Thursday, November 20, 2003 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
FREEDOM
What does freedom mean? I've always felt like I was free but now I'm beginning to realize that my ideas of personal feedom are an illusion. If you're different in this country, your freedoms are always in question.
I've never been arrested, I've never done drugs, I'm not an activist. I've always thought I was free to do about anything I wanted to as long as I didn't stomp on anyone else’s freedom or break the law of the land. But that's not the case and it's getting worse.
I’m 28 years old. I'm not a child anymore. If called upon I would go to war and die for my country. Yet my government will not even allow me to marry the person of my choice. If I lived with someone for 30 years and she got in an auto accident I wouldn't be permitted to enter her hospital room to hold her hand, stroke her hair and pray for her. I would have no right to inherit her property or be helped by her social security or retirement benefits if she passed away.
If my partner had children and died young, I would have no claim to keep our family together. Her ex-spouse or a member of either family could lay claim to the children and I would lose them. I would have no rights as parent no matter how long I had raised them.
By simply asserting I am suspect, I could become a target of the FBI. I could be arrested and held without charge forever. I could be interrogated in any way my captors saw fit. They could search my home without having to obtain a warrant. Now my President wants to limit my freedoms even more. Mayhaps it will come to be like the innocent Japanese Americans during WWII who were taken from their home and put into camps, losing all their possessions.
In Arizona, many people of Middle Eastern ancestry were taken prisoner after 9-11. Most were only guilty by way of looks and for having a name that condemned them to suspicion. A female student at ASU was outright killed by fanatics implementing frontier justice. Americans still live in fear. If you're black, gay or Native American you know all about living in fear.
Please. I'm glad I live in America and I love my country. But my President scares me. He lies to me and starts wars based on his lies. He will spend American lives without being brought to task for his lies. He wants to restrict my freedoms even more. He never wants me to marry the person of my choice. Yet this man didn't gain office by election. He wasn't elected by Congress. He was put into office by order of a Supreme Court empowered by his own political party. The Supreme Court has portected the rights of Americans for years. Yet when that same court rules to protect my freedoms it is accused of overstepping it's bounds.
I'm concerned.
©2003 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
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