Skeptomania - Paranormal / UFOs, etc.

asmodee

I think we are all going to have to agree to disagree here. It is my firm belief that America is supposed to be better than the other guys. We help MAKE the rules we and the UN expect the rest of the world to follow. Anything we get caught doing to them becomes all right for ANY enemy to do to ours. I don't like the thought of one of my own being kept awake for 3 weeks. At the end of that 3 weeks, what do you think it takes to keep a man awake? Do you really think you just say, "Hey! Wake up!"? I think it would probably take a little more persuasion than that. America is pretty much hated by the world right now and it's because of crap like this. Our government has no respect even for our own rules. In fact, I would say the national spy program instituted by our president is a slap in the face to those who died to keep this country free. They fought and died because our freedom was worth more to them than their own lives. I hear all the time how Jesus died for me. Whatever. Tell me how Private Smith died for me. Tell me how Sargent Jenkins ran at the enemy, guns blazing to keep this country free. Then tell me how giving up or right to privacy because it might possibly save our lives honors the men and women who gave their lives so that I could still have rights.

So, yes, I am a little bitter toward our government right now, but don't make the mistake of thinking that I don't love this country, support our troops or want our enemies dead. In fact, the worst part for me about the policies of our current administration is that I see what they are doing to this country to be about the same as digging up every grave in Arlington National Cemetery and pissing in the face of every patriot there to show them exactly what their sacrifice meant to this administration. They died to make sure we could keep our rights! Who the hell is Bush to say that now we should give up those rights so we reduce the chance that we die? I see it as a slap in the face, a total reversal of what's important. If my freedom was more important than those lives, why the hell is my own life suddenly more important than the freedom of future generations. To accept that as truth would make me feel like a leach, others giving their lives for me, me giving up what they fought for in return.

Back to the treatment of prisoners, I just see a bigger picture there. I see a man with a family who has never hurt anyone in his life being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being "persuaded" to give up information he doesn't have. I see a scandal that makes it all right for any country we happen to be at odds with to "stretch the definitions" of torture a bit when it comes to ours. I see a world where, instead of being the symbol of freedom and democracy, our country doesn't stand out one bit. I don't want America to be just another country. I want my country to be honorable and just and free. I don't want my country seeing what it can get away with. I want my country to be spotless and pure. I want my country to be the one that the world KNOWS will follow the rules, the one that others look to for the highest standards in every respect. I want my country to be the shining star in the night sky. I want other countries to distance themselves from us, not because they hate us, but because they look like crap next to us. Call me an idealist, but I want my country to be better than every other in every respect.