Independence Day

For well over a year I've been ranting, raving, bitching, and screaming, "People wake up, something valuable is at stake here...". Very few people paid any attention to me. They laugh me off as some kind of crazy Liberal nut. When I wrote about the so called Christian-right and their determination to take over the 'moral highground'. Most everyone just blew me off.
Remember when I ranted about the TV show The Book of Daniel? Remember how so many thought it was perfectly acceptable for TV stations to refuse to air the program? Even though they'd never even seen the show? Do you remember the people who damned the show before it ever aired? Those who said they wouldn't watch it, not because of what they knew but because of what they'd heard? They never bothered to watch even one episode. And now they have the nerve to be upset because someone they know has been censored? Where were they when TV stations were censoring thousands of viewers?
I can't help but wonder. Did you really think it wouldn't come knocking on your own door sooner or later? Did you somehow think you were safe? Did you really believe you had nothing to loose?
Well guess what YOU contributed to it. When you refuse to stand up for the right of every American to choose what he/she watches, reads, or writes, you are saying it's okay to censor. You're saying it's okay to tell a man/woman/teenager what he or she is allowed to write or say.
There's a woman in Georgia who's lost her home, her job, her drivers license, and damn near everything she's worked her whole life for. Why? Because she had the nerve to follow up on her suspicions that there was something wrong with the electronic voting machines used in Georgia elections. Did anyone in this part of the blogosphere care? No, it was just another case of crazy Wanda writing about some other crazy woman. You know Wanda, she's always going on about some crazy thing or another.
It hasn't escaped my notice that the number of people who visit my blog has dropped significantly. Nor am I surprised. People seldom enjoy reading what they don't want to hear. Besides, it's just all so boring.
We all know the stories about people who've lost their jobs (and more) over their blogs. So why is anyone shocked that it could happen to someone they know and love? Did you really think it wouldn't come to this?
Step by step, one by one, our civil rights are being stripped away. If it's not in the name of "protecting us from terrorist", it's in the name of "religion". There is a segment of society who have decided they and they alone know what's best for the rest of us, and we can either get on board with it, or we can be 'dealt' with.
Speaking of terrorism, am I the only one who finds it damned interesting that the very administration that's been shoving the Patriot Act down our throats for the past five years, claiming we must protect ourselves from Muslim terrorist, is now the very same administration that is ready and willing to turn over the security to our nations ports to a country from the Middle East? A MUSLIM country. And their not just ready and willing, they're fighting for it.
Tonight as I read all my usual blogs, and I read the outrage, I found myself wondering why are they surprised? Now I'm also wondering, are you ready to pull your heads out of the sand and get involved? Is there anyone who's ready to stand up and say, NO MORE? Not just in defense of the people you know, but in defense of every blogger, author, actor, movie maker, ect. Because you know what, it won't stop here. In fact it won't stop until we all stand together and say it stops.
For starters, start paying attention to the mid-term elections that are coming up. Get to know those candidates. Find out what they stand for. Where do they stand on things like freedom of speech, and the right to a fair and speedy trial. The right of every American to make their own personal choices regarding their lifestyle, their minds and their bodies. When you protect those rights you protect the rights of every blogger who's been hurt because they chose to open up and share their thoughts, feelings and opinions with the world wide web.
In this case, when you protect the rights of the many, you protect the rights of the few. It has to start somewhere.