they do hate us for our freedom

...because unfortunately some of us use our freedom to be haters. **warning, rant to follow**

i feel the need to blog about this only because it comes at a time when i am already frustrated by my fellow americans. it seems in this country that the only form of discrimination towards a race or religion that is still accepted and actually encouraged (other than mexicans when it comes to building a wall) is towards middle eastern, arab americans and muslims. it came up this weekend when someone i like just fine passed around a joke that basically equated muslims with terrorists. i spoke up because someone should. one of my favorite students was a muslim, and another teacher felt it was fine to joke with him in front of his peers about him carrying a bomb or flying planes into buildings. this stuff happens all the time. what is wrong with us that we think that this is okay?

stop it. it is not okay. it is makes you the worst kind of american there is. absolute worst. patriotism is not just holding an effen flag up and putting a yellow tag on your car to support your troops. patriotism is not believing in jesus christ and throwing rocks at women at planned parenthood. patriotism is giving your fellow americans the right to freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the freedom to celebrate their heritage. patriotism means your right to worship jesus on a cross is absolutely on the same level of a muslim kneeling towards mecca. american means brandy cumberland's rights are as important as mohammed khan's, as important as tamika jackson's, as important as pedro ramirez's, as important as george carlin's, as important as sarah silverman's.

jason and i are watching a documentary (unconstitutional: the war on our civil liberties) that looks at the patriot act and other ways that we've made civil liberties obsolete in the united states. don't know why we watch this stuff because it just pisses us off, but we do. i think the only thing that is worse than the anger and frustration i feel when i watch this would be apathy.

the story centers aroung the people whose civil liberties have been abused the most: arab americans. random arab families who live and work among us all who were plucked from their homes and detained for nothing more than their ethnicity. while our court system operates under the idea that you are innocent until proven guilty, these detention centers operate under the opposite assumption. wtf? does anyone remember in wwII when the us did this to about 120k japanese american people (62% of which were citizens)? this documentary also points out that these acts alienate these groups and that since it creates an "us vs. them" mentality, it would only cause us as citizens to be even less protected. great idea, all thanks to the us patriot act.

ah, the us patriot act. if i didn't love it enough while working in banking, i loved covering it when i taught orwell's 1984 this year. we discussed newspeak (the govt's use of a shortened language for the country to streamline/minimize thought) and i asked "what do you think of when you hear those words?" patriotism-honor-american-taking action-united-principles and such. us patriot act stands for "uniting and strengthening america by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism." now that doesn't sound like what you were thinking!! god bless america, because it needs it...