Followup to Civil Liberties post

[same_sky]

In this post, I mentioned this article about three women thrown out of one of Bush's speeches for indecent attire--namely, t-shirts that say "Protect Our Civil Liberties." That one bothered me almost more than anything else this election year, because it's such a symbol of what we've become. However, it's come to my attention that it was not an isolated incident, and not the worst of the lot, either.

I mean, there's always this one--you know, if Bush comes to speak at your high school, why shouldn't you be suspended for wearing a Kerry t-shirt or button? I mean, that whole "free speech" thing is so last year, so it sounds perfectly reasonable to me. But I'm particularly fond of this story about how an 18-year-old kid is threatened by a security officer that he would be shot if he protested. (Think I'm reading more into it than was meant? Here's the direct quotation: "If you protest, it won't be me taking you out. It will be a sniper.")

I keep hearing people say that freedom isn't free whenever someone questions the administration. It's funny, I always assumed they meant that the price of freedom does not come without cost. Apparently, it means that freedom is no longer a freedom.

(Okay, I'll try to stop posting about politics now. I know I'm preaching mostly to the choir anyway, but I'm really rather upset about the civil liberties and women's issues stuff, so I think about it an awful lot lately. Some of us have visits from Auntie Flo that last for four months without those birth control pills that certain people find so objectionable, and we all have to live in a world where we can't speak our mind anymore, so those are my two hot-button issues and I can't keep too quiet about it if I read stuff like this. Sorry.)

Comments

[ozswede.livejournal.com]

This is quite scary really. We were always a bit bemused by the whole US election circus, but I can see that it's no laughing matter. Very sad.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's really delightful stuff. It scares me on many levels, but especially because this sort of mindset is trickling down into mainstream American interactions. You know how a parent has to set the example they want their kids to follow.. well, real people now have this attitude to a smaller degree, although it's not written up in newspapers all that often. Except when say, they pull a gun on someone who disagrees with their pro-Bush/anti-Kerry propoganda.. that one made the papers. I read about that earlier today but I didn't save the link, so I can't "prove" it.