Welcome to Amerika

Is the America are we building better or even the same as the one that was worth defending on September 11, 2001?

Before Sept. 11, people were presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Now we lock people up for years without any charges.

Before Sept. 11, a person's home was their castle. Domestic spying was unheard of.
Now the President of the United States, the leader most entrusted with preserving and protecting the constitution of the USA, authorizes intelligence agencies to spy on its citizens.

Before Sept. 11, there was not a "Patriot Act," its very name Orwellian Doublespeak, which allowed warrantless "sneak a peak" inspections of a person's library records.
Now we're told that we just need to get used to having less privacy.

Before Sept. 11, secret prison and exporting prisoners to be tortured, and Abu-Gharid style humiliation of human beings, was abhorrant. Now its virtually accepted modus operandi.

Before Sept. 11, America wasn't even close to being $8 trillion in debt. Now its becoming clear that our fiscal mismanagement will cost us very dearly, very soon.

Before Sept. 11, the right to privacy was a presumption that required no defense. Increasingly, we now hearing that we shouldn't worry about invasions of privacy if we have nothing to hide.
- You don't want me looking at your library record -- what are you trying to hide?
- You don't want me looking at your home videos? What you got to hide?
- You don't want me seeing who you've been calling on the telephone, mining your credit card purchasing habits, profiling your websurfing routines, looking at your tax form, reading your email, opening your postal mail? Then you must have something to hide!

America may be "more safe" today than it was on Sept. 12, but it is certainly "less American."

Each day I seem to be presented with more and more evidence that America has been hijacked by the right wing, who feel that they are justified in all that they do, so long as it is done in the name of security.

I am not willing to trade my freedoms away for security. Nor will I quietly allow the United States government to continue perpetrating attrocities in my name.

If America was worth preserving and defending, a value-less police state (Amerika) that can only be sustained through torture, secrecy and the systematic violation of the rights of its populace is certainly not worth preserving.

I long for the presumption of privacy and personal liberties that I enjoyed before 9/11. Where has my America gone?

The next election will perhaps be the most important EVER IN OUR NATION's HISTORY for retaining the presumption of our privacy rights.

Welcome to the new Amerika. It's just what the terrorists had in mind.