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same_skyTo announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. --President Theodore Roosevelt.
I wrote this last year, when the war on Iraq was just beginning. I did the final bit of editing and updating tonight, and I'm posting it now because I love America.
I've often talked to M about the isolation of the US. Europeans complain about how Americans know nothing of how the rest of the world lives, and I've found that to be largely true. I do not completely exclude myself from this group-I'm far from particularly worldly. I have a better grasp on the situation than the average American. I can point to most non-African countries on a globe, for example. Americans often take a certain delight in pointing out how little they know of the rest of the world. It's partially about arrogance, I think--deep inside, there's the idea that we're the superpower, the only one that counts. From the time we're children, we learn how lucky we are to be an American.. and that we're distinctly different from everyone else, and therefore separate from the rest of the world.
Three years ago, I stared numbly with the rest of the world at footage of the World Trade Center towers falling. It was more proof than I needed that we're not as isolated as we think. It was proof that we weren't different, we weren't safe. And worse, everyone realized it. Everyone was afraid.
In the time following the terrorist attacks, security has grown tighter while politicians have urged citizens to continue about their daily lives. Tension has increased daily. Patriotism has become an art form. And still we're afraid, and still we're told to not worry, but don't forget that the likelihood of a new attack is high.
The last week or two I've been remembering a conversation I had in the weeks following September 11th. Voices were beginning to be heard in opposition of the new security measures and legislation. People were beginning to wonder what was better--privacy or security, and what would happen later on, when freedoms were removed in the name of protecting the people and the threat of terrorism ended, or even continued unrealized. I admit that I gave in to emotion at the time myself. It was comforting to claim that I was prepared to give up certain liberties for protection. It was an irrational but expected reaction to an irrational and unexpected event, but I never dreamed just how slippery that slope can be. Now I'm utterly terrified of what's happened to us and what's still happening.
Suddenly, we're living in a world where disagreement is unamerican. We live in a time when American citizens are held against their will for supposed links to terrorism without even an explananation to their closest family members. We live in a time when schoolchildren disappear from classrooms with no warning. We live in a time when the masses of people assume that CNN is unbiased and any foreign news reports that aren't pro-war are lying. We live in a time when people think that celebrities have a moral obligation to agree with the majority of the population, and we should not appreciate their talent if their ideology is different from our own. We live in a time when a woman isn't allowed to board a plane unless she allows someone to grope her breasts. We live in a time when three women are thrown out of one of Bush's speeches because of their "obscene" attire--they were wearing T-shirts that said only "Protect Our Civil Liberties." We live in a time when we're being told to live more like the people we're supposedly liberating.
We live in a time of terrorism. It was begun by someone else three years ago, but we're continuing it on our own time and by our own people and we're doing it to ourselves. I can now only feel bitterly sad when I hear America referred to as the land of the free, because I remember a time when I believed that, too.
I wrote this last year, when the war on Iraq was just beginning. I did the final bit of editing and updating tonight, and I'm posting it now because I love America.
I've often talked to M about the isolation of the US. Europeans complain about how Americans know nothing of how the rest of the world lives, and I've found that to be largely true. I do not completely exclude myself from this group-I'm far from particularly worldly. I have a better grasp on the situation than the average American. I can point to most non-African countries on a globe, for example. Americans often take a certain delight in pointing out how little they know of the rest of the world. It's partially about arrogance, I think--deep inside, there's the idea that we're the superpower, the only one that counts. From the time we're children, we learn how lucky we are to be an American.. and that we're distinctly different from everyone else, and therefore separate from the rest of the world.
Three years ago, I stared numbly with the rest of the world at footage of the World Trade Center towers falling. It was more proof than I needed that we're not as isolated as we think. It was proof that we weren't different, we weren't safe. And worse, everyone realized it. Everyone was afraid.
In the time following the terrorist attacks, security has grown tighter while politicians have urged citizens to continue about their daily lives. Tension has increased daily. Patriotism has become an art form. And still we're afraid, and still we're told to not worry, but don't forget that the likelihood of a new attack is high.
The last week or two I've been remembering a conversation I had in the weeks following September 11th. Voices were beginning to be heard in opposition of the new security measures and legislation. People were beginning to wonder what was better--privacy or security, and what would happen later on, when freedoms were removed in the name of protecting the people and the threat of terrorism ended, or even continued unrealized. I admit that I gave in to emotion at the time myself. It was comforting to claim that I was prepared to give up certain liberties for protection. It was an irrational but expected reaction to an irrational and unexpected event, but I never dreamed just how slippery that slope can be. Now I'm utterly terrified of what's happened to us and what's still happening.
Suddenly, we're living in a world where disagreement is unamerican. We live in a time when American citizens are held against their will for supposed links to terrorism without even an explananation to their closest family members. We live in a time when schoolchildren disappear from classrooms with no warning. We live in a time when the masses of people assume that CNN is unbiased and any foreign news reports that aren't pro-war are lying. We live in a time when people think that celebrities have a moral obligation to agree with the majority of the population, and we should not appreciate their talent if their ideology is different from our own. We live in a time when a woman isn't allowed to board a plane unless she allows someone to grope her breasts. We live in a time when three women are thrown out of one of Bush's speeches because of their "obscene" attire--they were wearing T-shirts that said only "Protect Our Civil Liberties." We live in a time when we're being told to live more like the people we're supposedly liberating.
We live in a time of terrorism. It was begun by someone else three years ago, but we're continuing it on our own time and by our own people and we're doing it to ourselves. I can now only feel bitterly sad when I hear America referred to as the land of the free, because I remember a time when I believed that, too.
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Date: 2004-10-23 02:20 pm (UTC)