Voice Of Dissent

It's been a while since I've posted anything political, mainly because even talking about Bush gets me so fucking angry, but I read something today that I felt needed to be shared. Somehow, I ended up on John Kerry's email list, and every week or so I'll get an email asking for money to help stop the Republicans from trampling another Constitutional Amendment, exposing another CIA agent, starting another misguided war, or whatever new form of deviousness they've come up with this week. Usually, I skim and delete. But today, I got an email about a speech that Kerry made recently in Boston. There was a link to the text of his speech, so I took a few minutes to read it, and I'm glad I did. It turned out to be the most eloquent, well-thought out, and cohesive condemnation of the Bush administration and the Iraq war that I've seen from anyone, and it made me glad to see that the Democrats might be starting to get their act together and present a viable alternative in 2008. If only they could have done that two years ago, we could have been saved a whole lot of grief. You can bet your ass if Clinton had approved exposing a CIA agent out of vindictiveness and spite, the Republicans would have impeached ol' Bill and had him tarred and feathered and on his way out of Washington faster than you can say "Tom DeLay". But for far too long after 9/11, Democrats have handled speaking out against the President with kid gloves for fear of appearing "unpatriotic", which is complete and utter bullshit. Keeping your mouth shut when a figure of authority is doing something wrong is a lot more unpatriotic than following your leaders blindly, and that's one of the subjects of Kerry's speech. Here's a sample:

America has always rejected war as an instrument of raw power or naked self-interest. We fought when we had to in order to repel grave threats or advance freedom and self-determination in concert with like-minded people everywhere. But our current leadership, for all its rhetoric of freedom and democracy, behaves as though might does make right, enabling us to discard the alliances and institutions that served us so well in the past as nothing more now than impediments to the exercise of unilateral power.

America has always been stronger when we have not only proclaimed free speech, but listened to it. Yes, in every war, there have been those who demand suppression and silencing. And although no one is being jailed today for speaking out against the war in Iraq, the spirit of intolerance for dissent has risen steadily, and the habit of labeling dissenters as unpatriotic has become the common currency of the politicians currently running our country.

Dismissing dissent is not only wrong, but dangerous when America's leadership is unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to engage in honest discussion of the nation's direction, and unwilling to hold itself accountable for the consequences of decisions made without genuine disclosure, or genuine debate.

Click here for the rest of the speech, entitled "Dissent". This speech really hit home for me, since I've always been bothered by people who think that if you're against the war, you don't "support the troops". Sorry, but to me, supporting the troops means not wanting them to be unneccessarily placed in harm's way with an unclear mission while dozens of them are being killed every day. But I guess that's unpatriotic.

I finally got around to posting the Chicago photos. Check them out.

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Howl's Moving Castle