The World According To Pinder

3/3/03

 

There has been this talk about just what is un-American lately. I thought I would discuss it. It’s infuriated me.

 

This God-awful trend in groupthink started back with September 11. It was a horrific day for America, and indeed the world as the full ramifications of that day may not be fully realized for years to come. However, some people decided that in their hearts, despite the horror that occurred on that day and the anger it fostered, they could not support war as the appropriate response for America.

 

Those people were promptly called un-American. Pacifists were called “for the terrorists.” The running line was “You’re either with us, or you’re against us.” Many conservative commentators and a number of liberal ones perverted this too. They took it to mean if you had the temerity to disagree, you constituted a fifth column that should be dragged out into the streets and shot. At least one commentator, Ann Coulter, is planning a with the running title of “Treason: How the Left is Ruining America.” Or some awfulness like that.

 

Let us fast-forward 18 months. Afghanistan has a new, albeit struggling, democratic government. Al Qaeda is somewhat more disorganized. And America’s focus is on Iraq.

 

The same pacifists who held to their beliefs are being railed against, again. Anti-war protestors are called treasonous and  “objectively pro-Saddam”. A housewife in Georgia who held up a peace sign as the President’s motorcade passed had her hair spat in by others standing nearby. People screamed obscenities at her, and these people are her neighbors. She took the moral high road and prayed for their souls. I doubt I could have kept my cool. Here on campus, antiwar and peace signs are torn down. The popular online forum here at school is riddled with people telling others to get the hell out if they don’t agree with America’s policies. Bill O’Riley of FOX News even went as far to state on his show that he would call those who dissented un-American. I will give Bill some credit: he ate those words a few days later and changed his tune to the less horrific-but-just-as-awful “bad” American.

 

I guess “You’re either with us, or you’re against us” is still the status quo in George W. Bush’s America.

 

And it gets better, or worse depending on how you see it. Liberals, such as myself, are accused of “not being interested in protecting the homeland.” I personally took this as an attack against my patriotism. When this was said to me, I saw red. I admit to having a temper, and if this charge had been levied in person, I probably would have punched the guy.

 

I am an American citizen. I was born here, and I’ll die here. I stand up for my beliefs. I stand by my beliefs, no matter how unpopular they may be. And I’ll say it right here: I have a visceral dislike (and that’s putting it mildly) for President George W. Bush. He’s leading my country, the land that I love and cherish, down the wrong path, a path that could lead all of us to peril for decades to come. I don’t agree with his policies.  If that makes me a terrorist, or un-American because I’m obviously “against” those that support him, then I dare those accusers to bring it on. Cart me off to Guantanamo Bay. A real American wouldn’t spend his time accusing those who obviously cherish their right to free expression of “un-American-ness.”