise and better-than-this worded letters to my congressman, to the newspaper, and anywhere else I can think of that might be helpful. As a citizen, I think it a travesty that charges of this gravity could be raised by members of one of our supreme governing bodies, and essentially swept under the carpet because the rest of the nation is not interested in dealing with them. What happened to idealizing "Truth, Justice and the American Way" or whatever it was, anyway?

And of course the beauty of the idea of free speech, and the ungovernable freedom of thought, is that none of you have to agree with me. But if you do, I really think you should also make some attempt to be heard.

Comments

[kittymaru.livejournal.com]

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH


I'm scared.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I am most scared that it took us so long to *be* scared. It's the don't notice/care enough until it's too late to do anything part. I mean, zagzagael posts things about a threat of being demoralized and degraded by others, but we've already done too much of that ourselves.

One of the most frightening things I've ever seen was the weekend after the 9/11 mess when I was working front gate at the ren faire, and they had the security guards searching everyone's bags as they came in, and a man turned to his grandson and said, "This is how it should be everywhere."

[zagzagael.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm....I read the article you linked yesterday and it was so alarmist, so full of ridiculous posturing, so not true that I laughed. But if you feel that it speaks TRUTH to you then you should pursue reaching out to your congressman - that is absolutely what they are supposed to be there for - not happy hour, not hobnobbing, not glad-handing, not having sex with interns, but for listening to their consitituents and using their voice to have their citizens' voices heard. Go for it!

Bush has turned out to be a crap leader. It's pathetic. And the "war" in Iraq has become pointless. They allowed Obama to be moved into Pakistan, they know where he is, they don't want a World War. Terrorism is so real it's the biggest threat to our freedoms right now, not democracy or the democratic process, or even politicians.

[grauwulf.livejournal.com]

"They allowed Obama to be moved into Pakistan, they know where he is, they don't want a World War"

-edit reading is your friend. :)

[zagzagael.livejournal.com]

*snort* It definitely is! Well, we know who I've been thinking a lot about and he isn't, actually, IN Pakistan.

;)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I would say... terrorism is a threat to our freedoms. Our reaction to terrorism is what I see endangering our freedoms here and now. One of those reactions is to consider the american people as children who need to be protected from knowing what their elders are doing wrong.

What Ireland has to say about our political system is essentially irrelevant-- if I were a better disputant I probably wouldn't admit that I only skimmed the article part. Also I would have done a better job of explaining why I was telling people to read it, despite being half-asleep at the time. It's the fact that one has to go to Ireland to find the itemized points of impeachment, which I am pretty convinced of many of, and that my local newspaper has had fewer than ten paragraphs covering the issue (all in little bits on the back of the front page, where I wouldn't have looked if I hadn't been specifically looking for them) that distresses me. But I probably said that already.

[zagzagael.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, a hundred million yeses! I absolutely agree with you that we ARE being kept in the dark and have been in the dark for over a decade and why???????? I don't think it is just this latest cabinet....it's the way the Americans have been treated and in many ways it's because that is what many Americans have thought they've wanted. Ignorance. I often wonder how we can make a difference as citizens. It feels almost impossible to get your voice heard and it can be frustrating to try and be heard if you're not actually going to jump into the political arena. *tears hair* And yet there are so many citizens of the world who want to live peaceful lives, that we should be given a voice - a larger voice than we have.

What CAN we do?????

[thanate.livejournal.com]

If I ever do figure out how to be heard, that will definitely be part of what I have to say.

[grauwulf.livejournal.com]

I'm going to digest this new (?presentation of a?) view and will expand once I've had a chance to do that. There are a few points that I do want to emphasize while they are on my mind:

• It is your right, privilege and duty as an informed citizen to speak up and voice your opinion on such matters. That is the only way that a real democracy can function. So on that note I say... ROCK ON!


• Expectations are everything. When I first started writing letters to my representatives(state and federal) and congressman (haven't done that here as I've not felt that I understood the dynamics of this area or its constituents, I have two letters in draft now..., but I digress) I expected personal response and direct attention. I got none. I called. I emailed. I eventually got a form "thank you" letter. In the end I discovered that it is the voice of the people that is heard. Not, or rarely, the voice of a person. Expectations are everything. I was very disheartened for some time over the matter.


• Kusinich (guy doing the impeach speech yesterday) is the former democratic party candidate from Ohio. He has a fantastic mind and is a terrific voice for his district, as such he often gets pushed to the side in the gristmill of modern politics. I supported him in his quest for nomination and still do. he's my kind of nut-job :)


• free speech is, well. it is not what it used to be. some of my friends where locked up for 3 days !not arrested just detained! for carrying anti-Bush signs (picketing with a permit) within 200 yards of a Bush speech. I think that those of us who are taking the time and effort to inform ourselves, and form opinions on the issues NEED to speak up. And I don't think you would ever commit the folly of it, but remember to think these things through, that's all. Know the risks. As I said, expectations are everything.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. I think you know my views on Bush :P there may be more later.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I don't expect a response. That's why I've never bothered before; half of what I'm agonizing over now is trying to come up with a way I *can* be a louder voice to the rest of the "people", and I don't know what that is. If I'm really lucky, I might get something in the newspaper, although I don't expect that either. And (partly because of the bad press) it's a bit late for my congressman (who I am embarrassed to mention I don't remember at the moment, despite casting my vote last election...) to do anything in response to a letter I send, as the issue has been sent off to die quietly in a justice committee as of today. The Post had a quarter page article on page 2 about it, which had one paragraph about there being a vote on the impeachment, and the rest a catalog of why we don't want Cheney instead, based on his speech today. I agree with the latter, but don't think it's a justifiable reason for not holding public hearings.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

my congressman is Jim Moran (one of the many names that's passed through my political semi-consciousness) and his statement on Iraq (http://moran.house.gov/issues_iraq.shtml) is something I think I can work with. Although I also want to make sure there's nothing on the statement in question before I write anything.

oh, and yes, this is new; it started developing last night when you were trying to interrupt me. The seeds of it were there, but I haven't particularly ever discussed it with anyone (see note on hating politics)-- usually I just kind of take in other people's opinions, evaluate them, and nothing comes back out again. I seem to have, er, suddenly developed a rampant crop of mushrooms.

[belfebe.livejournal.com]

Human beings are political beings. That's what we are. I am proud of your speaking up. Yes, it may be one letter, but every letter adds up. We have the choice of keeping silent and stand outside the fire, or try to do something about it.

Every little bit helps.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

They are. I think that's a large part of why I don't like people (as opposed to individuals.)