As I see it

This past Friday, my wife and I had tickets to the SF Giants game. While standing for the national anthem and listening to the words I mentally dwelled upon the words "land of the free." Sometimes a nations anthem can tell you something about the country it represents, more precisely, the people of that country. Amidst the "bombs bursting in air" and "the amber waves of grain" the words "land of the free" really are the most important. It is this freedom which makes this country, at least in theory, so tremendous. I say in theory because, that is what this nation is founded upon, a working theory. The founding fathers showed the insights and the humility to admit that they didn't know everything and that no matter how hard they tried they could not accurately predict future events so they sought to provide the framework or parameters that a country should operate within. Now, throughout this nations history, which is still adolescent by most standards, certain people and events have pushed the outer edges of those parameters; McCarthyism, Segregation, any hate group which justifies their actions as being patriotic, the current Administration, etc.. Part of me likes to think that these people/groups, at least on some level, are just acting out their vision of what this country could or should be. And some wheels in those various machines may even see it this way. However, no matter how hard I try I cannot stick to this naivete and I realize that people are usually acting out of basic instincts. Usually fear and greed. For McCarthy, it was the demonized "communism" for their raison d'etre. For this current administration, it is Al Queda and now the ever broad "acts of terrorism." Unfortunately, terrorism, especially in some of the parameters that fits this usage nowadays, can mean a broad range of things. The fact that an underage kid using a fake I.D. to get into a nightclub can be arrested tried under the Patriot act as a potential terrorist is just one example of how a pursuit could be taken astray of it's initial purpose. Fortunately, on the street as it were, I have yet to hear of too many Orwellian interpretations of the current "war on terrorism" laws. (Except of course of all the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Let us remember that none of these people have actually been charged with a crime, hence the term detainees.) But since when does the news actually deliver...News? At current, this war on terrorism is one prong of a defense against people who wish to harm innocent people, this I have no problem with. Let us hope that that is where this war stays. How far away are we from hearing about incidents which are nothing but slightly different interpretations of these laws? How far are we from thought crimes?

With some of the wording in the Patriot Act and other pieces of legislation that are in various states of becoming laws, not as far as I would like. How unfortunately ironic would it be if we lost our "land of the free" in the very pursuit of trying to protect it. And shame on those who use fear and greed as the tools to do so.