Don't confuse the two. The problem occurs when treasonous speech is said to just be "dissent."
Posted on 05/30/2004 10:20:01 AM PDT by Maria S
For the life of me I cannot remember when it happened.
I cannot recall when the United States of America ceased being a land of dissenters; of arguers, of contrary thinking; of people blessed with the right, in the words of the very First Amendment to their Constitution, "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
When did protest become unpatriotic? When did the Founding Fathers' vision of a land that honored and embraced contentiousness disappear?
It must have vanished without millions of Americans ever noticing. How else does one explain the view of so many Americans that to question our policy in Iraq is unpatriotic? How else does one justify the stated opinions that protesting government policy gives "aid and comfort" to our enemies?
Such opinions are stated regularly in letters to this newspaper, by senior government officials, by political supporters of President Bush and by many millions of others, who, for reasons that escape me, hold this notion that wartime somehow requires us to keep our political feelings to ourselves.
The great Republican U.S. senator from California, Arthur Vandenberg, once said, "Politics stops at the water's edge." He made that quip to discourage partisan sniping during wartime.
But that doesn't mean Americans should cease questioning government policy, or even challenging a wartime president as many Americans are doing today. Most Americans know their boundaries. Sitting in an anti-aircraft gun, joking with enemy gunners who had killed American pilots - as Jane Fonda did in 1972 during the Vietnam War - crosses that line.
That act still sticks in the craw of many Vietnam veterans, including mine. Protesting government policy through civil disobedience, which millions of Americans did during that time, remains an appropriate form of political expression.
But it seems today that such expressions of disagreement hit a nerve at every turn. To speak out against some aspects of the war against terror, in the minds of many, constitutes an unpatriotic act.
Protesters hate our country, many people contend.
Here's my favorite: Those protesters hate what this country stands for.
So, what does this country stand for?
It stands for liberty. It stands for freedom, but certainly within the bounds of good taste and community standards. The country stands for people's right to speak their minds freely.
At least it used to stand for all that.
Something must have happened to change many Americans' minds about freedom of political expression.
Maybe it was the goons who introduced the United States to their monstrous brand of terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001. They hit us on our own turf, not in some nightclub or military barracks far away. That could bring about a fundamental change in many Americans' outlook about freedom.
Are we now free to express ourselves only if we support our president and his policies?
The Founders didn't put any provisions into the Constitution that suspended our rights to protest when the shooting starts and Americans start dying in combat. By omitting those restrictions, the Founders said quite the opposite. They said protest is a fundamental American right, which I would hasten to add is a totally foreign concept to our enemies.
Another great Republican, President Theodore Roosevelt, said this: "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. ...(I)t is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."
Old Roughrider knew a few things about combat, which he fought in the political arena and on the battlefield. The Founders had it correct when they set aside our rights to seek "redress of grievances." If a policy is strong, it will stand up to any protest. If it is weak, it will change according to the people's will.
Our current crop of leaders, though, needs to stop the overheated responses to those who question them and their policies. Don't they give aid and comfort to those who seek to undermine our very way of life? Last time I checked, that way of life included a healthy dose of dissent.
Unless, of course, that all changed when I wasn't paying attention.
John Kanelis is editorial page editor for the Amarillo Globe-News. He can be contacted at the Globe News, P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo, TX 79166, or via e-mail at john.kanelis@amarillo.com. His column appears each Sunday.
If you think the dissenters have gone away over the last three years, you're too inattentive to be hired as a cub reporter, much less as editorial page editor.
What an ass. All we hear is criticism of administration policies, or does this "journalist" not read what Gore, Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton, et al. are saying?
I hope writing this article made the author feel good.
I think all the "dissenters" vanished when the media began portraying extremist kooks like PETA, Ed Asner, Oprah and Michael Moore as "mainstream".
Don't confuse the two. The problem occurs when treasonous speech is said to just be "dissent."
Freedom: When lots of people criticize the government.
The death of Dissent: When lots of people criticize the criticizers.
Perhaps true freedom is when everyone can say whatever they want, without being arrested for it. Maybe THAT'S what the First Amendment is all about. This bozo seems to think that the First Amendment means his opinion is sacred and no one has the right to disagree with him. What an elitist!
So, nobody has any right to dissent with the dissenters? Not only are they allowed to dissent, but, apparently, we must agree with what they say.
I am free to criticize anyone I want, but you are not free to criticize me.
Let me see if we can make this clear to them...
When it gives aid an comfort to the enemy.
The chief North Vietnamese general recently thanked those who protested the war for helping him to win.
The author advocates "Freedom Lite", the new, wholesome, Atkins-Friendly version. All the good taste and none of the casualties.
The last time America ceased to be a land of dissenters was WWII when the country went out and remade the world.
When they got back the greatest generation gave birth to the baby boom generation, a bunch of ignorant self obsessed, whiney snots that has politisized a war of self defense in which the very future of this country and its future generation hinges.
The baby boomers will not be satisfied until they have ripped away the amazing victory of their children in Iraq and turn it into the same abject failure they created out of vietnam.
Nazi brownshirts infest the media.
The reporter is dismayed that dissenters are not being heralded. Therefore, the problem must be the small number of dissenters not the flawed message of dissenters. Never mind that the latter perpetuates the former.
On September 11, 2001 at 8:47 AM.
Gee. Maybe the same time you Liberals said there was no longer any Second Amendment. You know, how "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"?
Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said "Far out, - What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"
You know, - Well you know you had it comin' to you,
Now there's not a lot I can do
Dreamer, you stupid little dreamer;
So now you put your head in your hands, oh no!
I said "Far out, - What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"
You know, - Well you know you had it comin' to you,
Now there's not a lot I can do.
Well work it out someday
If I could see something
You can see anything you want boy
If I could be someone-
You can be anyone, celebrate boy.
If I could do something-
Well you can do something,
If I could do anything-
Well can you do something out of this world?
Take a dream on a Sunday
Take a life, take a holiday
Take a lie, take a dreamer
dream, dream, dream, dream, dream along...
Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
OH NO!
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