The Liberal Patriot

When a Memo Becomes the Last Straw

Mary MacElveen - April 13, 2005

I used to think that those militia types who lived on their compounds separating themselves from the rest of society were a bunch of nut jobs, but after seeing so many invasions into our privacy perhaps they are sending us all a message. Perhaps living away from such intrusions is truly a utopia on Earth, more importantly in this country today.

We shall never be a free people unless we stand up to our government namely our politicians and say we have had enough of them barging into our most private family matters. There is no freedom if private matters are used for their selfish political ball game.

There is no freedom when politicians think they know what is best for us as a society at large when they think their opinions matter more than the doctors who have treated persons like Mrs. Schiavo for example for many years. There is no freedom when they think their political panderings to special interest groups trump the decisions handed down by judges who have heard this particular cases like this one, for years.

If you are a family going through a situation similar to Mr. Schiavo or the Schindlers you are best advised that your decision will not matter. Not when the government may step in, the consequences be damned.

This wrath is not only targeted at the Republican Party, but is equally aimed at the Democrats who did the religious right’s bidding by sticking their nose into this family crisis, actions that were clearly against the constitutional definition of the separation of powers.

According to the AP, “Democrats had pounced on the document as evidence that Republicans were seeking a political advantage in the fight between Schiavo's husband and her parents over removing her feeding tube 15 years after she incurred severe brain damage that left her incapacitated." Not so fast my fellow Democrats you were all a party to this circus and must bear some responsibility in this matter. This is exactly why so many have been and continue to be turned off of politics. Perhaps had you stayed out of the senate chamber when this was being voted on you would have had the moral high ground, you forfeited that stance with this single inaction . Perhaps had you stood up for the separation of powers we would all be the better for it.

There is no freedom when the laws that dictate my life originate from the religious right. I may disagree with them and often I do. Stay away from my reproductive organs and do not dare dictate to me that I have no say over my own body. It is my responsibility as a free woman to make sure that I use protection and should I become pregnant that is something I must deal with on a personal level. I surely do not need politicians interfering in such a matter.

There is no freedom, only hypocrisy when those on the religious right want to forbid the use of birth control by our teenagers. You want abortion numbers to go down? Then you must give those who engage in sex the tools to ensure a pregnancy does not occur. Abstinence does not work. The faster you get that through your thick skulls the better for all of us. Birth control methods must be covered under all insurance plans if you want to see those numbers go down. I find it hypocritical that Viagra or other drugs just like it are covered under many prescription plans, while birth control for females is not.

There is neither freedom nor democracy when millions told this government NO to any war waged in Iraq and still they proceeded with it. You are all our public servants and you work for us and if collectively we told you NO. Our words and actions should have been listened to and carried out.

It seems that the protests to save Terri Schiavo were paid more attention to then our war protests and that is unforgivable. We called the president on so many of his lies and what did our politicians do? They sided with the president. As it turns out, through the release of intelligence memos that we were right and all of you were wrong.

There is no freedom for our 1,500 dead soldiers to live out a life of happiness with their family members and the families of the thousands that came and still come home wounded. Many of these wounded are now free of limbs they would have used to play baseball with their sons and daughters and are now prisoners in their own bed just like Terri Schiavo was. Where is the freedom there for them?

There is no spreading of freedom through bombs. With the passing of the Pope we should remember that he showed us all how to topple dictatorships without a single bomb. President Bush should have listened to the Pope when he said, “You go without God” just before Shock and Awe. As a result, many innocent Iraqi citizens are now free of their lives.

There is no freedom when so many go without basic health care in this country, a country where they should be free to live healthy and productive lives. All politicians have this freedom and we the tax payer pay for your health benefits as well their private retirement accounts. So please, politicians do not tell us that you know what we are going through when clearly you do not.

There is no freedom when our government’s foreign policy may someday come back and bite us all. Then after all this, God forbid a draft comes back into play where we must sacrifice our sons and daughters to a war we may not agree with. Where is the freedom in that? There is no freedom when those on the religious right have the president’s ear that are hoping and praying for the second coming of Christ through Armageddon and the pleas and prayers of millions more do not. My message to these religious fanatics is that God said, verbatim; “in MY time, not yours!”

There are many times as we have lived through the madness of these past four years, where I wished my fellow Americans acted as the first patriots of this country did and rose up against a tyranny such as the decision Bush v. Gore. But, that did not happen. I wonder what our founders would have said to all of us for this inaction. Most likely they would have marveled at those Kosovo citizens who took back their country from a dictator like Slobodan Milosevic and shook their head in utter disgrace at us all. They would have said of those Kosovo citizens that they do know what freedom is and what the price of freedom means. They were willing to put their lives on the line in order to prove it. What did we do? We did nothing. We just sat back and let all of this happen to us. I too wonder if those who do not vote are sending a collective message of disgust to all of our politicians. My message to those Americans has always been; if you do not vote you have no right to complain about the in which direction this country goes. But those of us that do vote are finding it harder and harder to get these politicians to actually listen to us.

So can I understand these people who live on militia compounds who want no part in this government? Absolutely, can I understand their grievances in paying taxes to a government that does more harm then good but for their hard earned money? I absolutely can. I seem to remember that some brave patriots who threw tea into a harbor in Boston and told England that they truly wanted to be free. Can a similar event ever happen again? Only time will tell and and prove the people’s resolve.

I will leave you with a famous quote by Martin Luther King Jr.:, “ And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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