I am burdened with
guilt. I do not want it, but I cannot dismiss it because as an
American, I must accept my share of responsibility for the actions of
this country. From within and from without, I am held
accountable. The dream of our founding fathers was to create “A
government of the people, by the people, for the people.” It was
a glorious dream, a magnificent vision: an edifice constructed on the
firm foundation of democratic principles. Now, that foundation is
crumbling.
It is doing so because we are no
longer a nation guided by principle, but a nation guided by fear.
We are afraid of threats from without, and we are afraid of threats
from within. Our fear is destroying our international
relationships, but equally as important, it is destroying our
relationships among ourselves, and it is driving us toward the
dismantling of the Constitution. Of course, that the current
administration will continue for another four years comes as no
surprise, since a majority of our people apparently supports this
destruction.
On September 11th 2001, we became
a frightened nation. That fear has not left us, and in order to
feel safe, we are willing to surrender those freedoms granted to us in
the Bill of Rights. The Fourth Amendment grants us due process,
the comfort of knowing that we cannot be held without charge, without
bail, and without representation. We have allowed our government
to undermine this amendment by letting it create loopholes that define
people as “enemy combatants” and “ghost prisoners.” This
amendment also grants us the freedom from unreasonable search and
seizure; our persons, houses, papers, and effects cannot be searched
without the issuance of a warrant based on probable cause, and yet The
Patriot Act does just the opposite, providing law enforcement with
unreasonable freedom to invade our private lives without informing
us--to wiretap, to search without warrant, to even monitor what we
research in libraries and on the Internet. Our representatives in
the House and the Senate, and even our Chief Executive, turned their
backs on this amendment, and we let them do so because we are afraid.
We fear that unless we tell
people what to do, they will make the wrong choices. The First
Amendment also grants us freedom to exercise the religion of our
choice, the right to make personal and private decisions based upon our
own understanding of the Creator and His wishes. And yet, for a
second term, we will have a president who feels he can legislate based
upon his religious convictions. His arguments against stem cell
research and abortion are based on theology. Although he is
entitled to his religious beliefs, the Constitution does not grant him
the right to create law based upon them. When life begins--because
science cannot answer it-- is a question that can only be answered
through our faith. Thus, whether stem cell research and abortion
are “sins” is for God to decide, not our government. Our founding
fathers were wise enough to realize that some deeds were answerable to
the state, and some were answerable to only the Creator, and thus
cannot be legislated. Our President, and much of our country, has
forgotten that because we are afraid.
We are afraid of hearing
dissenting points of view. The First Amendment grants us the right of
free speech and the right to peaceably assemble, the right to come
together and say, expressing in a manner of our own choosing, “This is
what I believe.” Both of these rights were denied to people
across the country at political rallies: New York, Phoenix,
Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and the list goes on. I grant that some
were not there to “peaceably assemble,” that their arrests were
justified, but that certainly was not the case at Michigan’s Saginaw
Valley State University, where Ellen Garrett was arrested for simply
wearing a United States Flag outfit in protest of Mr. Bush.
Apparently, her right to free speech only applied if she agreed with
the President. Since we voted for this man a second time, we,
like him, are so afraid of dissenting points of view that we are
willing to deny people their constitutional rights to keep them
quiet.
We are afraid of those who are
different. The First Amendment guarantees us the right to the pursuit
of happiness. It does not require a huge stretch of the
imagination to see that the freedom to marry should fall into this
category. And yet, 10 states voted to ratify their constitutions to
limit this right; however, a right is not a privilege to be assigned to
some and not to others. It is something to which all
people--whether we like or dislike or approve or disapprove of
them--are entitled. State Constitutions should defend rights,
ensuring they are fairly and equally distributed. Because we apparently
detest and fear homosexuality, we voted to use our constitutions in a
manner that stands in direct opposition to their purpose. And if
the president we recently re-elected gets his way, the United States
Constitution is probably not far behind.
Our fear of terrorism drove us to
start a war against a country that did not attack us, before all the
evidence was in that would establish whether or not it was actually a
threat. And even if evidence turns up that shows a preemptive war
was morally justified, that it was worth the cost in human lives, our
fear of having to pay for it caused us to reelect a president who
promised not to raise our taxes, ensuring that he will continue to
drive this country into unprecedented debt, while failing to provide
even minimal levels of heath care to a rapidly growing percentage of
uninsured people in the very country he is sworn to protect.
In our fear, we have handed over
the governing of this nation to a hypocrite, a man who professes faith
in Jesus while ignoring many of His most fundamental teachings:
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will
forgive you; You shall love your neighbor as yourself; Let him who is
without sin cast the first stone; Do not judge, or you too will be
judged; and Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto
God the things that are God’s. In our fear, we have handed over
the governing of this nation to a man who professes faith in democracy,
unless people disagree with him, in which case their views are
irrelevant, unpatriotic, or seditious. In our fear, we have handed over
the governing of this nation to representatives who legislate based on
religion, who create laws that invalidate our rights to privacy and
personal choice, who reject the very principles upon which this once
great nation was founded.
We are no longer, “One nation,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We are becoming
something else. For the moment, there are still a few vestiges of
greatness left in this country. We still have the freedom to
vote, to influence the future, to shape what it is and what it will
become. But I have to wonder, once we have voted away the last of
our freedoms, in this war on terror and this war on ourselves, what
will we be trying to protect?
Shame on every single one of
us. Shame on you for not voting because you do not feel it
makes a difference. Shame on you for being so afraid that you are
willing to sign away our rights in order to feel safe. Shame on
you because you fear more for the size of your bank account than for
the value of human health, life, and dignity. Shame on you for
giving our leaders the power to legislate based upon your fears and
prejudices. And mostly, shame on me for not doing more to stop
you.
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