vision2020
Re: Free Speech Forum and March for Human Rights...
Don Kaag et. al.
I emphatically agree with Ms. Huskey's comments on freedom, civil rights and
the military. The sacrifices of the men and women in the military are
supreme, we all know this and respect it, even if we disagree with the goals
of particular wars and military actions. But what of those who DIED, some
of them white, in the fight for the civil rights of Blacks in the civil
rights struggles? What about those who deliberately flaunted the authority
of the government and military on principle by refusing to fight in the
Vietnam war, and went to prison (when they could have ran to Canada) as a
protest? What of those who stood up to the anti-communist paranoia in the
fifties and were ruined as they refused to give names to the big brother
style government committees who were ruining peoples lives with their lists
of communist sympathizers? I could go on giving examples of the ways in
which Americans support and defend their freedoms without being in the
military, but the few examples I gave make my point.
And Ms. Huskey is correct when she asserts that the military is also
connected to forces in America that work to restrict our freedoms. It has
been said that no nation that is often at war is really free, that freedom
simply cannot co-exist with a society that is at war. And there is no doubt
that the military brass and the Bush administration are now pushing war for
reasons that are not just the noble goals of national defense, oil, the
military/industrial corporate connection, and personal power being other
motivations among many. This statement is certainly supported by currents
trends since 9/11. Our civil liberties are being taken away in frightening
ways, and the justification is the current "War On Terror." And if anyone
thinks the military mindset of the Hawks in the Pentagon and the Bush
administration have maintaining our civil liberties as their top priority,
they have not been paying close attention to the horrific erosion of our
rights currently underway. What is the point of defending the USA from
terrorists when we throw away the freedoms and legal protections of our
liberties that are what we our fighting for? It seems to me the terrorists
are winning the battle with every civil right Bush, Ashcroft, the Pentagon
and the courts allow to be trampled on.
I think American's need the courage to face the fact that a free society may
be more dangerous. That's one of the prices of freedom. As Ben Franklin
said, "Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither."
Ted
>From: "Melynda Huskey" <mghuskey@hotmail.com>
>To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: Free Speech Forum and March for Human Rights...
>Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 19:36:08 -0800
>
>
>Don Kaag writes:
>
>"[ROTC] provided the trained 'from the people' officers who commanded and
>led the men and women who ensured that you could make a march like this.
>They shed their blood to keep you free.
>" 'For those who have served, freedom has a taste---and a price---that
>the protected will never know.' (Found written on a piece of C-Rat box
>cardboard, and nailed to a tree outside a firebase near Khe Sahn, RVN,
>1965.)"
>
>
>And I have to wonder what freedom, exactly, was being protected at Khe
>Sahn? I'm lucky--my dad came back from Operation Prairie II in Viet Nam
>unharmed in mind or body, unlike many of his fellow Marines.
>
>A citizen's right to protest war is not granted through the magnanimity of
>the armed services. In fact, those rights have often been suspended in
>U.S. history at the behest of the military in order to protect it from
>criticism. It is our persistence and our conviction that keep us marching,
>not the generosity of the military. And our First Amendment rights, not
>the paternal good nature of the folks with the guns, protect the expression
>of our dissent.
>
>People can disagree in good conscience about particular wars, or about war
>in general; although I have been a pacifist all my life for religious
>reasons, I recognize that others have entirely different opinions held with
>equal conviction. It's unfair and inaccurate, however, to claim that we
>enjoy our position simply as a luxury accorded to us by the superior
>self-sacrifice and moral superiority of those who serve in the armed
>forces.
>
>Melynda HuskeyGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download :
>http://explorer.msn.com
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