Random Stuff

I’m not worried about taxes. On average I pay around $40k per year to Uncle Sam directly from my paycheck, and a lot more for property tax, sales tax, car tabs, etc. But I still have plenty left over after that.

I don’t worry about the roads I drive on. Yes they are crowded, but after spending time in Japan and seeing what real traffic is like, as well as every freeway being a toll way, I can live with what we have. Besides, most of the problem lies in all of those cars that can carry four, five, or six people and yet they only carry one(that includes my car).

I don’t worry about welfare reform or the fact my taxes subsidize the ability for someone else to live. Those that need it, great, those that are exploiting it will never live the lifestyle I have now.

I don’t worry about crime rates, or fire departments. Crime prevention rests on parents and neighborhoods. Fire departments always seem to get the money they need to keep responding to calls.

I don’t care if we get a new stadium, or lose a pro sports team.

What do I worry about? My freedom.

In August of 2004 I had the pleasure of chatting over a beer with a cute, young UW researcher who was from Paraguay. One of the things we discussed was politics and how it related to freedom. She couldn’t believe how blind we were to what was happening in our own country. She had been through a dictatorship and following military coup in her on country. She was scared for us. She couldn’t believe that we couldn’t see how our freedoms were being chipped away little by little in the name of national security and how we were just sitting back and taking it. This is exactly how her country wound up under a dictatorship. Bit by bit. She gave some examples of things we all should be worried about, like how vague some of the security bills were being written so they could be applied to anyone doing anything, how people could be held indefinitly while they were being “investigated” as a “terrorist”. Where the term terrorist was defined and anyone who is perceived as a possible threat. No just cause, no evidence, no rights.

I haven’t talked to her since that night. I imagine she is off in some other country doing the research she does, or back home in Paraguay, or possibly even back over at the UW. I’m not sure, but I do know that since we talked that night, I have continually thought about what she said. And it scares me. I keep seeing things that  really worry me and make me wonder if we are turning into everything she said.

I worry as the department of homeland security proposes that you must have permission to LEAVE our country as well as entery.

I worry as President Bush repeals the only law that protects the US citizens from having it’s own military turn on them.

I worry as we find out that the government has been recording bank transactions of every person in america

I worry as personal history is stored in huge data vaults that track everything about us and can be retrieve in seconds.

I worry as I watch our police look more and more like military complete with camoflage gear and automatic assult rifles.

I worry as I see more and more difference between what I hear on US radio and TV news as opposed to what I hear from overseas stations.

Little by little, freedoms are disappearing. They will all be gone before we even knew we gave them up.

How long until even running as a politician in an opposing party brands you as a terrorist and lands you in detention for investigation for being a possible threat to security?

Maybe this is a stretch, but it is also a tried and true formula used throughout history.

I want politicians to protect my freedom. Can that still be done?

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Personal, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.