Good God.
A first-person account of getting arrested in NYC during the GOP convention. It's long, but well worth the read. And just makes me sad. I don't know if it's all the Bush/Cheney stickers I saw in WV this past weekend or what, but I haven't felt this despondent about the American people in a long time. Maybe ever. After the 2000 election, when people (including myself) would joke about moving to Canada or Europe, I just kept thinking that the best way to make things better would be to stay here and fight for change. Someone who truly loves their country stays and works to make it better. But today...well, today was the first time I actually thought, well, if he gets elected again, maybe we deserve him. And maybe I'll start looking for somewhere else to call home. It breaks my heart that I even entertained that thought.
I have a picture in my office from the FDR memorial in DC, of this quote:
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." Talk all you want about self-made men (and women) and how it's the American way to pull yourself up and blah blah blah. That may or may not be true. But shouldn't we be better than that? Barack Obama has it right -
If there's a child on the South Side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child.
If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.
If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper -- that makes this country work.
2 Comments:
Rock on, Meg.
On the other side of the moderate line, I've been entertaining the same sort of thoughts. Even sent in an application to the Univ. of Toronto this morning. Maybe I just want to get a worldier perspective. Maybe I just need a break from Americans who are losing touch with the American dream. Whatever the case, I get angrier and angrier with the current administration, and with my party for giving him leeway to do every dumb thing that comes to him.
It's frustrating. And people like Obama (who I hope to see this weekend, actually) are too few and far between. Where are my generation's Eugene Debbs, my FDR, my Bobby Kennedy?
/sigh
---Sudiptya
Oh yes I know the feeling. Are people really this easily misled? I don't understand it. All they have to do is bring up "flip-flopping" and people will ignore everything Bush/Cheney have done wrong because they are "resolute" or whatever they decide to call it this week. The thing that pisses me off the most is Cheney's comment about another terrorist attack happening if "the wrong people" get elected. I hate Cheney so much! I better not say that though, I could get arrested and called a terrorist. :)
Anyway, yes, I have also entertained thoughts of moving to Canada or elsewhere. It's a shame the state this country is in. Have you heard the song "American Idiot" by Green Day? It is very fitting... well we can keep fighting the good battle but if there are too many people that believe the Bush lies, there isn't much that can be done. Just keep trying I guess. Or maybe he will fuck something up if gets re-elected and everyone will hate him even more. And maybe actually impeach him? We can only hope impeachment would actually occur over something other than lying about a blow job. I'm sure that administration will do something stupid again. It's just their nature. I just hope a lot more people don't end up dying for their stupidity.
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