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My Dark Hour (And yours?)
I was reading Nicholas Kristof's column in The New York Times yesterday, getting mightily upset at the latest in Chad-Sudan--death squads systematically "cleansing" villages. And there, in the middle of the column, was a modest request: Please go to Million Voices for Darfur and send President Bush a postcard urging him to do something.
I went to the site.
I filled in my name, address, and e-mail address.
But I didn't hit SEND.
I was too scared.
Oh, I couched my fear in practical terms: Does anyone seriously think that President Bush gives a damn about the Sudan? (Or, for that matter, any place where the people are poor or black or have no lobbyist?) So what's the point of sending him a virtual postcard?
Then I got to my real fear: Isn't all you're doing putting your name on a list--not of Americans who care about human rights, but Liberals to round up if/when the time comes?
The question of the season: Is the time coming?
Ridiculous, you say. A dictatorship in America? Swamster, you really should cut out the heavy-metal-and-hashish evenings. I hear you. Being afraid of soldiers in the streets and muzzled broadcasters and a citizenry stunned into silence is sooooo 1968.
Okay, smarties, consider this: The President has a 34% approval rating. The conventional media point out that's like...dead in the water. By the standards of conventional media, there ought to be a lynch mob in Congress chasing Bush with a rope.
But conventional media have been wrong about everything. In fact, though Republicans swear they are not pawns of the party, each time there's a vote they line up and support their President. They don't care that he has broken the law--and admitted it. Thirty-four percent might as well be 80%. Russ Feingold's motion for censure, a no-brainer if ever there was one, can't even get much traction in his own party, to say nothing of Republicans running for re-election this fall.
It gets worse. Large portions of our Constitution have already been suspended. As we speak, there's not much keeping the government from doing what its minions do in Iraq --show up at your door and take you away...forever.
Now....what if there were another terror attack? (I know. There can't be. George Bush has kept us safe since 9/11, right?) Don't you think--in the interest of "protecting" us, of course--the White House might decide to declare....martial law? Not forever. Just...indefinitely.
And what if the terror attack came...oh...say...just a few weeks before an election? Might make it advisable to....oh...postpone the balloting.
And the people who speak up against this abridgement of personal freedom? You know, the people who write for blogs....and sign petitions...and give money to "liberal" causes. Would you really miss them if they weren't around?
I thought about all this as my screen waited. I walked into our daughter's room and looked down at her face as if to memorize it, as if I'd never see her again. I considered whether it might be better for our family to leave the country before The Worst happened and have a fair assurance I'd live to see her graduate from school, or whether it might be more important for Little Uptown to know her father stuck around to try and get the truth out. I closed my eyes and revisited some scenes from V for Vendetta (which opens on Friday, the 17th). And some stirring images of courageous men and women--Jews and Buddhists and Christians and, yes, Muslims, among many others--came to mind.
And then I hit SEND. Will you?
I went to the site.
I filled in my name, address, and e-mail address.
But I didn't hit SEND.
I was too scared.
Oh, I couched my fear in practical terms: Does anyone seriously think that President Bush gives a damn about the Sudan? (Or, for that matter, any place where the people are poor or black or have no lobbyist?) So what's the point of sending him a virtual postcard?
Then I got to my real fear: Isn't all you're doing putting your name on a list--not of Americans who care about human rights, but Liberals to round up if/when the time comes?
The question of the season: Is the time coming?
Ridiculous, you say. A dictatorship in America? Swamster, you really should cut out the heavy-metal-and-hashish evenings. I hear you. Being afraid of soldiers in the streets and muzzled broadcasters and a citizenry stunned into silence is sooooo 1968.
Okay, smarties, consider this: The President has a 34% approval rating. The conventional media point out that's like...dead in the water. By the standards of conventional media, there ought to be a lynch mob in Congress chasing Bush with a rope.
But conventional media have been wrong about everything. In fact, though Republicans swear they are not pawns of the party, each time there's a vote they line up and support their President. They don't care that he has broken the law--and admitted it. Thirty-four percent might as well be 80%. Russ Feingold's motion for censure, a no-brainer if ever there was one, can't even get much traction in his own party, to say nothing of Republicans running for re-election this fall.
It gets worse. Large portions of our Constitution have already been suspended. As we speak, there's not much keeping the government from doing what its minions do in Iraq --show up at your door and take you away...forever.
Now....what if there were another terror attack? (I know. There can't be. George Bush has kept us safe since 9/11, right?) Don't you think--in the interest of "protecting" us, of course--the White House might decide to declare....martial law? Not forever. Just...indefinitely.
And what if the terror attack came...oh...say...just a few weeks before an election? Might make it advisable to....oh...postpone the balloting.
And the people who speak up against this abridgement of personal freedom? You know, the people who write for blogs....and sign petitions...and give money to "liberal" causes. Would you really miss them if they weren't around?
I thought about all this as my screen waited. I walked into our daughter's room and looked down at her face as if to memorize it, as if I'd never see her again. I considered whether it might be better for our family to leave the country before The Worst happened and have a fair assurance I'd live to see her graduate from school, or whether it might be more important for Little Uptown to know her father stuck around to try and get the truth out. I closed my eyes and revisited some scenes from V for Vendetta (which opens on Friday, the 17th). And some stirring images of courageous men and women--Jews and Buddhists and Christians and, yes, Muslims, among many others--came to mind.
And then I hit SEND. Will you?
