“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
This blog was written in response to Steve Lunetta’s colum entitled “Eric Holder’s bad decisions” which appeared in my local newspaper the signal. Steve Lunetta is smember of the 38th Assembly District’s Republican Central Committee. You can read his column here.
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Being a Just Society is the greatest challenge America Faces!
In reference to Mr. Lunetta’s column entitled Eric Holder’s Bad Decisions: Mr. Lunetta’s fear and misguided logic comes shining through in this poorly executed conservative talking point stew he attempted to pass off as a column.
On March 5, 1770, British troops opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians in Boston killing five people. This incident became known as the Boston Massacre, and it pushed anti-british sediment to its near boiling point. Britain wanted the soldiers to be extradited back to Britain to ensure their soldiers would get a fair trial. Acting on a new sense of self-identity and independence, the American colonies refused. The American colonialists were angry and wanted justice for this tragedy. Many wanted to forego a trial and just hang the soldiers from the closest tree. But John Adams, our second president and quite possibly our most influential founding father, saw this as an opportunity to set an American precedence by representing these soldiers. Adams saw this as an opportunity to show Britain and the world that American principles were just and fair and that America could take care of its own problems.
John Adams, unlike Mr. Lunetta, never tried to rationalize why it was OK to deviate from American principles. Some conservatives, like Todd Akin (R-MO), are the first to talk about how much they adore the pledge allegiance because “liberals hate it” since it says “under God.” Conservatives of course conveniently forget, and in the case of Todd Akin literally forget, that the last phrase in the pledge says, “And liberty and justice for all.” In Todd Akin’s defense, that last part does sounds pretty liberal, the pledge of allegiance after all was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist Minister and socialist.
So let’s do our best to understand this logic (or lack thereof): Conservatives like Mr. Lunetta and Todd Akin will fight to make sure their children say the pledge of allegiance everyday to remind them every day before school they live in the United States of America, a land of “Liberty and justice for all.” They then turn around in the same breath and start to qualify who deserves this liberty and justice. This behavior actually isn’t new. Francis Bellamy wanted to put the word “equality” in with liberty and justice, but the racist and sexist school boards during his time wouldn’t have it. Conservatives forget the principles that our country were founded on. They work so hard to turn the home of the brave in to the land of the cowards and whiners.
Americans pride themselves on being the most principled people in the world. Those principles seem to have been lost sometime after September 11, 2001. We now allow fear and over-active imaginations to take over and justify the discrimination toward Arabs of the world. This is the same kind of fear humanity justified during World War II which fueled the hatred of the Jews in Germany. Even the men who systematically killed six million Jews, ordered carpet bombings that killed thousands of British civilians on a daily basis and attempted to take over Europe and then the world got their trials and dates with the hangman’s noose.
Mr. Lunetta quoted Senator Lindsey Graham’s September 18th questioning of Attorney General Holder and just like Graham, totally forgot about Zacarias Moussaoui who was put on trial in Virginia and convicted of six counts of various terrorist offenses, including planning the 9/11 attacks. Where was Graham on that one? He also forgets that our socialist friends Spain and Britain have tried and convicted every terror suspect who went through their system. These countries have also had major attacks and al-Queda cells operating in their countries.
Published in the Signal - December 10th
Mr. Lunetta’s argument that it will be too expensive to conduct the trials in New York is laughable. How much money are we spending now paying to staff these prisons in Gitmo 24/7? Besides, when does America put a price on its principles? Perhaps it was around the time we threw out the constitution, signed over most of our rights and spent trillions to illegally invade sovereign countries with faulty intelligence without the approval from congress.
The fact is these terrorist trials in New York are governed by international law and will most likely resemble military tribunals. In no way is this a slap in the face to New York. The trials and convictions (and most likely executions) of these terrorists will help bring closure and healing to this chapter in our country’s history.
I do hope that conservatives stop making bad decisions and find some principles and maturity along the way – maybe even stop exploiting the memory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for political gain. I hope conservatives can find something to offer America besides more of the same cowardly, fear mongering that has spoon fed the red, white and blue for the better part of this decade.
Liberty & Justice For All
By ✖ the Monk ✖ on December 3rd, 2009
This blog was written in response to Steve Lunetta’s colum entitled “Eric Holder’s bad decisions” which appeared in my local newspaper the signal. Steve Lunetta is smember of the 38th Assembly District’s Republican Central Committee. You can read his column here.
——>
Being a Just Society is the greatest challenge America Faces!
In reference to Mr. Lunetta’s column entitled Eric Holder’s Bad Decisions: Mr. Lunetta’s fear and misguided logic comes shining through in this poorly executed conservative talking point stew he attempted to pass off as a column.
On March 5, 1770, British troops opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians in Boston killing five people. This incident became known as the Boston Massacre, and it pushed anti-british sediment to its near boiling point. Britain wanted the soldiers to be extradited back to Britain to ensure their soldiers would get a fair trial. Acting on a new sense of self-identity and independence, the American colonies refused. The American colonialists were angry and wanted justice for this tragedy. Many wanted to forego a trial and just hang the soldiers from the closest tree. But John Adams, our second president and quite possibly our most influential founding father, saw this as an opportunity to set an American precedence by representing these soldiers. Adams saw this as an opportunity to show Britain and the world that American principles were just and fair and that America could take care of its own problems.
John Adams, unlike Mr. Lunetta, never tried to rationalize why it was OK to deviate from American principles. Some conservatives, like Todd Akin (R-MO), are the first to talk about how much they adore the pledge allegiance because “liberals hate it” since it says “under God.” Conservatives of course conveniently forget, and in the case of Todd Akin literally forget, that the last phrase in the pledge says, “And liberty and justice for all.” In Todd Akin’s defense, that last part does sounds pretty liberal, the pledge of allegiance after all was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist Minister and socialist.
So let’s do our best to understand this logic (or lack thereof): Conservatives like Mr. Lunetta and Todd Akin will fight to make sure their children say the pledge of allegiance everyday to remind them every day before school they live in the United States of America, a land of “Liberty and justice for all.” They then turn around in the same breath and start to qualify who deserves this liberty and justice. This behavior actually isn’t new. Francis Bellamy wanted to put the word “equality” in with liberty and justice, but the racist and sexist school boards during his time wouldn’t have it. Conservatives forget the principles that our country were founded on. They work so hard to turn the home of the brave in to the land of the cowards and whiners.
Americans pride themselves on being the most principled people in the world. Those principles seem to have been lost sometime after September 11, 2001. We now allow fear and over-active imaginations to take over and justify the discrimination toward Arabs of the world. This is the same kind of fear humanity justified during World War II which fueled the hatred of the Jews in Germany. Even the men who systematically killed six million Jews, ordered carpet bombings that killed thousands of British civilians on a daily basis and attempted to take over Europe and then the world got their trials and dates with the hangman’s noose.
Mr. Lunetta quoted Senator Lindsey Graham’s September 18th questioning of Attorney General Holder and just like Graham, totally forgot about Zacarias Moussaoui who was put on trial in Virginia and convicted of six counts of various terrorist offenses, including planning the 9/11 attacks. Where was Graham on that one? He also forgets that our socialist friends Spain and Britain have tried and convicted every terror suspect who went through their system. These countries have also had major attacks and al-Queda cells operating in their countries.
Published in the Signal - December 10th
Mr. Lunetta’s argument that it will be too expensive to conduct the trials in New York is laughable. How much money are we spending now paying to staff these prisons in Gitmo 24/7? Besides, when does America put a price on its principles? Perhaps it was around the time we threw out the constitution, signed over most of our rights and spent trillions to illegally invade sovereign countries with faulty intelligence without the approval from congress.
The fact is these terrorist trials in New York are governed by international law and will most likely resemble military tribunals. In no way is this a slap in the face to New York. The trials and convictions (and most likely executions) of these terrorists will help bring closure and healing to this chapter in our country’s history.
I do hope that conservatives stop making bad decisions and find some principles and maturity along the way – maybe even stop exploiting the memory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for political gain. I hope conservatives can find something to offer America besides more of the same cowardly, fear mongering that has spoon fed the red, white and blue for the better part of this decade.
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Tagged with: 9/11, al-Queda, Attorney General Eric Holder, Boston Massacre, Francis Bellamy, George W. Bush, Gitmo, Iraq War, John Adams, Lindsey Graham, New York, Socialism, Steve Lunetta, Terrorist, The Signal, Todd Akin, Trials, Zacarias Moussaoui.