Give 'Em Hell, Guys!

Send this around and be willing to raise Hell! for America:

Everybody talks in hushed terms. Nobody wants to be seen "taking sides." Everybody avoids commitment like the plague. Our representatives are intimidated ruthlessly. If they speak out against some perceived evil, their lives are made Hell. There are already reports on every progressive democratic candidate, detailing plans about how to quell their ascendancy. It would make Hoover proud! Why does the media avoid dealing with the reality of a situation, especially those that have political ramifications. Why are editors discouraged from following up on stories that will inform the general public?: What has happened to general Investigative Reporting? Why have our media options been so curtailed despite the plethora of crapola emanating from those who would have us mercilessly mind-whipped? Why is NPR under the gun? Why is it being threatened with curtailed funding and an end to government support for simply reporting the truth?
There is an atmosphere that if we talk something terrible will happen. if we speak, the IRS will come a'calling or something infinitely worse will happen to us. People seem like they inhabit a place not unlike Stalin's Russia where the Gulag awaited you for speaking your mind. The question is "Why?" Why do we feel so intimidated to speak our minds in a free society? Why do we feel so powerless? What have Americans through two World Wars, Vietnam and Korea fought for if only to see disappear? Aren't we supposed to be a free and transparent society? Then why is there so much secrecy? Why is it hard to get to the bottom on anything? Why is it that the cover-ups are growing in nature and complexity? Why is it that we can't get answers to our questions? Why is it that our government has been less than honest with us? Why are our leaders unwilling to talk? Why is it that we have gone through such a radical transformation without the public being up in arms? Without the media reporting what is going on? Why do we have to wait to find out what the terrorists really did when they attacked the US and what and who was behind it all? If we are supposed to be living in a free society, isn't our reluctance to face facts and speak up worrying to you and everyone you know? If it's not worrying, isn't that reason to worry? Don't know about you but it certainly worries me. It worries me when Americans take everything the government hands out without questionning it. when the leaders of the Party in Opposition (we are supposed to be a two party system), fail to ask the hard question or plays them down. Are they representing you? They certainly aren't representing me. Where are our great leaders who puff themselves up and hide in the corner? Where are the people who are willing to put their views on display for all to hear? Where have they gone? We hear that habeas corpus has been suspended, that they can look into our check books, our email without getting a court order; that we can stand trial as a terrorist suspect without having anything proven or having a fair trial. Yet, most of us do not know anyone who has been physically threatened, nor do we know anyone who has had the IRS thrust on them, or been forced out of the country for their political views. But it seems that we all fear that and worse! Why? Why are we willing to send the fruit of our loins in harm's way; yet we are afraid to question why they are being sent? Why are we willing to support this government when they have not given us one real provable reason that we are in Iraq in the first place? Why do we accept that shipping our jobs off-shore is good for America? Why have we given this president the right to make economic decisions for us outside of Congress? What are this man's credentials that he should have access to the button that can decimate the world? I I remember how we stood together for truth and the American way in the past but where is America today? Have we so lost our objectivity, so bought into what the government is selling that we fail to exercise our own minds; that we fail to ask the questions that sustain those who live in a so-called free society? Are we supposed to take the word of Powell that reducing the number of media outlets is really good for society; that it will benefit the truth? Where is the decent and honest willingness to question? Where is debate? . It may be time to emulate the anchor on Network and stick our heads out the window and declare that we are not going to take it anymore; if only we had the courage to do so.

It is time for each of us to ask ourselves, what are we doing to stand up for democracy and a free society. To ask ourselves what we will say to our grandchildren someday when they ask "what did you do to help keep society free?" Is this the way we want to be remembered at the start of a new century when there is so much at stake? I wonder. I wonder if my dad's sacrifices and the time I put in serving my country was a waste of time and effort. That the wounds my dad carried with him every day of his life was worth his willingness to stand up for America? I wonder if the sacrifices made by the Greatest Generation were in the end with no lasting impact? That we are only a democracy in name only when the people of the land do not have the backbone to stand up for what they believe. That's what I believe....
And if you believe the biggest lie: That we have unlimited time to correct the problem, you are sadly misguided!....
If you say, we'll take care of it later...or let someone else do it, have you not contributed to the mess we are in today?

Too many questions for those who have to support the kids, work three jobs and scrape by on a meagre income....

Les Aaron
the Armchair Curmudgeon.