Thursday, September 20, 2007

 

Stunning Liberty

Below are comments (on an article by Noami Wolf) I posted on the commondreams.org comments section regarding the tasering and arrest of Andrew Meyer after he had attempted to ask 2004 Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry why he allowed his victory to be stolen away by Republican electoral shenanigans. After seeing him in complete non-action while a citizen's right to free speech was stunned out of him, I think we all know the answer.

Yeah this guy just wanted to be “youtube famous.” I guess the same people that are saying this as well as belittling Ms. Wolf want to be “commondreams comments section famous.” If they are not progressive minded, why then not attend to websites that more closely match their points of view? Why, go to websites looking to be offended or looking for opportunities to be hipper-than-thou? Dudes, if this was a prank by the student this means the cops are doubly stupid. First, for showing everybody what brutes they really are and, second, for allowing themselves to be drawn in by this supposed prankster. Any way you slice it, this was an attack on not only this student, but the body politic. If by by body politic we mean the the people and their right to self-rule.

I agree with Ms. Wolf. Like Kent State over 40 years ago, this incident represents a litmus test for the American people. it is either Fight or Flight! From all appearances, the choice, flight, has already been made. Forget about Kerry, he ’s an elite tomato can. Rather than see one of their own dismantled like that, the other students could have all placed themselves between the Gestapo wannabes and the student being attacked. They could have also just surrounded the cops and let them know they will be hurting no one today. I know that is challenging authority. But so was the Declaration of Independence challenging established authority. So was the Civil Rights Movement challenging authority. Authority that has turned tyrannical should and can be challenged. None other than Abraham Lincoln stated that:

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

and

“The people are the masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it”

How about that radical Thomas Jefferson:

“And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that his people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms…The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Whatever their warts these men understood that liberty comes at a price. Often a very steep one. The time, as Ms. Wolf noted, has arrived. Will we as free people individually choose to be the next Crispus Attucks or the next Anne Frank?

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