The Furious Spinner

The United States is no longer what it was. This country is now legally no different from many other fascist and repressive countries. The President of the United States signed a bill into law that makes torture legal. It also makes it legal for him to put you or me or anyone else into prison without telling us why and without legal representation. By the way, as he signed this torture bill into law, protesters in front of the White House were arrested and taken away.

America. R.I.P.

I feel so sad.

I'm listening to Keith Olbermann right now and Jonathan Turley said, "Where were the American people? Why didn't they stand up against this?" History is going to judge us harshly. The United States has become the enemies of the rest of the world because of this (and the other things this government is doing). Keith said to Turley that "we'll probably see each other in Gitmo." What's going to stop Bush from putting anyone away who disagrees with him?

I have no words to express how I feel. It feels like someone has written "The End" on the story of our country.

P.S. I don't blame it all on the people or on the administration. I just googled this story and no major newspapers had it as their lead. For many I couldn't find the information anywhere. On CNN, their second lead story was about Madonna. The torture bill was way down near the bottom of the page. 6 comments

6 Comments:

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By  Mario, at 7:21 AM  

Speechless. Just the way they want us. Stay furious, Kim. Somebody needs to tell the story when the media doesn't.

By  kevin, at 12:05 PM  

You know, I'm teaching George Orwell right now - 'Politics & the English Language,' 'Why I Write,' and 'Animal Farm' all grouped together. Today, after we discussed the relationship between the capacity for honest language and the capacity for honest thought at length, I found myself talking about how regardless of people's particular political views, one has only to look at BushCo's language to see an illustration of an extremist agenda for totalitarianism via linguistic manipulation of the people. We talked about the Just Folks bullshit approach while the administration is busily stripping civil rights (and bless 'em, they remembered from past discussions that he ain't no folksy Texan, he's a rich Yale graduate from Connecticut).

You think he doesn't know how to pronounce the word nuclear? I spluttered. You're being scammed. It's a SCAM, you see? Read Orwell's words. This is us, now. This is you, now.

And class ended, which was probably just as well.

We splutter, practice our small subversions, corrupt youth to the best of our abnility in college classrooms (which are going fast: look at funding for the Humanities, look at the adjunct system of migrant labor kept poor and desperate and penultimately exchangeable), we risk what we can and more, and it's not enough.

This is a terrifying time. I don't know what to say.

By  Theriomorph, at 7:46 PM  

Someone said that one reason we don't see people in the streets is that we're all busy expressing our outrage on the internet. That may be a valid point. I write a lot of letters (i.e. emails) and feel like I'm making a difference....but am I? My representatives in the government don't seem to be taking a stand for the right thing.

Maybe "they" need to see me standing on the sidewalk with thousands (then millions) of others who are unwilling to allow this to happen any longer. It's gone too far for too long.

We're not just losing our country, we're losing our world.

By  Steve R, at 10:12 PM  

I had a long enraged weeping session when I read that this bill had been signed into law by Dubya and his band of thugs. So long, democracy and justice, hello repression and tyranny. . .

By  kerrdelune, at 8:07 AM  

Thanks for the comments. Feels better to know we are the majority even if that isn't doing much good right now. (I'm not saying that because of the comments but because of the most recent polls.)

Kevin: We all need to stand up, one way or another, don't you think, even if that standing up isn't anything more than voting.

Steve: That's interesting. Yes, the protests of now may not be as visible as before--and maybe they need to be. Millions of us protested the war. Why aren't million protesting the death of their own rights? I think most people don't even know about it. And the rest of us wonder what good it would do. Sometimes the good it does is that it's good to do. (I think that makes sense.)

Theriomorph: So do you think the students understood? Good for you for talking about it.

Kerrdelune: Yes, I've been weeping a lot, too. And writing. That's how I solve problems. The next thing is to vote. (I sound like broken record.) I'm hoping Canada doesn't follow suit.

By  Kim Antieau, at 6:11 PM  

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