Thursday, August 31, 2006
More T-Shirt
Here is a link to the account of the man who wore the T-Shirt. Email wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com to buy a shirt. I have, at present, no idea where the proceeds go.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
We Will Not Be Silent
Now why, you may ask, have I decided to post again after letting my blog sit fallow for an entire year? Well, to take an entirely egocentric approach, it's as if the world were conspiring to create an event perfectly tailored to bring me to the maximum point of anger and disgust. You may say, but the Israeli aggression in Lebanon has just ended. Sure they killed nearly a 1000 civilians in indiscriminate bombing, but why weren't you complaining about that 2 weeks ago? You're right, that is certainly reason to be upset, but I'm always upset about the situations in the middle east.
No, this was a fresh stirring of my disappointment with America. The stoking of my ever smoldering disillusionment. Ever since Mr. Bush slapped our collective faces by telling us that terrorists hate us for our freedom, I have looked with disdain on Americans who support a government doing everything it can to expand the power of the executive and erode all checks and balances while saying that they support our troops who are fighting to defend our freedom.
Firstly, the troops are not fighting to defend our freedom. Oh they're fighting, and for us, but neither Afghanistan nor Iraq was in any sort of position to threaten our freedom. Secondly, and far more importantly, if you support people fighting for your freedom, you'd better know what that freedom is, and you'd better be willing to die for it yourself. I have a right-wing friend with whom I agree on absolutely nothing politically, but he says that he would be willing to give his life for my right to state my beliefs, and I would likewise do the same for him. Is freedom of expression not one of the core values of a pluralist democratic society? Is this not the reason for our "war on terror"? If so, then someone explain to me this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297822.stm?ls
My favorite part of this BBC article is at the very end "[We will not be silent] is said to derive from the White Rose dissident group which opposed Nazi rule in Germany." I bet those nervous passengers, may their teeth rot, know all about the White Rose group.
And then there's the NY Times article (for which I had to search):
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Arabic-T-Shirt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It contains this gem "One official told him, ''Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, `I'm a robber,''' It's hard for me to maintain composure when I read this. The racism and idiocy is obvious, but it warrants a little deeper investigation. There is a slight ring of truth to the statement, which is what make me really angry. If you think about it, wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it might be asking for trouble. Why? Because people fear Arabic. People are associating and entire language with centuries of history and millions of speakers of all walks of life with terrorism. The people at that airport thought Arabic=terrorism. I'm not going to write anymore on this right now. That feeling of disgust is coming over me again.
No, this was a fresh stirring of my disappointment with America. The stoking of my ever smoldering disillusionment. Ever since Mr. Bush slapped our collective faces by telling us that terrorists hate us for our freedom, I have looked with disdain on Americans who support a government doing everything it can to expand the power of the executive and erode all checks and balances while saying that they support our troops who are fighting to defend our freedom.
Firstly, the troops are not fighting to defend our freedom. Oh they're fighting, and for us, but neither Afghanistan nor Iraq was in any sort of position to threaten our freedom. Secondly, and far more importantly, if you support people fighting for your freedom, you'd better know what that freedom is, and you'd better be willing to die for it yourself. I have a right-wing friend with whom I agree on absolutely nothing politically, but he says that he would be willing to give his life for my right to state my beliefs, and I would likewise do the same for him. Is freedom of expression not one of the core values of a pluralist democratic society? Is this not the reason for our "war on terror"? If so, then someone explain to me this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297822.stm?ls
My favorite part of this BBC article is at the very end "[We will not be silent] is said to derive from the White Rose dissident group which opposed Nazi rule in Germany." I bet those nervous passengers, may their teeth rot, know all about the White Rose group.
And then there's the NY Times article (for which I had to search):
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Arabic-T-Shirt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It contains this gem "One official told him, ''Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, `I'm a robber,''' It's hard for me to maintain composure when I read this. The racism and idiocy is obvious, but it warrants a little deeper investigation. There is a slight ring of truth to the statement, which is what make me really angry. If you think about it, wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it might be asking for trouble. Why? Because people fear Arabic. People are associating and entire language with centuries of history and millions of speakers of all walks of life with terrorism. The people at that airport thought Arabic=terrorism. I'm not going to write anymore on this right now. That feeling of disgust is coming over me again.
Anniversary
Well, I am late in celebrating my one year anniversary. One year, that is, since my last post. I can still remember when I first started the blog. I wanted to try to post at the very least once a week. I think that if I set my new goal to once a year, I will have a little more success.
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