Livin’ in 21st Century America: Feels Like a Third World Banana Republic
“This is unprecedented and is very dangerous. We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.” ~ Ron Paul in an op-ed piece titled, ” Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston“
We agree with former Republican Congressman from Texas Ron Paul. He’s an advocate for civil liberties, who likened the federal government’s response to the tragic events which took place during the 117th Boston Marathon earlier in April, and the subsequent manhunt to “a military coup in a far off banana republic.”
“Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.
These were not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes just over a week ago in Boston as the United States got a taste of martial law. The ostensible reason for the military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that the accused perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.” ~ Ron Paul
Ever since the debacle that was the presidential election of 2000, you remember the one where the Supreme Court of the United States selected George W. Bush to be the chief executive, the Untied States of America has become more and more like some militarized third world island banana republic.
The events of September 11th 2001, when two commercial airliners were deliberately crashed into two very tall skyscrapers in New York City, while at the same time in a place in suburban Virginia, right outside of the nation’s capital, some other airborne device crashed into the Pentagon, and an airplane was brought down in a remote field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; what happened on that day brought us to the rights abridging Patriot Act, its formal title: Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.
Back then, twelve years ago, it was easy for the public, under the guise of security, to accept the gradual militarization of our cities and the militarization at our airport terminals, banks, schools and hospitals. In fact many refused then to believe our precious, venerated United States Constitution was being shredded in the name of making citizens more secure. Ha! The illusion of security was a slam dunk!
We have noted over the ensuing years how much things have changed. We’ve questioned, along with others who are keen observers of our American society’s metamorphosis, the changes taking place particularly with regard to those concerning police powers. We’ve often asked the question, “Who let the dogs out?” when we see the numerous YouTube videos of various law enforcement personnel in rough, violent action against citizens who pose no threat. All of it in the name of law and order.
So when the bombings took place in Boston this month during the Boston Marathon we were even more appalled to hear news reports announcing the city was under Lock Down…not curfew, but Lock Down. This term is defined as: the confining of prisoners to their cells, as following a riot or other disturbance. It is a word previously associated with penal colonies, penitentiaries, prisons, jails, correctional institutions, other places of lockup. Places that are the exact opposite of liberation, of freedom.
Curfew, indeed a more gentle term, means: an order establishing a specific time in the day or evening after which no civilians or other specified group of unauthorized persons may be outdoors, or a time that places of public assembly must be closed.
The terminology now used, and likely preferred by jailers and educators, as well as hospital administrators, reminds us of being confined like prisoners, by the government of the country with the dubious distinction of having more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. One more thing to be proud of America. We can confidently boast when it comes to detainment we’re ahead of the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans as well as the gruesome dictatorships around the world…We’re number one for detainment!
Twelve years after 9/11 and the implementation of the Patriot Act we have proof. The United States of America is no longer the hallowed “land of the free” nor is it the “home of the brave”. Our sacred constitution is tattered, and shredded. For all the blatant disrespect it engenders by those who claim to be “freedom loving patriots”, for all intents and purposes our constitution is now a non existent document.
We can thank our government leaders for turning this nation into the land of the frightened and the home of the people who dare not protest at all.
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