Re: Not all Americans are Naive

[ginseng]

I don't want to downplay any of the things Michael Moore has said here, but it has a slight taste of propaganda. It may be just me; I don't know. It has a flavor to it that suggests it'd ripe to be sent all over the Internet in forwarded emails. Some of the facts quoted strike me funny, though I can neither prove nor disprove them. The have an uncomfortable versimultude - perhaps I'm merely demonstrating that I feel like the author does, uncomfortable with the entire situation.

I'd feel more comfortable if someone could vouch for the truthfulness of this letter. You see, I'm afraid I may agree with the author of this letter, and this makes me uncomfortable.

Before I'm horrendously downvoted for beating this post up (which I'm not), let me point out that not only did I not vote for Bush, I've been concerned since the start of his administration that we would be embroiled in a war within the first year. It appears to be coming true. I'm deeply, deeply concerned about the loss of American liberties, in trade for an false sense of security. I've spent a good portion of this week chastising my friends who say things like "I'd give up {such-and-such} if I knew this wouldn't happen again." I believe the current administration is prone to relieving us of privacy and personal liberty. I spent several hours just last night researching quotes on liberty and freedom from the founding fathers, and visionaries since. I've read with growing discomfort the articles this week from Wired and The Washington Post on America's willingness to trade liberty and freedom for security. In short, I'm scared for my country, and for our way of life.

We need to protect not just American lives, but the American way of life.

Having done the work, let me close with this:

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government purposes are beneficent...The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding." -- Justice Louis Brandeis

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -- William Pitt (the younger)

and the oft-quoted Ben Franklin, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."