What's hard about this? Make some noise.

First Amendment

When did the rules stop applying here? Granted there have been times when information was a bit less available than other times.

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights - Right up front Five very important freedoms.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of RELIGION...

And yet the current administration funds 'faith-based' programs, which support a political message. It uses a religious base to further it's political agendas. It criticizes any churches that question the policies of the administration, calling them unpatriotic. They call themselves Christians, but the tenets of most of Christianity include, heal the sick, feed the hungry, care for the poor...care for each other. Their religion is greed, and it is an exclusive club.

Freedom of Speech...

Well try to go to a Bush rally wearing a T-Shirt that may indicate you lean a different political direction.

Freedom of the press...

Seen a White House press conference lately? Stop watching broadcast or cable news on TV. Buy a damned paper and read. If you don't understand it, set it down and read it again later. If there is subsequent related news, go back to the old paper and read it again. Read, read anyway, read anything. It gives meaning to organized thought, it goes in depth. Shut off the damn TV, and stop being a Vidiot. Screw reality TV and try some reality!

The right peacebly to assemble...

In an unemployment line.

The right to petition the government...

Well, let's get the right to vote and have elections carried out without even the appearance of impropriety fixed. Afterall, isn't an election a petition of the highest order in a democracy?

If people have no idea what their rights are, how can they know they are at risk? Wake up! Then while you're at it, wake your neighbors up. It is much harder to regain a right once it's gone than to protect it in the first place. One must use those rights in order to protect them. People should fear the erosion of rights exponentially over their fear of terrorists. If the rights of the people disappear, foreign terrorism will be the least of our worries.

Make noise!

Make noise like Rosa Parks.
"Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way."

Make noise like Frederick Douglas.
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

Make noise like Edward R. Murrow.
"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

Make noise like Albert Einstein.
"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom."

Make noise like James Madison.
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

Make noise like John Adams.
"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

Make noise like Clarence Darrow.
"You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free."

Make noise like Susan B. Anthony.
"It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less."

Make noise like Malcolm X.
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."

Make noise like JFK.
"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world."

Profound or simple, through word or deed, make noise while you still have the right to make noise.

Bye for now,

Cosmo

PS. Has anyone ever heard GW make a statement or a speech that approached the sort of expression or language like the excerpt from JFK's speech above? Man, and to think GW's flying this thing. Prepare for a rough landing.