by Linda Gale Nolen
Imagine you fell asleep...oh, let's say,
only five years ago.
Imagine you awoke this week in 2004.
Keep in mind, as you read on, you have no idea of all that has changed
while you slept
those five years.
Keep in mind too that the questions I'm going to ask you are only the
short list and the
ones, which may affect you most immediately upon your awakening.
How would you feel about the changes you'd see and hear?
Who would you choose to believe about what has happened while you slept?
With whom would you want to associate now?
Who would you feel you could trust?
How would you feel when you discovered your job had been
"outsourced" while you slept? How would you feel when you
discovered the home you owned is no longer yours due to
the revocation of The Posse Comitatus Act.
What would you think when you discovered while sitting in
your car at a traffic light that you are being filmed by a constantly
running video camera which is also constantly being monitored by a
government official "somewhere" in an undisclosed (to the
public) location. Five years ago you knew there were cameras in stores to
help prevent shoplifting.
But, now, cameras are posted on almost every building outside to observe
and film you wherever you walk. Hard to believe, isn't it?
What would you think when seeing our military acting as
police in your city or small town? What would you think of the new laws,
which eliminated our personal privacy?
What would you think of the new laws, which allow government officials to
take you from
your home, or from a store or just while you may be walking on a sidewalk,
and question
you and hold you in a place where you don't have access to a phone. And
refuse to let you contact your family or friends to tell them where you
are for an indefinite period of time that can stretch into years?
What would you think of the new laws, which eliminated all
of the freedoms you had
five years ago?
Who would you seek for guidance in understanding where you would "fit
in" now? Remember, you've lost five years. You have a lot of catching
up to do.
You'll need to do some serious research just to find out:
 | Why we have a president who was not elected,
| Why our Congress has betrayed us,
| Why our soldiers are in Afghanistan and Iraq now,
| Why we have a president who is the first in our history to not
attend funeral services
for our fallen soldiers,
| Why this president declared a ban on news photographers taking
pictures of returning
wounded and dead soldiers,
| Why those who disagree with the government are being silenced,
sometimes forcefully,
| Why everything we buy contains RFID tags, which surveil us wherever
we go,
| Why the government taps our land phones and cell phones and Internet
sites at will,
| Why our cars are equipment with GPS satellite tracking devices,
| Why the tires on our cars are also equipment with tracking devices,
| Why our neighbors have been recruited to report on each other to
government officials
if they see, what seems to them, to be "suspicious" or
"potentially" terrorist activities,
| Why well-educated and patriotic Americans have allowed a small group
of men
to alienate us from former allies in many countries around the world,
| And, to turn our land of the free into a land filled with people in
constant fear.
Well, at least those who are not in denial are afraid
and for sound reasons.
There is now a fear in the people in our country
of being seen with anyone the government has targeted as a
"possible" terrorist,
of being seen reading books the government "suspects" means
you are a threat to them,
of being heard disagreeing with the government's new laws,
of being deported though you were born and reared in America.
When you fell asleep most of us believed that our Congress was our
defense against
any president and his administration exercising absolute power.
When you fell asleep you knew we had a government
system for checks and balances
via our Constitution and it's amendments to prevent a dictatorship in
America.
When you fell asleep most of us thought our votes counted.
Now it's 2004 and you are awake and finding a world you probably
cannot believe is real.
But, it's real all right. And, because you are awake,
you are again counted in the population. And, you are at any moment
subject to being "designated" a "potential threat"
to the government. Will you be counted as one who stays awake or one
in fear, who pretends to still be sleeping?
Hard choices in 2004 for us all. Good Luck!
|
| | | | | | | | | | | |
© 2004 Linda Gale Nolen |
