Is there anywhere safe left to go? Political rambling. Not cut. Deal.

[rikibeth]

I saw this link on gehayi's LJ. ataniell93 is talking about it too. gehayi also provided this link http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040708-15.html to the interview in question. It's verbatim. This is actually what the Shrub's press secretary said in a press briefing on this past Thursday:

Q On Ridge's security warnings, can the President today guarantee Americans that no terrorist attack can upset the U.S. elections this November, that they will go ahead as planned?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ann, I don't think anyone can make guarantees. But the full intention is to move forward and hold those elections. I don't know specific information related to election day or any other of the high profile events that we have coming up. What we can guarantee to the American people is that we will continue to take strong steps to make sure that we are doing a better job every day of protecting the homeland and enhancing protective measures in certain areas of the country. And we will continue waging the war on terrorism, on the offensive, to defeat the terrorists. That's what we will continue to do.

These are threats that we need to take seriously, and that's why it's important to keep the American people informed.

If I had my paperbacks better organized, I could lay hands on my copy of To Sail Beyond the Sunset, and get the exact wording of Maureen's description of the Nehemiah Scudder takeover, and get the exact year for "In 20xx, there was no election."

That's what it's reminding me of.

What am I supposed to DO about it, folks?

Gave money to the Kerry campaign. Bought the Rock Against Bush CD. Give money to the ACLU. Regularly pester my Congresscritters on issues that are dear to me, although, honestly, a fair amount of the time Dodd votes the way I want him to, and it's the ones from other districts who are the problem, and they aren't going to listen to me, and when Dodd isn't going to vote the way I want him to, I somehow doubt he's listening to me either.

But what the hell do I do when, despite that, stuff like the Patriot Act goes through, and when the official line coming out of the White House is so liberally sprinkled with fnords as to make me despair of people REALIZING that Bush and his puppeteers are a worse threat to our liberties than any fanatic with a box cutter, and when they're setting us up to swallow something as fundamentally wrong as NO ELECTION with the minimum protest?

There are "stop the war" protestors gathered at the corner of Farmington and Main every weekend, holding banners and clanking cowbells and whatnot. I'm sure they mean well... although I am deeply uncomfortable with the ones carrying the posters of Rachel Corrie... but I can't see that they're changing anything by standing there, either.

My solution has always been to live as if I am free, and simply to minimize official NOTICE of the temporal laws I break in the process. Discretion. If the Powers That Be declare some nonsense like a "drug-free school zone," to pick an example, prudence dictates that the front porch with the view of the school is not an ideal smoking area. I drive according to my best judgement of safety, and treat speed limits as advisory, and count it a bonus that silver-grey Volvo station wagons are not attention-drawing cars.

When Charlotte went as Justice for Hallowe'en two years ago, out of curiosity, we timed out the speech about Lady Justice from "V for Vendetta." Too long for a Masquerade presentation, sadly. But I want to do it anyway.

I would seriously consider moving to another country. But IS there another one where I could be both safe and free?

I come from a Jewish family. That's given me a profound sense of unsafety since I was nine years old -- the age at which I first became aware of the Holocaust. And it's a very helpless feeling... because my own beliefs or doubts won't mean a thing, when it comes down to it, only who my mother and grandmother were. I used to consider the First Amendment the best possible rule to live under, in that respect. If I had confidence that it would remain in effect, I'd still think so. My confidence is shot.

I have this little corner of my brain with a one-suitcase packing list, you know, what I'd take if I ever had to leave the country for good while looking like I was just leaving on a vacation. I think it's existed ever since I read "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit."

Sometimes I wonder if I haven't already left it too late.

Comments

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

I come from a Jewish family. That's given me a profound sense of unsafety since I was nine years old -- the age at which I first became aware of the Holocaust. And it's a very helpless feeling... because my own beliefs or doubts won't mean a thing, when it comes down to it, only who my mother and grandmother were. I used to consider the First Amendment the best possible rule to live under, in that respect. If I had confidence that it would remain in effect, I'd still think so. My confidence is shot.

I hear you, loud and clear. In fact, when Drew and I were chatting tonight, that topic did come up, but I figured that if it came time to run, I'd run for my other home country, Israel, instead of Canada. If I have to live in the midst of dangerous insanity, I might as well go to Ground Zero to more actively prevent the type of Middle-East based Armageddon-style disaster that Shrub and his buddies are trying to inflict on the world so that they can expedite the so-called Rapture.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd feel any better. I don't want to live in ANY sort of theocracy, even one where I'm technically part of the majority. And the safety would be a wash.

*sigh*