The Tao of Spartacus Jones

The Ghost of 4th of July Past

When I was a kid, I was a Boy Scout for a while. Once, I had the privilege of carrying the American Flag and leading our motley troop in the Independence Day parade. I remember the high school's marching band pacing woodenly ahead of us playing a medley of patriotic tunes — not terribly well — and people lining the street waving little flags. Flags, flags, flags everywhere. Even now, a lot of years later, the memory of it can bring a tightness to my throat, make my eyes start to well up.
It's good to be 11 years old.
When you're 11 the world is very simple: there are good guys and there are bad guys and we're the good guys. There's right and there's wrong and we're on the side of what's right.
There's justice and there's injustice and we're on the side of justice.
There's freedom and there's oppression and we're on the side of freedom.
Isn't that what we pledged allegiance to every morning in school? Not to a particular president, or a particular political party, but to a republic with liberty and justice for all?
Yes, it's good to be 11 years old. You're free to unashamedly celebrate the American Mythology because you have been spared the truth of American History.

One thing I've learned about the American Revolution: it wasn't an event that happened 200-odd years ago. It's a work in progress. So far, we've haven't been able to live up to the dream, but generation after generation, there's always been a handful of real patriots around to keep that dream alive and that hasn't been easy. Usually it cost them a lot. Sometimes it cost them everything. It would be a real shame if we squandered that inheritance. But I guess a lot of people find that it's easier to fight for your principles than it is to live up to them.

The thing that distinguishes the United States from almost every other nation, the thing that defines what we believe in, what we stand for and who we want to be when we grow up, is the Bill of Rights. If there's ever been a document that more clearly defined the elements of liberty, I'd like to see it. The rights specified in the first ten amendments are "inalienable" and they belong to every single person in the country. They are not "privileges" to be closely regulated and accorded only to the favored few. They do not belong only to "citizens," or only to whites, or to males, or to the rich.
It's important to note that these rights are not "granted" by the constitution, for what the gubmint giveth, the gubmint can taketh away. People are "endowed by their creator" with these rights. The constitution merely guarantees that they shall be protected.
And Constitution is the law. The highest law. The law that no one is above, beyond or beside. It isn't a set of "guidelines" to be followed when it's convenient and things are going well. It's the highest law in the land. Those ten amendments of freedom comprise the moral compass of our nation, always pointing in the direction of our dream, and, like a compass, we need it most of all when we are lost.

Now we are in a war. A real war, a desperate war. A war to save our country.

The threat does not come from the abroad. It doesn't come from Osama Bin Ladin or Saddam Hussein or any "Islamic fundamentalist fanatics." Or some shadowy terrorist group. It comes from the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Since the terrible World Trade Center disaster — which has yet to be properly investigated — under the ruse of a "war on terrorism," George W. Bush and his minions have waged the most terrifying war on freedom I have seen in my lifetime. First, the "Patriot" Act — and that's about as Orwellian as you can get. Then the Homeland Security Act — a disturbingly nazi-sounding title that creates an equally disturbing gestapo. And now Patriot Act II warming up in the bull pen, just in case they missed anything the first time. Lady Liberty is being assaulted by the most draconian collection of repressive measures since Hitler jotted down "Things to do this week" on his "In a perfect world" list.

Never have so few done so much so quickly to destroy the dream of freedom so long-held by so many.

The Bushwhackers claim that these policies and programs are a response to the imminent threat of "terrorism," but any fool knows that's not true. These same measures have been attempted many times before and have always been struck down as unconstitutional and repugnant to the principles of freedom. The PATRIOT act isn't a new idea. They just found a new excuse for an old idea. Not a necessity.
Just an opportunity.
It should suggest something to you that the same people who want to minimize the privacy of the average citizen at the very same time want to maximize secrecy for themselves. Secret papers. Secret evidence. Secret trials. Yet, they tell us that if you're innocent, you have nothing to hide.

Mr. Bush and his demon crew have violated so many laws, have so acted so grossly to undermine and contravene the constitution, and are so deep in conflicts of interest that we should have impeached him and sent his whole malevolent gang packing a long time ago.
But now, these monstrous sociopaths have reached a new low. They are not just liars and cowards and greedy opportunists.
They are murderers.
George Bush lied about the threat posed by so called "weapons of mass destruction" allegedly possessed by Iraq. He lied to the Congress. He lied to the People. He lied not once, but on numerous occasions. He lied clearly and unequivocally.

And because of that lie, American soldiers, acting in good faith, were killed, along with thousands of innocent Iraqi people, including defenseless women and children.
So now we must, absolutely must, drop our remotes, get up off the couch and demand his impeachment.
Decency demands it.
Justice demands it.
Our dead — and Iraq's — demand it.
And after stripping the Bushwhackers of office, we must continue with criminal prosecutions. Dubya's next term should be twenty to life in some place like Attica.
If we fail in this duty, if we don't set this right, we will never be able to regain respect in the eyes of the world, nor look ourselves in the mirror again, nor mouth the words "land of the free and home of the brave" without a bitter taste.
We shall be forever disgraced.
Our dream shall be forever lost.
A long time ago, English colonists fought to rid themselves of one King George.
It's high time we rid ourselves of this one. If we don't, we may not have much left to celebrate on 4ths of July to come.