Coming out of The Desert (Liberty must reign in America)
Marshall Adame
October 11, 2008
In the year 2000, American voters unwittingly set themselves, and our country, in a direction none of us ever thought possible. We had, through the election of President G.W. Bush, set a course for U.S. policy that would take America into a desert where many of the things we embraced and held dear, as a people, were about to be turned upside down and, in some cases, forever taken from us, plowed asunder the ground we called liberty. Things like our concept of freedom, governments subordinate position to its citizens, basic rights and freedoms that we had always, until George Bush, considered "Inalienable" as stated in our country´s constitution; the sacred document that defines who we are to each other and to the world.
None of us imagined the passing of anything as anti-American as "The Patriot Act", the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, the despicable practice of rendition which existed for the specific purpose of making torture available in the dark places of foreign lands, or the suspension of an American constitutional anchor, the right to habeas corpus.
Using our September 11, 2001 national tragedy as his spring board, and justification for every thing his did after that, President Bush led America into the dismal swamp of patently un-American behavior and immoral governance, much of which we shall never recover from. For example, President Bush formally endorsed torture as a means of carrying out our country´s goals and achieving its ends. With that, America entered into the practice and policy of "The ends justify the means", thereby validating every third world tyrant and dictator who follow that ideology as a matter of course and forever ceding that moral ground we had stood on for so long as a people. At that point, we became the very thing we have despised, criticized and fought against since our own conception as a country. President Bush´s divisive leadership set American against American in struggles of ideology which have gone beyond the bounds of sane discourse and into the realm where many Americans now see those of differing ideology as "the enemy".
When our ragged ancestors drove their British repressors from our shore they did not, at that time, become "free Britons"; No, not at all. They became "uniquely American", having cast off the chains of repression and dictatorship whether by king or master. We are their decendents, every one of us in America, born here or not. We are the children of their ideals and willingness to struggle to be free and to simply be.
We are the children of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Martian Luther king, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Bobby Kennedy, Rosa parks, Susan B. Anthony and that of every man and woman of the American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, The great depression, WWII, and the wars we now know as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are the children of African slaves, indentured servants, Mexicans, Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Kings, paupers, thieves, priest and those whose dreams had been squashed into the oblivion of no hope.
We are also the children of those who fought against repression, slavery and government´s power to dictate the degrees of freedom we had inherited from our forbearers. President Bush tried to take that heritage away from each and every American. He tried, and almost succeeded in redefining who we are as Americans. He failed. Thank God he failed.
2008 is the time for America to repudiate all of what this "glitch", however significant, in our history has been. 2008 is the time when our entire country, in one resounding voice will shout "No More!".
Eight years in the desert President Bush took us into is coming to an end. Soon America will speak and Barak Obama will take the helm of American government. Senator Obama is our highest and best hope in restoring American governance to its intended place as a representative servant to us all, and an example to the world of what America is and who Americans are.
God bless Senator Barak Obama and all those who struggled through the desert we have gone through over the past eight years; and God bless those who have lost their lives and fortunes because of the arrogance and blindness of George Bush.
God bless our country and all who stand with us.
None of us imagined the passing of anything as anti-American as "The Patriot Act", the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, the despicable practice of rendition which existed for the specific purpose of making torture available in the dark places of foreign lands, or the suspension of an American constitutional anchor, the right to habeas corpus.
Using our September 11, 2001 national tragedy as his spring board, and justification for every thing his did after that, President Bush led America into the dismal swamp of patently un-American behavior and immoral governance, much of which we shall never recover from. For example, President Bush formally endorsed torture as a means of carrying out our country´s goals and achieving its ends. With that, America entered into the practice and policy of "The ends justify the means", thereby validating every third world tyrant and dictator who follow that ideology as a matter of course and forever ceding that moral ground we had stood on for so long as a people. At that point, we became the very thing we have despised, criticized and fought against since our own conception as a country. President Bush´s divisive leadership set American against American in struggles of ideology which have gone beyond the bounds of sane discourse and into the realm where many Americans now see those of differing ideology as "the enemy".
When our ragged ancestors drove their British repressors from our shore they did not, at that time, become "free Britons"; No, not at all. They became "uniquely American", having cast off the chains of repression and dictatorship whether by king or master. We are their decendents, every one of us in America, born here or not. We are the children of their ideals and willingness to struggle to be free and to simply be.
We are the children of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Martian Luther king, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Bobby Kennedy, Rosa parks, Susan B. Anthony and that of every man and woman of the American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, The great depression, WWII, and the wars we now know as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are the children of African slaves, indentured servants, Mexicans, Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Kings, paupers, thieves, priest and those whose dreams had been squashed into the oblivion of no hope.
We are also the children of those who fought against repression, slavery and government´s power to dictate the degrees of freedom we had inherited from our forbearers. President Bush tried to take that heritage away from each and every American. He tried, and almost succeeded in redefining who we are as Americans. He failed. Thank God he failed.
2008 is the time for America to repudiate all of what this "glitch", however significant, in our history has been. 2008 is the time when our entire country, in one resounding voice will shout "No More!".
Eight years in the desert President Bush took us into is coming to an end. Soon America will speak and Barak Obama will take the helm of American government. Senator Obama is our highest and best hope in restoring American governance to its intended place as a representative servant to us all, and an example to the world of what America is and who Americans are.
God bless Senator Barak Obama and all those who struggled through the desert we have gone through over the past eight years; and God bless those who have lost their lives and fortunes because of the arrogance and blindness of George Bush.
God bless our country and all who stand with us.
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