Ever since September 11, 2001 the area around the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia has been barracaded and off limits to everything but foot traffic. In an uncharacteristic move, Mayer John Street announced yesterday that this section of the street would be reopened this afternoon, over the objections of those in the National Park Service as well as former Governor and head of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.
Mayer Street stated as his reasons for reopening the street the fact that a year and a half of no traffic has devastated the businesses on that street and some of them are on the verge of bankruptcy. It may be the single most intelligent decision he has made in the entire length of his term.
On a related note, the National Park Service announced immediately after Mayer Street's announcement that effective today, all the historical buildings in the immediate area except the Liberty Bell will be closed to tourists until they can construct new barracades around the buildings without blocking the street. They estimate this will take appoximately a month or longer.
Am I the only one who finds it completely ridiculous that the symbols of our freedom are being locked against us out of fear. Where there is fear there is no freedom. Where there is freedom, there is no fear. I CHOOSE FREEDOM! More and more of our freedoms are being taken away from us by our own government. These afronts to our freedoms are based in a deep seated fear. What is our "President" afraid of? Another 9-11? If it is meant to happen, it will happen no matter what we do to prevent it.
Isrealis and Palestinians go about their lives each and every day. They don't overly worry about the next car bomb or the shelling. They just live. They laugh, they cry, they live, they die. I was always taught that this was life!! JUST LIFE! The Isrealis and the Palestinians are more free than we will ever be. They understand that life is risky and tenuous at best. And they live their lives as if each day was their last. Because they realize it just might be. But they do not live their lives in fear. They do not board themselves up in their own homes and fear going outside where life resides. They get out there in it no matter what the risk.
You may say that 9-11 showed us how vulnerable we are. If you didn't think this would happen here eventually, with all those in the world that hate us because we have it all and they want it, at best you are completely naive. I am surprised really that it didn't happen before this. After all, it wasn't the first time these same people tried to destoy the world trade center. You had to know they wouldn't give up. 9-11 did show us how vulnerable we are. I choose to think that's a good thing. It was a wake up call. Unfortunately, all it served to do was get the wagon master the circle the wagons. We should have looked for ways to reach out to those who don't understand us to try and calm their fears. They said we did not understand them, and we didn't. But we also didn't make one damned effort to try to understand. So, they got angry. Boy did they get angry! I remember thinking this must be Armageddon. Our world is about to end. I didn't know how right I was at the time.
Our world has ended and may never be the same. We have since lost a lot of our freedoms in the name of National Security. I don't want to be secure, I want to be free. That's what I signed on for. In the aftermath of 9-11 the Justice Department presented a bill to the Legislature for passage. These panty waists in Washington passed it vertually unread because they feared someone flying a plane into Capitol Hill. So they transferred their fears onto the rest of us. They passed the PATRIOT ACT within a month of 9-11. Think about this for a moment. It has approximately 372 pages of law that had to be researched before being written. Do you really think it only took them a month to do it? I think this bill was in the making long before 9-11. I think they were just waiting for the catastrophe to happen so they had a reason to sneak it through. I know you are thinking "how would they know 9-11 would happen?" The intelligence community was running rampent for over a year before 9-11 with information on something huge getting ready to go down in the U.S. Intelligence from Britain and Germany warned us of an impending attack. The CIA knew it, the FBI knew it and George W. Bush knew it. If the agency knew something this big that threatened our National Security, they are required by law to notify the "President". If they didn't notify him, heads would roll. I didn't see any, did you? If they did tell him, that means our "Thief and Chief" lied to us and allowed thousands of innocent Americans do die just so he could usurp power from the other two divisions of our government. There are 3 divisions of our federal government for a reason. The very reason they exist is to prevent what he has done to us. They are set up this way to keep one arm of government from having too much power. The problem is, we never expected to have someone in office that would figure out a way to grab all the power and do it with the blessings of the other two arms of the government.
I don't know why this should surprise me. He lied, cheated and stole his way to the White House. Why would I expect him to not lie, cheat and steal our freedoms along the way. Just like , as Michael Moore says, this "fictitious" war he has thrown us into, the raping of our Constitution was planned long before inaugural day. That is why it was so important that he steal the election, he couldn't put any of his maniacal plans into action unless he was "President".
Mark my words, people. He will try to sneak another bill under the radar before the end of his term to prevent us from even having the 2004 elections. He'll claim it's for our own good. "For the good of the Merican people and the people of the world", 'cause, God knows, we don't know what's good for us. I know what's good for us. I can't believe Madonna backed down to pressure. She has this great new video that was supposed to come out as a war protest. In part of it, she tosses a grenade and it lands in Bush's lap. Peasonally I think that's the funniest thing I've heard in a while. I'd pay real money to see somebody do that to him.
But, alas, the Propaganda Mongers got to her and now we'll never see it. What has happened to all our outspoken radicals. Somebody threatens to hit them in their pocketbook and they back down. Madonna, you have more money than you will ever need, what's your point. Surely you didn't succomb to the old "it's unpatriotic" song and dance. Because speaking out when you disagree with your government is one of the most important freedoms we have. DON'T LET THEM TAKE IT AWAY! I hope they read this. I hope they come to get me! I'll be screaming and kicking the whole way. Everyone around the area will know that my freedoms are being taken away. If they think no one will miss me if I disappear, they should ask my kids. I teach my children every day to stand up for what they believe in and never let anyone tell them they can't speak their mind if they disagree with anything. They express those rights even in school, sometimes to their own detriment. But I never discourage them, even when I have to pick my daughter up from detention! I think it lets them know that they are free to make their own choices, but sometimes those choices come with consequences. Aquainting oneself with consequences helps you appreciate your freedoms more.
What consequences will the Bush administration be aquainted with? They must be made to answer for what they have done to our country and to each and every one of us in the process. If there is an election in 2004, we could vote all of them out of office, including all the republicans in congress and every democrat that went along with them. Believe me, there are a lot of them. We still have the freedom to vote. Please use it before that is taken away too.
FRRREEEEEEDOOOOOMMMMMM!
Posted by cdedwards at April 1, 2003 11:04 PM