Posted on 07/02/2008 8:30:25 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage.
Put the fireworks in storage.
Cancel the parade.
Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.
This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.
For we have sinned.
We have failed to pay attention. We've settled for lame excuses. We've spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago.
The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner.
The America they founded should never imprison people for years without charge or hearing.
The America they founded should never ship prisoners to foreign lands, knowing their new jailers might torture them.
Such abuses once were committed by the arrogant crowns of Europe, spawning rebellion.
Today, our nation does such things in the name of our safety. Petrified, unwilling to take the risks that love of liberty demands, we close our eyes.
We have done such things, on orders from the Oval Office. We have done them, without general outrage or shame.
Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo. CIA secret prisons. "Rendition" of prisoners to foreign torture chambers.
It's not enough that we had good reason to be scared.
The men huddled long ago in Philadelphia had better reason. A British fleet floated off the Jersey coast, full of hands eager to hang them from the nearest lampposts.
Yet they pledged their lives and sacred honor - no idle vow - to defend the "inalienable rights" of men. Inalienable - what does that signify? It means rights that belong to each person, simply by virtue of being human. Rights that can never be taken away, no matter what evil a person might do or might intend.
Surely one of those is the right not to be tortured. Surely that is a piece of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
This is the creed of July 4: No matter what it costs us, no matter how it scares us, no matter how foolish it seems to a cynical world, America should stand up for human rights.
No, not even the brave men who picked up a quill, dipped it in ink and signed the parchment that summer day in Philadelphia lived up perfectly to the creed. But they did something extraordinary, founding a new nation upon a vow to oppose all the evil habits of tyranny.
That is why history still honors them.
But what will history think of us, of how we responded to our great challenge? Sept. 11 was a hideous evil, a grievous wound. Yet, truth told, it has not summoned our better angels as often as our worst.
We have betrayed the July 4 creed. We trample the vows we make, hand to heart.
Don't imagine that only the torturer's hand bears the guilt. The guilt reaches deep inside our Capitol, and beyond that - to us.
Our silence is complicit. In our name, innocents were jailed, humans tortured, our Constitution mangled. And we said so little.
We can't claim not to have known. The best among us raised the alarm. Heroes in uniform, judges in robes, they opposed the perverse logic of an administration drenched in fear, drunk on power.
But did we heed them? Hardly. Barely . . .
We were so busy. Soccer practice at 6. A credit card balance to fret. The final vote on Idol.
We left it to those in power to keep our precious selves from harm. Whatever it took.
We took the coward's way.
The world sees this, even if we are too dim to grasp it. We've lost respect. We've shamed the memory of Jefferson, Adams and Franklin.
And all for a scam. The waterboarding, the snarling dogs, the theft of sleep - all the diabolical tricks haven't made us safer. They may have averted this plot or that. But they've spawned new enemies by the thousands, made the jihadist rants ring true to so many ears.
So put out no flags.
Sing no patriotic hymns.
We deserve no Fourth this year.
Let us atone, in quiet and humility. Let us spend the day truly studying the example of our Founders. May we earn a new birth of courage before our nation's birthday next rolls around.
Good advice. Are you listening, Obama?
Put Satullo out of his misery and deport the SOB.
This guy needs to get laid.
Ok that wasn’t just a barf..that was a mega barf..I’m so sick of the hate America crowd especially on or near the 4th. If anyone is “spitting” on the founding fathers its the liberals.
To the author Chris Satullo:
Crawl back in the liberal hell-hole that you came from you sniveling piece of coattail riding crap. Whose coattail? Mine, and the MILLIONS of others who contribute something real to society, such as military service, a productive (vs. destructive presstitute) job, and a positive attitude towards the future and past of out GREAT country.
P.S. Bite me girly-man.
This is the creed of July 4: No matter what it costs us, no matter how it scares us, no matter how foolish it seems to a cynical world, America should stand up for...”
AMERICA!
Screw you, you Eurofag pathetic loser fag liberal fag!
Hey, Chrissy.... GFY!
out=our
Oh, Really?
You should read some of the history of our founding/revolutionary war. You don’t think they used some of the powers of pursuasion necessary during a war? You bet they did.
Some of the british soldiers who were put in prison during the revolutionary war would beg to differ with you. You stupid idiot.
So, what proof you have of President Bush ordering torture of the Jihad crowd?
On a personal note. You are not worthy of our Founders who ever you are.
You people just love to trot out the founders corpses when it suits your needs, otherwise all I ever hear from libs like you is that they were nothing but rich white men etc..
So shut up.
P.S. this is directed to the author of this piece, not the poster.
Oh, Really?
You should read some of the history of our founding/revolutionary war. You don’t think they used some of the powers of pursuasion necessary during a war? You bet they did.
Some of the british soldiers who were put in prison during the revolutionary war would beg to differ with you. You stupid idiot.
So, what proof you have of President Bush ordering torture of the Jihad crowd?
On a personal note. You are not worthy of our Founders who ever you are.
You people just love to trot out the founders corpses when it suits your needs, otherwise all I ever hear from libs like you is that they were nothing but rich white men etc..
So shut up.
P.S. this is directed to the author of this piece, not the poster.
How totally sophomoric. English 1A essay.
Some how, I suspect the author of this article wouldn’t be nearly as “eloquent” in writing about the founding fathers intent for the 2nd Amendment ...
This pantload Satullo has been hanging around the Philadelphia Inquirer (”the Stinky”) for decades... One of those bylines you might happen to notice on your way to the sports section. He’s a regular poster boy for the Peter Principle. This tripe is typical from him, and from his dying newspaper.
All that breathless melodrama to let us know he wants to elect a Democrat for president, as if we couldn't have guessed.
Let us spend the day truly studying the example of our Founders.
Don't tell him, but our founding father's certainly wouldn't let him marry this week's gay lover.
General Washington conducted a "drumhead" trial of Andre, under the Law of War. Andre was sentenced to the hanged. Washington offered to trade Andre to the British in return for Arnold. The British refused, and Andre was hanged.
The British, by the way, tried, convicted and hanged Nathan Hale under the same Law of War, when they captured him spying on British fortifications on Manhattan island.
It is always possible to find writers this ignorant. But a newspaper whose editors are this ignorant should not be publishing articles allegedly about American history.
Congressman Billybob
To the sad, pitiful, bitter author of this article I say:
So put out no flags.
WE WILL PUT OUT ALL OUR FLAGS, FRONT YARD, BACK YARD, SIDE YARD, FLAG POLES, PLANTERS AND MOST IMPORTANT IN THE HANDS OR OUR LITTLE CHILDREN!!!
Sing no patriotic hymns.
WE WILL NOT ONLY SING OUR PATRIOTIC HYMS AND MANY OF THEM BUT...WE WILL SING THEM LOUD AND CLEAR DROWNING OUT VOICES OF HATRED LIKE YOUR OWN.
We deserve no Fourth this year.
MAYBE you DON’T DESERVE A FOURTH OF JULY THIS YEAR BUT I CAN CERTAINLY TELL YOU THAT THE REST OF US AMERICANS WHO LOVE AND APPRECIATE OUR COUNTRY DESERVE OUR FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION THIS YEAR AS WE HAVE IN THE PAST AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO IN THE FUTURE.
THERE MIGHT BE THINGS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY BUT THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE TRYING TO FIX THEM. TOO BAD EVERYONE CAN JOIN IN AND TRY THEIR BEST TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN. SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST MISERABLE AND UNHAPPY AND BITTER AND ANGRY AND CANNOT OPEN THEIR HEARTS TO THE HOPE, LOVE AND FAITH THAT IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
SO TO ALL MY FELLOW FREEPERS AND TO ALL US AMERICANS ... HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AND HANG THOSE FLAGS HIGH, SING THOSE SONGS AND ENJOY YOUR FOURTH NO MATTER HOW YOU DECIDE TO CELEBRATE.
Chris,
I just recognized your name. We've had some correspondence. You are not merely a reporter or stringer. You are an editor. How appalling.
But I stand by my comments about your piece, which I posted moments ago on a discussion thread. I'm not sure which would be worse, that you wrote this in utter ignorance of Major Andre and Nathan Hale, or that you knew about them and deliberately ignored their histories. Either way, you lied by omission to the readers of your newspaper.
John Armor, Esq.
aka, Congressman Billybob
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