“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader

TELL ME AGAIN...WHY DID WE HAVE A REVOLUTION?

(Written 25 March 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 23 June 2009.)

There is a country where motorists can be stopped at will by the police.

There is a country where the police can stop a citizen and ask him where he is going and why.

There is a country where censorship reigns supreme, where the government can tell a person what is acceptable to read, and can arrest a person if a person reads what he has been told he can't.

There is a country where a person can lose a job for speaking critically.

There is a country where employment is based on what political party a person belongs to.

There is a country where the government tells its citizens when and how often they can flush the toilet.

There is a country where the government tells its citizens what they can and cannot do with their property.

There is a country ruled by an elite group that numbers under 1000, where admittance to the group is reserved for only those with the appropriate connections.

There is a country where fame and success are equated with athletic prowess, and rules will be bent and broken and lives put in jeopardy to ensure the perpetuation of the athletic juggernaut.

There is a country that is systematically robbing its youth of the ability to think for themselves.

There is a country that tells its citizens what they can and cannot eat or drink.

There is a country that tells its citizens what hobbies they can and cannot have.

There is a country where an individual is demoralizingly hindered from pursuing the profession of his choice.

There is a country that tells a big chunk of its population that they cannot succeed without the government's help.

There is a country that tells its citizens what kinds of vehicles they should drive.

There is a country that does not hesitate to use its military might to bully neighboring countries into submission.

There is a country where people are discriminated against because of their ethnicity.

There is a country where the government feels so superior to its own subjects, that it treats all subjects like they are evil and stupid and lacking the ability to think for themselves.

There is a country where the government not only supports the taking of human lives, it is an active participant.

There is a country that actively supports the publication of the darkest secrets of those it deems "undesirable," and turns a blind eye to the public humiliation of said "undesirables."

Believe it or not, all of the scenarios I have listed occur in the same country. Sounds like some dictatorship or Communist country right? Like the old Soviet Union? Or Red China? Or Cuba? Or Afghanistan? Or Iraq? Or even Nazi Germany?

The country in question is not any of these. It is right outside your door. That's right, it is the United States of America.

Let me just say that I love my country. However, I am quite concerned about where we are heading. Restriction of civil liberties, for whatever reason, be it law and order, affirmative action, whatever, is the first step towards authoritarianism.

I love my freedom, and I don't really like my freedom being usurped by the government because it believes that I am too stupid to use my good common sense. The chiseling of my rights since the beginning of the "Reagan Revolution" in the name of law and order, moral decency, and other such rot is troubling.

This chiseling of liberties has been the result of reactions by the Reactionary Right to policies of the Radical Left and a counter-reaction by the Radical Left to these reactions. We are under such a burden of laws that in some areas you cannot paint your house without getting your color scheme approved first.

Censorship is rampant, from both the Right and the Left. You can't read Playboy. (It's morally repugnant, you know.) You can't read Huck Finn, either. (It's racist.) I do not think that the oppressive country that we now live in is what Jefferson and Madison had in mind; in fact, it is just what they feared--a strong government interfering with our daily lives.

It is not too late, however. We must all stand up and say, "No more! Live and let live!" We must hurry. If history is any indication, there are not many sands in the hourglass left to drop.

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