Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Profiles in Courage

Profiles in Courage

According to dictionary.com courage is the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery

I saw Caroline Kennedy on the Daily Show the other night, and she was promoting the 50th anniversary of her fathers book Profiles in Courage. She said it was written by then Senator Kennedy, to show Senators of the past who were willing to step up and take stances, that might not have been popular or against the conventional wisdom of the day. They were willing to risk their career for what they believed and probably had to drag the rest of the Senate, and in turn the rest of the country along with them.

She also is now presenting a Profile in Courage annual award as a way to remember what President Kennedy stood for when he was alive. This year’s recipient was Rep. John Murtha, (D-PA), the outspoken hawkish lawmaker, who came out against the war in Iraq last November, demanding an immediate with drawl of American troops. However, it was something that John Stewart said which got me thinking about this post. He said something like, is it difficult to find courageous people out there worthy of this honor?

How scary and true!!! Needless to say, I picked up the book today, and planning on seeing what was considered to be courageous in 1956.

Speaking of courage, I want to know how things that used to be fundamentally assumed to be protected rights, are now being usurped by the Bush administration. First, as a general rule, the United States of America, and all of its citizens were fundamentally against torture or prolonged imprisonment without due process. It is one of the reasons we ultimately seceded from Great Britain and King George III tyranny. It is also why the 6th amendment was added to the constitution. I realize that the detainees at Gitmo, are not American citizens, but we should apply some standards to how long they can or should be detained without a trial. Currently it is 4+ years for these individuals with no end in sight. All this does is encourage further hatred of America, which is counter-productive to the alleged democracy building we are attempting in the Muslim dominated Middle East. Imagine being ripped from your life, moved to Madagascar, kept in confinement, with no contact with the outside world, no contact with your wife, children, or parents until at least 2010, without any indication of how or what will ever get you released. I can assume that 5-10% of the detainees are truly high level Al-Queda operatives, the rest are just foot soldiers, who deserve better treatment for essentially doing their jobs. Is this how we want our captured soldiers treated in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Second, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is beginning proceedings to indict the New York Times for publishing the details of the confidential NSA domestic spying ring. I realize the government needs to keeps secrets in times of war, and in times of peace. But in a democratic free society, where the people are supposed to hold their elected officials responsible, it is essential that the press is able to investigate and publish its findings so the public can decide what is right and wrong. Again this seems to be the very basis for the 1st amendment, the first thing the founding fathers put into the bill of rights!!

Somewhere along the line, in order to “protect” the individual or maybe to defend the homeland against foreign unseen and unknown adversaries, it has become alright for the government to trample the rights of the individual for the good of the people. This sounds more communistic or socialist, that democratic, but again 50% of the country does not have a problem with the NSA spying on their telephone calls, reading the emails, and generally checking up on individuals. Growing up, this is something that I never expected to be an issue, but it is now an issue and if we are not careful, we will be living in a police state. Frightening, maybe George Orwell’s 1984 was only 30-40 years too early.

Finally, what the fuck is the Department of Homeland Security thinking by reducing funding to New York City and Washington DC (plus the state of Connecticut), and re-allocating it to such hot beds of terror alert of Wichita, Omaha and Wyoming. It seems that Homeland Security and the entire concept of merging our intelligence into a single unit and being able to coordinate efforts during the next emergency or disaster, has gone the way of the do-do bird, and has become nothing more than pork and reward for those states that voted for President Bush in 2004. Very sad.

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