Demand Courage!

by rich kolker, Fri Jul 22, 2005 at 04:55:00 AM EDT

We need Dan Rather back. Somebody needs to have the guts and foresight to speak to the American people and tell us, "Courage."

Franklin Roosevelt told us in the face of adversity that"we have nothing to fear but fear itself." To me, too young to remember Roosevelt who died before I was born in the fearful 1950's, those were only words. But now I understand. Because as I reach next month the age Roosevelt was when he spoke those words, I see what fear itself can do to a free people. Fear is taking away from us voluntarily what no nation on earth could take from us by force of arms.

It would be easy to blame this on politicians. Certainly, there have been few if any who have stood with courage in the face of the shock of 9/11 and said "We will always be the country we are today. Free, prosperous and generous under the consent of the governed and the protections of our Constitution." Instead, fear leads them to restrictions on our freedom, support of international policies where "opposition to terrorism", much like "anti-Communism" once was, is more important that freedom in choosing friends and allies and excuses to violate the Constitution rather than embrace it.

But politicians could not do that without the implicit support of the American people. We no longer stand, we cower. When a sniper shot and killed several people in the Washington, DC area, people were afraid to go to gas stations, even though the pumps were more likely to explode due to lightening than they'd be targeted by the sniper. Today, people accept that policemen, without probable cause, in a public place, can search their bag and prevent them from proceeding if they do not comply. They accept "Big Brother" like cameras peering at them from light poles and buildings as they do not more than travel in their daily routine.

I said earlier that politicians were cowering in fear, but it is as much fear of being considered "soft on terrorism" by their fearful constituents, costing them an election, as it is fear of the terrorists themselves.

It is time for our elected officials to be better than that.

It is time for we, the electors of those officials, to demand it of them.

It is time for Courage, or fear itself will do what bombs could not.

Tags: (all tags)

  • 6 Comments
  • 0 recs
  • Share
  • Permalink

Comments

6 Comments

Shadow_head_small
Tip Jar
On a day when the House extends the Patriot Act....
by rich kolker 2005-07-22 04:59AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
No Backbones Need Apply
If only we had a Doctor in the (White) House.  No, not dread doctor Frist, Good Dr. Howard Dean.  If Dean were President, 'hope, not fear' would be the rule of the day.  If only...
by donna in evanston 2005-07-22 05:06AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
We Need Action
Visit the ACLU and email Congress

or make a phone call.

Visit Sociatus for a righteous liberal blogosphere smackdown

Tme to get off our dead and dying butts and get into action. Maybe we should step away from our keyboards get get out into the streets and raise a little hell.

by Gary Boatwright 2005-07-22 05:39AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
Bring forth heroes
I, too, am too young to remember Roosevelt.  But my relatives remembered him and honored him as a great man for the people.  The spirit of FDR brought us through the darker days of the Depression and the spirit of FDR brought us through the perillous day of infamy to victory in WWII.

It is worth noting, that FDR chose George Marshall to run the army as we approached war because he understood and worked with civillians best among all the senior officers.

Yesterday was the 144th anniversary of the first big battle of the Civil War, Bull Run.   Two somewhat obscure officers emerged as heroes from that battle.  The South, of course, produced Stonewall Jackson who earned his nickname that day.  The North, however, produced a colonel whose militia fought as well as the regulars and who limited the losses due to panic: William Tecumseh Sherman.

Fight! Even in defeat we can bring forth the heroes who can and will win.

by David Kowalski 2005-07-22 07:04AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
The Nation of Sheep
Well, what can you expect people to act like, when they have been conditioned by television for the past 50 years to do one thing-CONFORM.

And conform to the model that the advertisers, who are corporatists in league with Big Money, want them to conform to.  That is, mindless consumerism-the bottom line trumps all other values, and plastic values of sexuality which drowns out all other "true" values which true religious and ethical systems have taught for millenia-love of neighbor, social justice, etc.

We need to realize the harm that the mass corporate media has done to our country.  It has lulled the population to sleep, just like in Orwell's 1984.  The media, and the assorted electronic games which has taken over the free time of our children and which young people under 40 grew up with, has brainwashed the country.

The absolute corporate control over the media, and Republicans in power and control of all three branches of government, has cowed even the bravest of our national figures-Dan Rather among them.

Even Dan Rather in the end, rather than fighting for the truth of his story, lamely decided to salvage his job and apologized for a true story.  He should have pointed out this had all the markings of a Rove dirty trick-discredit a true story by leaking a tainted memo.  But even Rather chose to give up in the end, accept his banishment form the anchor's chair for the paltry job of occasional 60 Minutes II specials.  And now I heard they are canceling 60 Minutes II !!

What a sad ending to Rather's long and principled career, in which he stood up to Nixon and Bush I.  

Liberals and progressives, we need to throw out our televisions, cancel our subscriptions to cable, and boycott the corporate advertisers who are taking our country down the primrose path to Fascism.

We can do without the superfluous goods Big Money is trying to sell us.  We can lead simple and more natural lives closer to nature.  We can instill true spiritual values in our children, if only we make a stand.

There is a passage in the Bible that goes something like this - "As for me and my household, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD."

Yes, the hour of decision is now upon America.  We must reject the idols of Big Money and individual self-worship and consumerism, with its alliance with Fascism and the military/industrial complex, and serve the Lord and true spiritual values.  The choice is ours to make.  

by MichiganDemocrat 2005-07-22 08:24AM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
Re: The Nation of Sheep
There's another one where that Jesus dude says "I have many things to tell you, but you are not ready to hear."

I think we're still not ready.

by Gary Boatwright 2005-07-22 09:29AM | 0 recs

Diaries

Advertise Blogads


----------- myDD - skin -----------