America post-9/11
In the interest of full disclosure, here are some of the things I don’t like about life in a post-9/11 America:
I don’t like being treated as if my only value to the government is as a source of labor and funds.
I don’t like being
viewed as a consumer and bits of data.
I don’t like being
spied on and treated as if I have no right to privacy, especially in my own home.
I don’t like government officials who lobby for my vote only to ignore me once elected. I don’t like having representatives incapable of and
unwilling to represent me. I don’t like taxation without representation.
I don’t like being bullied by government bureaucrats,
vigilantes masquerading as cops, or faceless technicians.
I don’t like being railroaded into financing government programs whose only purpose is to increase the power and wealth of the corporate elite.
I don’t like being forced to pay for wars abroad that serve
no other purpose except to expand the reach of the military industrial complex.
I don’t like being subjected to
scans, searches, pat downs and other indignities by the TSA.
I don’t like
VIPR raids on so-called “soft” targets like shopping malls and bus depots by black-clad, Darth Vader look-alikes.
I don’t like
fusion centers, which represent the combined surveillance efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement.
I don’t like being treated like an underling by government agents who are supposed to be working for me. I don’t like being threatened, intimidated, bribed, beaten and robbed by individuals entrusted with safeguarding my rights. I don’t like being silenced, censored and marginalized. I don’t like my
movements being tracked, my conversations being recorded, and my transactions being catalogued.
I don’t like
free speech zones, roving bubble zones and trespass laws that restrict Americans’ First Amendment rights.
I don’t like laws that criminalize Americans for otherwise lawful activities such as
holding religious studies at home,
growing vegetables in their yard, and
collecting rainwater.
I don’t like the
NDAA, which allows the president and the military to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely.
I don’t like the Patriot Act, which opened the door to all manner of government abuses and intrusions on our privacy.
I don’t like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has become
America’s standing army in direct opposition to the dire warnings of those who founded our country.
I don’t like military weapons such as armored vehicles, sound cannons and the like being used against the American citizens.
I don’t like government agencies such as the DHS, Post Office, Social Security Administration and Wildlife stocking up on hollow-point bullets. And I definitely don’t like the implications of detention centers being built that could house American citizens.
I don’t like the fact that police departments across the country “have received
tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.”
I don’t like America’s
infatuation with locking people up for life for non-violent crimes. There are thousands of people in America serving life sentences for non-violent crimes, including theft of a jacket, siphoning gasoline from a truck, stealing tools, and attempting to cash a stolen check.
I don’t like paying
roughly $29,000 a year per inmate just to keep these nonviolent offenders in prison.
I don’t like having my hard-earned taxpayer dollars used against me.
I don’t like the partisan nature of politics today, which has so polarized Americans that they are incapable of standing in unity against the government’s abuses.
I don’t like the entertainment drivel that passes for news coverage today.
I don’t like the fact that those within a 25-mile range of the border are getting a front row seat to the American police state, as Border Patrol agents are now
allowed to search people’s homes, intimately probe their bodies, and rifle through their belongings, all without a warrant.
I don’t like public schools that treat students
as if they were prison inmates. I don’t like zero tolerance laws that
criminalize childish behavior. I don’t like a public educational system that emphasizes rote memorization and test-taking over learning, synthesizing and critical thinking.
I don’t like police precincts whose primary purpose—whether through the use of asset forfeiture laws, speed traps, or red light cameras—is making a profit at the expense of those they have sworn to protect. I don’t like militarized police and their onerous SWAT team raids.
I don’t like Department of Defense and DHS programs that
transfer surplus military hardware to local and state police. I don’t like local police dressing and acting as if they were the military while viewing me as an enemy combatant.
I don’t like government programs that reward cops for raiding homes and terrorizing homeowners.
I don’t like being treated as if I have no rights.
I don’t like cash-strapped states cutting deals with private corporations to run the prisons in exchange for
maintaining 90% occupancy rates for at least 20 years. I don’t like the fact that American prisons have become the
source of cheap labor for Corporate America.
I don’t like answering to an imperial president who operates above the law.
I don’t like the injustice that passes for justice in the courts.
I don’t like prosecutors so hell bent on winning that they allow innocent people to suffer for crimes they didn’t commit.
I don’t like the double standards that allow government officials to break laws with immunity, while average Americans get the book thrown at them.
I don’t like cops who shoot first and ask questions later.
I don’t like police
dogs being treated with more respect and afforded more rights than American citizens.
I don’t like living in a suspect society.
I don’t like Americans being assumed guilty until they prove their innocence.
I don’t like technology being used as a double-edged sword against us.
Most of all, I don’t like feeling as if there’s no hope for turning things around.
Now there are those who would suggest that if I don’t like things about this country, I should leave and go elsewhere. Certainly, there are those among my fellow citizens who are leaving for friendlier shores.
However, I’m not giving up on this country without a fight.
I plan to keep fighting, writing, speaking up, speaking out, shouting if necessary, filing lawsuits, challenging the status quo, writing letters to the editor, holding my representatives accountable, thinking nationally but acting locally, and generally raising a ruckus anytime the government attempts to undermine the Constitution and ride roughshod over the rights of the citizenry.
Our country may be in deep trouble, but all is not yet lost.
The first step begins with you.