Today is Memorial Day. I extend my gratitude to the service men and women who have kept and are keeping our country free and prosperous.
Today is Memorial Day. I extend my gratitude to the service men and women who have kept and are keeping our country free and prosperous.
Annuit Cœptis Novus Ordo Seclorum.
The military history of my family is interesting. My brother, Jeff Barnson (who most of you don’t know, as I was adopted and he was my adopted brother, two thousand miles away) served in the US Air Force and is now a civilian pilot. My father, Bill Barnson, is a retired colonel in the US Air Force. My brother, Jay Barnson, was slated to enter the Air Force, but medical problems prohibited his entry (much to his relief, I think 🙂 ). My brother, Brian, served in the US Navy.
I guess I’m the aberration. I flirted with joining the US Army, and qualified to join them as a pianist, but decided to stick with cushy civilian life. I haven’t regretted that choice, in light of recent military deployments with which I disagreed, but I have enormous respect for those who have put their lives where their mouths are.
At the same time that I am grateful for those who serve in the military to preserve our freedom, I am deeply troubled that those freedoms are being eroded from within.
I am troubled because today, I cannot protest en masse with my fellow citizens within view of a seated US President. I will be removed to a “free speech zone”: a fenced, barricaded, razor-wired holding pen for those people who disagree with the President, often miles from the location where he is speaking. Those who support the President, however, may hold their support signs in full view of the cameras and our elected representative. I thought all the public property in the entire country was supposed to be a free speech zone.
I am troubled because my country condones the use of torture. We obey the letter of our treaties by not torturing our citizens and visitors within our borders, but by shipping them to third-world countries which will torture them on our behalf. It is a most cruel and unusual punishment to be deported, beaten, and tortured for information without a trial.
I am troubled because today, the average citizen cannot afford to run for high public office. Only the independently wealthy have much of a chance of succeeding; recent studies indicate that the average congressperson must have at least $2 million in cash to have a hope of winning a House seat. We seem to be turning into a country where only the wealthiest 2% of our population controls our legislative and executive branches. All men are not created equal, it seems.
I am troubled because the Executive and Legislative branches, together, are attempting to strip the Judicial branch of its authority to strike down certain types of legislation. In the name of “reducing judicial activisim”, they are attempting to turn our trinity of checks and balances into a duality, where all the power is concentrated in the hands of those who make and enforce the laws. This way lies, not democracy, but only tyranny.
I am troubled because we are on the brink of passing a national Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. The Consitution is a document which outlines the structure and form of our government, and enumerates our rights. Such an amendment would be the only current amendment restricting the full exercise of these rights to a particular portion of the US population. It’s noteworthy that the only other amendments restricting the rights of citizens dealt with slaves and alcohol consumption, and have been repealed.
I am most troubled because our soldiers, the bulwark of our successful sovereignty, are being used to defend our “freedom” abroad, while our legislators and executive branch seem hell-bent on limiting our “freedom” at home. Non-warranted “sneak and peek” searches. Unlimited government access to telephone records. Aforementioned “free-speech zones”. Refusal to sunset the PATRIOT act, which grants unprecedented autonomy to law enforcement.
I can’t shake the feeling that we are being bilked in an enormous shell game. While we’re “watching the ball” on morality and traditional family, the hard-won rights fought for by our Founding Fathers are being repressed, little by little. Not enough to create a revolution or profound public resentment, but just enough at a time to get us used to the weight of the chains with which we will one day be shackled.
The United States is a nation of contrasts and contradictions. Side-by-side on our one-dollar bill stands the National Seal, with the phrases “Annuit Cœptis” and “Novus Ordo Seclorum” proudly emblazoned thereon. “Our undertakings are favored in this new secular order”*. On the other side reads, “In God We Trust”.
The freedom we fight for is, at its heart, the freedom to disagree. We disagree without fear of punishment. Without fear that our homes will be illegally searched and siezed. Without fear that our right to defend our selves will be stripped from us, or that our churches will be raided. We disagree with ourselves, all the way down to our currency.
This is as it should be.
I hope that we may be blessed with a peaceful year until next Memorial Day, and that our soldiers at home and abroad may be preserved from harm.
(* Yes, I understand that this may also read “He (God) has favored our undertakings” and “A New Order of the Ages” or “New Worldly Order” as well. Some consider “secular” a mistranslation; I think it’s poetic in the current context.)