This Is War!

I have been inspired by something I was reading earlier. It made me think about a few things, and I came to a realization that there is something that I find that those marching us towards war are right in: Freedom is not free. You have to fight for it.

On some level, I sort of knew this, but I could not wrap my mind around the idea that we have to go out and kill lots of people to be free, especially if those people have nothing to do with our freedom in the first place. The battle for freedom and democracy is fought right here, on our home turf, and it is fought not with bullets and guns, but with voice.

You see, no one in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or North Korea are threatening our freedom, or our democracy. The ones threatening it are our leaders, who tell us they are taking them away to protect us, and to protect those rights and freedoms. How do you protect someone's rights by taking them away? You don't save a person from slavery by enslaving them.

Our voice is right now diminished, because those with the power to enact change are listening to those with the money to give them power. We have to be the leaders, we have to show them that something can be done. What will that mean? I don't know yet. I guess we will have to get creative.

Because this really is a war. It is probably one of the most important wars we have fought, because it is the one that, should we the people lose, everything that had been won from all the battles of opinions and ideas that has given us the freedoms and rights that we have will be undone.

Where have all the heros gone?

Seems like only yesterday that there was interest, there was hope, there was a fighting spirit. Where did it go?

I fear that the fighting spirit killed itself. I fear that those most interested in making things better forgot who they were fighting for, and wound up fighting each other.

I fear that we forgot that debate is a healthy thing, like the fire that burns our forest and readies our soils for new growth, like new ideas. Where has our fight gone? Where has our interest gone?

When will we stand up?

Will you bite the hand that feeds? Or will you stay down on your knees?