|
Tucson Citizen – July 14, 2006
Threat to our freedoms lies within America
By Robin Polt
Osama bin Laden received millions of dollars from America when we needed him to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Likewise, America supported Joseph Stalin during World War II when we needed his troops to defeat the fascist German war machine.
After Hitler's collapse, "Uncle Joe" became the murderous thug we all love to hate and was placed at the top of our enemies list.
But Stalin, as the head of a state with armies, prisons and the KGB, enslaved and killed many more people than bin Laden ever will.
Stalin once remarked, "Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns; why should we let them have ideas?"
Today, as then, important ideas can be squelched with simple slogans: Love it or leave it. Tax and spend. Cut and run. And, my personal favorite: pre-9/11.
In 1933, pre-war Germany, it was Ein volk, ein fuhrer (one people, one leader).
With the aid of a single media outlet, Fox News, even very simple facts can become quite muddled.
A winner can be declared. Congressional staffers can be dispatched to mob an office in Florida. The counting of votes can be stopped.
Where were the "liberal" media in 2000? Where are they now?
The right has now tried to "swift boat" Jack Murtha. In this "information age," the truth seems to slip farther and farther from us.
Ideas are lost, suppressed and obscured.
I am very concerned about the direction of this country and the nature of current political discourse.
My parents were right wing in the extreme. The Manion Forum and the John Birch Society were admired in my house, as were Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy and George Wallace.
As I grew up and learned to think things through, I migrated toward the center, but I still have retained quite a few ideas from Mom and Dad.
What is most troubling about America today is that forces in the media seem to think any move to the right in any area is good, and there seems to be no limit to how far to the right things should go.
Detention without trial? Secret prisons? Torture? These are not American concepts for which my parents would have fought. These are the tools of Stalin.
My cold warrior parents taught me that the "commies" would never take away my freedoms.
If someone did subvert our democratic form of government, they argued, it would be someone in Washington, D.C.
It would be someone who controlled our government. It would be someone who could tap my phone, open my mail, audit my receipts. It would be someone who controlled radio, TV and the newspapers.
Osama bin Laden and other global malcontents might be able to kill me, but only our government can suppress my free speech, my right to a fair trial, and my right to vote.
One of the few things standing between the fascists and my right to thumb my nose at the government is a free press.
I hope people in media will stand up to these forces - to Rupert Murdoch and the Fox Network, to Clear Channel.
Stand up to your bosses. Ask the hard questions. Demand credible responses and get proof.
When candidates say they want to bring the troops home "soon," or want to "stabilize Iraq," find out exactly what that means.
Inform us. Let us have our own ideas.
(Robin Polt is a graduate of Columbia University and a chemistry professor at the University of Arizona.)
Comment by Rev Gerry S. (revgerry) — July 14,2006
These are indeed scary times, but not in the way Rove and his minions would have us believe. These power elite deliberately use fear as a shell game for the masses, so they don't see where the real threat is. Google Leo Strauss, neocon mentor and teacher. "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Douglas MacArthur
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/19029.php
|
