When you ride ALONE you ride with bin Laden | 1, 2, 3

Watching What We Say

N EARLY 2002, pressure was building in the Democratic Party for someone to say something about... well, anything really. Since the attacks in September, the government in power had done a good job of casting any dissenting opinion as ill-timed and unpatriotic. Have a question or a comment? Get in the line over there marked" Al Qaeda Operatives."

But finally Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, firebrand that he is, rose in the Senate well and said:

"Before we make commitments in resources, I think we need to have a clearer understanding of what the direction will be."

Wow. You go, girl. What a gauntlet to throw down -- the leader of the party that got the most votes in the last election asking, "So what's next?"

But the other party was outraged. Tom DeLay called Daschle's remarks "disgusting." Really? The leader of the Congress, the body of government assigned by the constitution to appropriate funds, asking what they'll be used for -- that's "disgusting?"

I've never understood people who interpret the Bible literally, and the constitution loosely.

Trent Lott was also indignant, so much so that his hair almost moved. He said, "How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field?" Tom Davis, R-VA., said Daschle's comments "'have the effect of giving aid and comfort to our enemies." I assumed he meant the Democrats.

But come on, America can't have it that only one party is allowed to play politics and speak out -- it'll completely unbalance our corrupt system of crony capitalism. Plus, "with us or against us," when misapplied to our own loyal opposition, is more like what we're fighting, and less like what we're fighting for. One of the great strengths of this country is our ability to examine matters of national policy in the court of public opinion. But we panic and forget that, time after time. I myself had the honor of being scolded by the president's spokesman with the words ° Americans need to watch what they say..."

Yeah, if you're giving away state secrets. But otherwise, not having to watch what you say is why we love it here, or it should be. Having to "watch it" is what stinks about living under the Taliban or the KGB or the Stasis. Our problem with free speech in America is, we've taken away so much of it voluntarily through the enforced appropriateness of political correctness, that when a high official says "watch what you say," we think:

"So what?! Hell, watching what you say is what life in America is like anyway, at least if you work in an office and want to stay married."

By the way, for someone who almost always has a dissenting opinion, my comment about the 9/11 kamikaze pilots not being cowards was, ironically, not dissent at all. The dissenting opinion in the aftermath of 9/11 was "We shouldn't go to war in Afghanistan." Now, I've always been for giving war a chance and more good, hard U.S. military ass-kickings to any Gangsta government on any continent, be it Hussein, Milosevic, Noriega, Adid, or the Taliban. Or Quaddafi, just for old time's sake.

No, what I said was not dissent but an uncomfortable truth, which is different. That's more about timing, and it's another reason we desperately need to fight for free speech in wartime. Because people who get in trouble for what they say aren't necessarily wrong. Athenians made Socrates drink the hemlock, but not because his warnings about their downfall had been mistaken; he was right, and they hated him for it. Kind of like Al Gore in a toga. The Smothers Brothers got thrown off TV in 1969 for saying the Vietnam War was immoral and un-winnable. By 1979 that was such an accepted mainstream opinion you'd have a hard time finding someone to argue the reverse -- although I have, and do.

The problem in America is not too much speaking out -- it's too little. We're not overrun with rebels here, we're overrun with sheep. We need more people, not less, to say out loud what at least some others are thinking. We need raw honesty especially in an age where we cannot expect statesmanship. Government can be trusted less than ever to tell the truth, because they are owned more than ever by moneyed interests whose interest is money and not truth. The United States government should be telling you the things I've been saying -- not me! They should be making the case to conserve fuel, pay the full tax load, boycott diamonds -- but they don't, because they can't.

They talk of integrity, but their idea of it is not to betray their donors.

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