freeperish sign at the car dealer

I was having my p.o.s. car repaired at the dealership today -- needed some odd parts -- and they had this jingoistic "poem" or whatever propped up on a table in the waiting room. As well as I can remember it, it said something like this:

"It is not the journalist who gives us freedom of the press; it is the soldier.

It is not the poet who gives us freedom of speech; it is the soldier.

It is not the campus organizer who gives us freedom to demonstrate; it is the soldier."

and so on.

You can tell what side they're coming down on, because they go after journalists, poets, and the vaguely defined "campus organizer." There was no line about fundie preachers having freedom of religion.

But my main complaint is with this idea that soldiers give us freedom. If these people would read the founding documents, like the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, they'd be reminded that freedom is inherently ours. It's not anyone's to GIVE us.

And sure, the use of the military has helped to protect our freedom (not GIVE us freedom) at times in the past. But just as frequently, the US military is used as a tool of the powerful to deny freedom.

Isn't it ugly, this idea that everything good about being an American must be derived from violence, or the threat of it?

The only lives that matter are blastocysts.

It is the lies that they glomp onto and interwine into their rhetoric.

a wrestling match? just curious. :7

glom Slang
v. glommed, glom·ming, gloms
v. tr.

1. To steal.
2. To seize; grab.
3. To look or stare at.


v. intr.

To seize upon or latch onto something: “The country has glommed onto the spectacle of a wizard showman turning the tables on his inquisitors” (Mary McGrory).

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=glom

"Soldiers defend these freedoms so poets, writers, and campus organizers can *use* them!"

Oh wait, it WAS caused by civilian legal experts in the White House.

never mind.

So there MUST be a lot of freedom there, right?

nt

It is not the soldier who steals our money. It is the pResident*.

It is not the soldier who watches out for the soldier's life to make sure that it is not thrown away by a maniacal unelected dictator trying to shove lots of money at his rich friends, it is the American people. Or it was supposed to be. But they failed.

My own little additions.

"Isn't it ugly, this idea that everything good about being an American must be derived from violence, or the threat of it?"

Somebody should kick your ass for saying something like that.

:sarcasm:

Personally, I think that violence or the credible threat of violence is the root of almost all evil done by man.

If we could limit our government to only respond to force, but never initiate force, then I believe we would have a better country.

Pisses me off too.

It was thousands of campus organizers and regular citizens in the streets who stopped the VietNam bloodbath. For which soldiers should be (and I'm sure many are) undyingly! grateful.

I've noticed a tendency for small towns to get very wordy on their war memorials. A town I visited in West Virginia had an angry screed on theirs about the government not "letting us win" in Vietnam.

I don't know why people want to literally etch something like that in stone. It's better to keep the words out so people can respond however they need to respond.

You hit it right on the head: the fucking military does not GIVE us freedom, it is supposed to defend and protect our freedom.

Theoretically, the military is under the control of the civilian government in this country. Also theoretically, the civilian government is accountable to and shaped by the American citizenry.

I know that's often far from reality, but it's always nice to draw from our espoused American principles and values when refuting these freeper idiocies.

It's not like it would be of any value to them. My baby's on it's last set of wheels. :(

unless your vehicle is under warranty. My husband has worked at them and they overcharge and cheat whenever they can.

Maybe in 100, 500, 1000 years, but ultimately as a species we will see fear wrapped in violence for what it is. We will scarcely be able to believe that we ever engaged in such barbarism. Unfortunate that we have to go through all of this horror to get there and none of us will ever personally see it...Just my two cents.

and eat us. :evilgrin:

I thought we learned that lesson and vowed to never let it get to that point again.
The sabers were rattling before Iraq.No the plans were set by the Cheney Group long before that.The wall of names was touring our area and I really wanted to honor the souls who got tangled in that mess so I went. The death of these our loved ones surrounded me. The sorrow was overwhelming and I spoke to a touring support soldier there. I said we can't have anymore walls, any more
deaths. We can't have forced war because hawks want it. I was totally out of place and I knew it. The climate was ripe for war. We were scared and hurt after 911.
When we can turn around a lynch mob with words,when we can calm frighten hearts with song,when we can touch the bitter soul with compassion,when reason and leveling laws are brought to bare,and when we resist the goading war monger war will be the thing of the past.

It's the Constiution of the United States that gives me my freedoms which King George wants to take away and has been taking away since he stole the 2000 election.

I was all set to quit going to my favorite sandwich shop because one day I saw they put up a picture of George & Laura. So I didn't go in there for a couple of weeks, and when I did, they had new managers, had redecorated the whole place, and the picture of Bush was gone. Yipeee! :applause: I felt so happy for them. The new people are nice.

So I'd just find another car shop. Good luck. :hug:

Normally I go somewhere else, but my old car needed a very specific part to pass the state safety inspection. So I had to go to a dealer. I won't go to that one again!

Here is OK, there is no commercial endeavor that cannot be morphed into a patriotic moment, though car dealers lead the way. We have dealers competing to give away vehicles to returning GIs. You go by the dealership and vote for the most 'deserving hero.' Kind of like the old Queen for a Day, but no tears and a lot of camo and flags.

She is the most deserving - and she could use the car. :)

Any cursory examination of US history will reveal that mass movements of people seized freedoms from the government. Example: freedom to form unions, women's suffrage, freeing of slaves (abolitionist movement was long before the Civil War), right to vote, civil rights movement etc.

At best the military, as a tool of the state, defends the current government and the freedoms it allows the people. In this role the US military has only acted on a handful of occasions (amongst which I'd name the Civil War, WWII, and um, the Revolution) since most of our wars are wars of aggression on our part.

The idea that soldiers gave us the right to vote is a poisonous one that fetishizes the military and degrades the idea of citizenship.

The freest places in the world must be entirely run by soldiers!

A totalitarian police state then must be the epitome of freedom!

Kerry, JFK, FDR, Carter, Bush41, Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Max Cleland, and many others fought for our freedom while Bush43 was hung over and AWOL.

That's telling 'em, zbd :D :applause:

more . . .

EOM.

used to *steal* these rights from the citizens just as often as they've been used to defend the country.

Because what will the Young Republicans do now?


:sarcasm:

than respect based on fear."

Albert Camus

Isn't it creepy that gangsters are big on "respect"? Then again, we know that there is little difference between private sector gangsterism and the public sector variety.

became a coherent part of Colonial American law as a result of the Mary Dyer affair in Puritan Massachusetts in 1657-1660.

The First Amendment is the death of theocracy. I wouldn't elevate the belief system that lies behind this sign to the dignity of being a religion (it points back to a militaristic occultism), but the intent is propaganda for something of the kind.

It's the soldiers who torture detainees and violate the Geneva Convention.

Didn't that old crackpot Zell Miller say that quote at last years' GOP convention??? Do these idiots ever learn??