Sunday, March 26, 2006

Late Night Rambling

How has the mighty United States of America become a nation that defines itself by a single catastrophic event? We can't be a country with a victim mentality, can we? Motivated to action by fear. How can fear be of any use in making rational decisions that affect the entire planet? We are better than this, aren't we? We once were.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
- FDR

As much as the actual decisions we're making in the world, I worry about HOW we make decisions. Not George, mind you. I'm not sure I have the mental acuity to ever figure that out. But what about us? Remember when you first learned about the holocaust? I remember wondering how the regular folks could have let that happen. The answer, of course, is that there was a culture of terror. What will history say about us, I wonder?

I am not suggesting that the President is a Nazi. I am saying he is fearmongering. In his pettiness, he is making us a smaller people. He is a divider, not a uniter.

I'm tired of having no domestic policy and having a foreign policy based entirely on 9/11. There just is no way to wage war on terror. Terrorism is a crime. It is a police matter. You arrest terrorists. You don't destroy a whole country (even if the terrorists had actually had any affiliation with said country.)

4 comments:

Rory Shock said...

well said

Yellow Dog said...

Well, while you have a more effective wayof expressing you outrage, rory, I have a feeling that the same things keep us awake at night.

The (liberal)Girl Next Door said...

I know I might be hoping against all hope here, but it just might be that the Democrats have a good plan for security that will take us past the fear and toward practical solutions to our security problems. They will be unveiling the plan tomorrow, and while preliminary reports look politically sound, they still may be playing the fear card with references to foreign ownership of port operations. I would hate to see our side use the same politics of fear to wrestle control away from the Republicans. This country has been scared enough, we need a little of our optimism restored. I know I do.

Yellow Dog said...

I really thought the dems were going to wait until it was too late for the repubs to poke holes in any plan before they unveiled one. I think the repubs have done such a fantastic job of placing the American people in harm's way that the dems are "better on security issues" by default.

I think we need to strive again for enlightenment. To be a country of ideas and ideals. Vibrant. Hopeful. Seeking. Aspiring. Reaching. Nurturing. Open. Free.

We are not a one trick pony. there must be something i can do to get my country back.