Unpublished
Destination Unknown?
By Brian Lovett
September 5, 2008
“I told ya’ so” just doesn’t quite cut it. How many authors have tried to bullhorn that America is becoming a police state (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10… #2,100+… #22,600,000+)? In 2004, Ron Paul warned “[w]e are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching.” Pull over and stop the Ronvoy – I think I’m going to be sick. We have arrived.
Though Digg clearly isn’t without its biases, it’s significantly better than anything the mainstream media propaganda machines deliver. Though I couldn’t care less about what is happening in Sarah Palin’s personal life, Digg has quickly brought my attention to the atrocities… no… the violent abuses… no… the war crimes occurring in the Minneapolis area during the Republican National Convention. The videos and stories of police torturing protesters, destroying cars, detaining journalists without cause or search warrants, breaking into garages without warrants, gassing and using water cannons against peaceful protesters, making up crimes, arresting nuns for “trespassing,”confiscating journalist papers without subpoenas, pepper spraying girls holding flowers, arresting journalists for stepping past a line, handcuffing children, and blocking people from recording what the police are doing are everywhere. No, the Democratic National Convention wasn’t much better (that is, unless you think it’s a crime to spit on the ground). Make war – not love continues to be the anthem of the Republocrats.
This isn’t just a few bad apples. Making war is endemic to federal and state government. In fact, let’s be more specific here – aggression is the sole purpose of police. They are not there to help. They are not there to protect. They are there to terrorize at their master’s whim. You think electing Obama will “change” our course? Sure, he’ll be happy to fix this right after he creates “a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military… which is right after he causes more destruction in Afghanistan and Pakistan by fighting the “right war”… which is right after he reauthorizes the Patriot Act… which is right after he reauthorizes funding for Iraq… which is right after he votes to give immunity to telecom companies that willingly spy on Americans. Really. You can believe what he says now – no more flip-flopping for this candidate. (I assume no sarcasm is necessary to suggest that John McCain supports this type of behavior, as his loyalties are well-known - fast forward to 4:20.) So many have shut their eyes to the terrors happening aboard, so it wasn’t a stretch to ignore where we were heading closer to home. Even Pastor Martin Niemöller tried to warn us a long time ago:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
I certainly don’t discount Ron Paul’s effort to try to change direction by training real freedom-lovers about the political process so that they can become more active. I’m always fully supportive of taking action. But it’s time for a different kind of action, one that’s outside the political realm. It’s time for Atlas and the rest of us to shrug:
“Mr. Reardon,” said Francisco, his voice solemnly calm, “If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling, but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?”
“I… don’t know. What… could he do? What would you tell him?”
“To shrug.”
Dr. Paul, this is one patient that you can no longer save. The patient is Dead-On-Arrival.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Lovett is a business transformation consultant and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago. Without any education in law, he went to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the divorce laws that kept him from his daughter. He can be reached at blovett@chicagogsb.edu or through his Web site at www.loveisearned.com.