Pinckney D Rivers, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Pinckney D Rivers
Flag Your Friends and Turn 'Em In REDUX 8/12/2009 7:09:52 AM
Is this the change we voted for? Silencing dissent? Mindlessly following like sheep? Flag.WhiteHouse.gov is an email address for turning in emails and names of people who question our government and it's actions. I write a weekly newspaper column/online blog for a Herald Tribune owned paper and this was the title for last week's column (the title of this blog). I knew when I wrote it that I was playing with fire but I did it anyway. I believe in the First Amendment: freedom of speech. I have never in my life thought that America would try to regulate what we say. We are supposed to be the country everyone flees to. We are supposed to be able to grouse and complain any time we want. It is our right.
I don't know what is going on in our elected official's minds these days but it is scary. For some reason they seem to think we work for them instead of vice versa. The worst seems to be Mrs. Pelosi. She has caused me to lose all respect for her as an elected official. Her tirade about the people who question health care being NAZI's really, really upset me. I disagree with the bill as proposed but I sure don't deserve to be called a Nazi. My family came to America to get away from tyranny. We came from Prussia where my ancestors were dissidents. We thought people had rights and should be able to protest; so my family escaped one step in front of the head hunters. None of my family members were Nazi's during WWII. Being of Prussian/Jewish descent this title is especially offensive to me. So, Mrs Pelosi, just where is my apology from you? (Not forthcoming, I am sure). When the White House Press Secretary spoke that day on national tv and gave out the email address I put at the first of the blog I was whisked back into the nightmares of my ancestors. Turn in your friends and family; save yourself. Those words were often spoken in Nazi Germany. I think Mrs. Pelosi is describing the wrong people. Hugo Chavez has made it illegal to disagree with him. When will this be written (in small print) into one of these bills just before it passes. This isn't the change we voted for.
We are not sheep and we do not mindlessly follow those we ELECT to lead us. When those who lead us don't work for us we, the people, work to remove or replace them. We are not violent but neither are we silent.
Something that surprised me is that freelance writers are receiving posting requests for writers who will (for 5 cents a word) daily make comments on blogs that are like this one. The person who posts the job will provide the tag words that the writer should look for and those that he or she should include in their comments. They are to make 50 of these per day. Of course, they are to do this against those who are exercizing their free speech. I don't think I really need the money that bad. I can ghost for someone but I can't do something against my own principals; not even under an assumed name, fake email address. That just isn't American to me.
