fear~Don't Buy Into the Fear~
There's a dangerous movement in this country today. A movement so insidious that otherwise intelligent people are getting sucked into it without their knowing it's even happening.
It began somewhere after 9/11, when this country was gripped in fear that planes would be flown into more buildings and maybe even some pretty large bridges. For days we had NO airplanes in the air at all over our airspace. [Well, perhaps some military jets.]
Many of us sat outside, staring up at the clouds and marveling about the lack of planes 'up there'. But we 'understood'. We understood why people were stranded all over this country--no, all over the world.
Because we were afraid. And understandably so.
Then, because it seemed the right thing to do, we got angry. We got angry because Americans do NOT take kindly to being attacked on their home shores.
To show the solidarity of our anger, we flew flags from our front porches and our flagpoles. We put them on our cars and our trucks and our backpacks and our jackets. We were AMERICANS and we were damn well going to hunt down and bring to justice those who had the NERVE to plan and carry out this attack against us.
And in the days following 9/11, we identified these attackers. And we identified their religion. Because it seemed as though it was their religion that brought them to the place where they could sacrifice their own lives in the passion to terrify ours.
And terrify us it did. Because the kind of attacks perpetrated upon us were alien to us. We couldn't understand how someone could sacrifice their lives in a suicide attack upon us.
We had never known such hatred towards us, and we didn't like it. We didn't like it at all.
The trouble was, there were so many Americans who failed to discover that it wasn't the entire religion of the men flying the planes who were at fault here. We just lumped all of them under the same umbrella because that was the easiest thing to do.
Slowly, but surely, the hatred was settling in inside our hearts and wasn't feeling strange to us anymore. It felt 'safe' to hate these people. After all, look what THEY had done to us!
Secretly we enjoyed the fear we spread upon the people who proclaimed this 'alien religion' as theirs. It didn't matter if they were also Americans. What mattered now was what religion they were proclaiming as their own.
How funny that we forgot that the first settlers came here because they were seeking religious freedom.
They didn't want to worship the way a King told them they must. They felt they had a right to observe any religion they wished to, and worship God how they chose to. And in order to do so, they had to leave the countries of their birth and came here, to this land, America.
But for us, this is all grade school stuff. We started learning about this back in first grade, if not kindergarten. It's an old, old story to us now.
But in the 18th century, it was of such prime importance to the men who came together to form what would become the United States of America that they put it into the Bill of Rights. Because they felt that no one should ever be told that they couldn't go to whatever church or house of worship they wanted to. And that included the fact that if someone didn't want to worship at all, that was all right, too.
And they decided that it was also of prime importance that The State [meaning the government] and The Church [various houses of worship] be separated because they understood full well what happened to people when they were not. Had not the early settlers showed that?
Today, in this great country, there is a push on that we [The People] should declare this a Christian country. By God, that will keep those plane-flying suicidal jerks from getting a leg up on us again, won't it?
But you see, there's a couple of problems with that. And one is that there is not ONE Christian religion. There are many. And which one are we going to declare ourselves to be? I'm sure the Catholics would want it to be them, and surely the Methodists want it to be them, and then you have the Presbyterians and the Baptists, and... Well, I think you get the idea, don't you?
And what about those people that don't want to be Christian? Well, let's just FORCE them to convert, shall we? Won't THAT make us safe?
And what about those that don't want to believe in a God at all? Well, they MUST! Because if they don't, then they are obviously our enemies, and let's make them leave!
In fact, if ANYONE doesn't believe exactly the way we do, they are also enemies!
There. Doesn't that feel BETTER?
Doesn't that make you less FEARFUL?
Doesn't that help you sleep at night?
Well, if it does, it just means that you don't understand the situation.
Because what it means is that our Government is undermining our religious freedoms as spelled out in our Constitution and we are in seriously DEEP SHIT.
Already our President has suspended Habeus Corpus. This means that even though it was meant to help us 'get the bad guys' [heh], they can also arbitrarily call one of us a 'bad guy' and they can put us in a jail somewhere and when your lawyer calls and says, "What are the charges against my client?" THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T HAVE TO TELL THEM. And they can keep you locked up as long as they want.
And you know why? Because the Government will probably make something up just so they can keep you off the streets and then WE CAN ALL FEEL SAFER.
But you trust the Government you say?
How can you, when it's been proven that our Government KNEW there were NO 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' in Iraq, but told us that anyway so they could go over there and 'get' Saddam Hussein? [We won't even get into that whole mess. Suffice to remember the LIES that took us there.]
And aren't our Government employees just the BEST? I'm not going to name names here; you can Google and find out what our representatives and our senators have been up to and some are still serving! [Seemingly only the worst are gone. And if you believe THAT, I have a bridge to sell you. Those are only the ones who have had the misfortune to be CAUGHT.]
All over this world, there are people still being persecuted for their beliefs. There are young girls being killed by their own families for talking to boys of other SECTS. [Same religion, some different beliefs.]
What do you think they would say to you from their graves if they could?
Wouldn't they tell you that religious freedom is one of the most important things we have here in the United States of America? That we can STILL be a shining beacon to a dark world. Not because of what religion we are, but because we are big enough to embrace ALL religions.
And we ARE big enough and we ARE People enough to keep it out of the hands of our Government so that America can still shine as a beacon to the world.
Because I, as an American who believes in God, believe that I have an inalienable right to worship my God however I choose. And I believe my neighbor has that same right, although he might believe that his God lives in trees. And I believe that my other neighbor has a right to believe that Science is God.
Because it is NOT our religions [or lack thereof] that makes us Americans.
It is our right to HAVE our own religions that we so cherish.
Do not fear those other religions.
Fear the people who would have those other religions taken away. THEY are the enemy.
And we elected them.
Remember, the Separation of Church and State is vitally important to America.
Don't forget.
And although I am just one tiny voice in the blogosphere, there are others out there who are saying this same thing, and probably saying it much better than I can.
Please visit http://blogagainsttheocracy.blogspot.com/ to read more about this subject.
To learn more about the issues of Church and State, please visit http://www.firstfreedomfirst.org/.
And after those, reread the Constitution of the United States and reread the Declaration of Independence.
They will make you proud to be an American all over again.
.
There's a dangerous movement in this country today. A movement so insidious that otherwise intelligent people are getting sucked into it without their knowing it's even happening.
It began somewhere after 9/11, when this country was gripped in fear that planes would be flown into more buildings and maybe even some pretty large bridges. For days we had NO airplanes in the air at all over our airspace. [Well, perhaps some military jets.]
Many of us sat outside, staring up at the clouds and marveling about the lack of planes 'up there'. But we 'understood'. We understood why people were stranded all over this country--no, all over the world.
Because we were afraid. And understandably so.
Then, because it seemed the right thing to do, we got angry. We got angry because Americans do NOT take kindly to being attacked on their home shores.
To show the solidarity of our anger, we flew flags from our front porches and our flagpoles. We put them on our cars and our trucks and our backpacks and our jackets. We were AMERICANS and we were damn well going to hunt down and bring to justice those who had the NERVE to plan and carry out this attack against us.
And in the days following 9/11, we identified these attackers. And we identified their religion. Because it seemed as though it was their religion that brought them to the place where they could sacrifice their own lives in the passion to terrify ours.
And terrify us it did. Because the kind of attacks perpetrated upon us were alien to us. We couldn't understand how someone could sacrifice their lives in a suicide attack upon us.
We had never known such hatred towards us, and we didn't like it. We didn't like it at all.
The trouble was, there were so many Americans who failed to discover that it wasn't the entire religion of the men flying the planes who were at fault here. We just lumped all of them under the same umbrella because that was the easiest thing to do.
Slowly, but surely, the hatred was settling in inside our hearts and wasn't feeling strange to us anymore. It felt 'safe' to hate these people. After all, look what THEY had done to us!
Secretly we enjoyed the fear we spread upon the people who proclaimed this 'alien religion' as theirs. It didn't matter if they were also Americans. What mattered now was what religion they were proclaiming as their own.
How funny that we forgot that the first settlers came here because they were seeking religious freedom.
They didn't want to worship the way a King told them they must. They felt they had a right to observe any religion they wished to, and worship God how they chose to. And in order to do so, they had to leave the countries of their birth and came here, to this land, America.
But for us, this is all grade school stuff. We started learning about this back in first grade, if not kindergarten. It's an old, old story to us now.
But in the 18th century, it was of such prime importance to the men who came together to form what would become the United States of America that they put it into the Bill of Rights. Because they felt that no one should ever be told that they couldn't go to whatever church or house of worship they wanted to. And that included the fact that if someone didn't want to worship at all, that was all right, too.
And they decided that it was also of prime importance that The State [meaning the government] and The Church [various houses of worship] be separated because they understood full well what happened to people when they were not. Had not the early settlers showed that?
Today, in this great country, there is a push on that we [The People] should declare this a Christian country. By God, that will keep those plane-flying suicidal jerks from getting a leg up on us again, won't it?
But you see, there's a couple of problems with that. And one is that there is not ONE Christian religion. There are many. And which one are we going to declare ourselves to be? I'm sure the Catholics would want it to be them, and surely the Methodists want it to be them, and then you have the Presbyterians and the Baptists, and... Well, I think you get the idea, don't you?
And what about those people that don't want to be Christian? Well, let's just FORCE them to convert, shall we? Won't THAT make us safe?
And what about those that don't want to believe in a God at all? Well, they MUST! Because if they don't, then they are obviously our enemies, and let's make them leave!
In fact, if ANYONE doesn't believe exactly the way we do, they are also enemies!
There. Doesn't that feel BETTER?
Doesn't that make you less FEARFUL?
Doesn't that help you sleep at night?
Well, if it does, it just means that you don't understand the situation.
Because what it means is that our Government is undermining our religious freedoms as spelled out in our Constitution and we are in seriously DEEP SHIT.
Already our President has suspended Habeus Corpus. This means that even though it was meant to help us 'get the bad guys' [heh], they can also arbitrarily call one of us a 'bad guy' and they can put us in a jail somewhere and when your lawyer calls and says, "What are the charges against my client?" THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T HAVE TO TELL THEM. And they can keep you locked up as long as they want.
And you know why? Because the Government will probably make something up just so they can keep you off the streets and then WE CAN ALL FEEL SAFER.
But you trust the Government you say?
How can you, when it's been proven that our Government KNEW there were NO 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' in Iraq, but told us that anyway so they could go over there and 'get' Saddam Hussein? [We won't even get into that whole mess. Suffice to remember the LIES that took us there.]
And aren't our Government employees just the BEST? I'm not going to name names here; you can Google and find out what our representatives and our senators have been up to and some are still serving! [Seemingly only the worst are gone. And if you believe THAT, I have a bridge to sell you. Those are only the ones who have had the misfortune to be CAUGHT.]
All over this world, there are people still being persecuted for their beliefs. There are young girls being killed by their own families for talking to boys of other SECTS. [Same religion, some different beliefs.]
What do you think they would say to you from their graves if they could?
Wouldn't they tell you that religious freedom is one of the most important things we have here in the United States of America? That we can STILL be a shining beacon to a dark world. Not because of what religion we are, but because we are big enough to embrace ALL religions.
And we ARE big enough and we ARE People enough to keep it out of the hands of our Government so that America can still shine as a beacon to the world.
Because I, as an American who believes in God, believe that I have an inalienable right to worship my God however I choose. And I believe my neighbor has that same right, although he might believe that his God lives in trees. And I believe that my other neighbor has a right to believe that Science is God.
Because it is NOT our religions [or lack thereof] that makes us Americans.
It is our right to HAVE our own religions that we so cherish.
Do not fear those other religions.
Fear the people who would have those other religions taken away. THEY are the enemy.
And we elected them.
Remember, the Separation of Church and State is vitally important to America.
Don't forget.
And although I am just one tiny voice in the blogosphere, there are others out there who are saying this same thing, and probably saying it much better than I can.
Please visit http://blogagainsttheocracy.blogspot.com/ to read more about this subject.
To learn more about the issues of Church and State, please visit http://www.firstfreedomfirst.org/.
And after those, reread the Constitution of the United States and reread the Declaration of Independence.
They will make you proud to be an American all over again.
.
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Re: bladdi blah blah blah blah - Hmmm perhaps that is a sign that bullshitting is the way to do things....
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