"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin
Lately, the last refrain of the National Anthem keeps running through my mind ... "Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." And I'm thinking it's no longer true.
For the most part, we have become a nation cowards hiding behind George Bush's coat tails like children afraid to meet a stranger, and we are handing him the freedoms our forefathers fought and died to secure for us - from another tyrant named George, coincidentally. We sit silently allowing this bully of an unelected president spy on us without warrants. We allow him to give speeches with public, tax-payer paid for funds where the only "public" permitted to attend are those carefully screened to ensure that they agree with him. No free speech here. No protests allowed here. We surrender our liberties and take off our shoes willingly before boarding a plane, and only grumble mildly at this tyrants attempt to sell the security of our ports to his buddies in the middle east, the UAE who helped to fund the 9/11 hijackers.
Where is the outrage? Why are we not rising up as a nation and marching in the streets? Why are we not demanding the removal of this power-grabbing regime? Are we all still cowed by the events of September 11, 2001 or are we just too content sitting on our sofas watching American Idol to save our country from the enemy within?
Freedom, people - what would you do if it broke?