I protest.

A sea of troubles.

I don't have any real news today. A lot is going on, as usual, but other bloggers seem to have it covered. I should probably mention this article by Stuart Hughes, a journalist injured by a landmine in Iraq. He points to this picture, of nine-year-old Arkin who found and picked up a landmine. He probably won't survive and in a way it's almost merciful. I learned at Stuart's site that the United States is not signatory to the Ottowa Treaty, "a convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines and on their destruction." We're in the company of such notable countries as Albania, China, Iran and Liberia, among others. And I thought that we were supposed to lead the world in humanitarian concern! Silly me.

Which leads me to the real reason for this post. That quote from Gandhi notwithstanding, sometimes it's tough to not despair at the vicious ignorance all around us. From the White House to Congress to the deep woods of East Texas, from the suburbs to the inner city, people seem to think not only that ends justify means (so killing and maiming children is just fine if it gets rid of Saddam Hussein, for example) but that their safety is worth any sacrifice. I keep hearing from people who justify the abuses perpetrated by our government by saying that it's only to stop terrorism. So to "stop terrorism" they incarcerate US citizens without due process. To "stop terrorism" they imprison children at Guantanamo Bay. To "stop terrorism" they secretly examine the books you check out at the library and listen to your telephone conversations, because, you know, you just might be a terrorist.

And where terrorism is concerned, we just can't be too safe.

Well, actually, yes, we can. How many of your freedoms are you willing to give up for your safety? It sounds lately as if many Americans are willing to give them all up. And Bush, Ashcroft and the rest are all too eager to take those freedoms away. It's in their interest to do so, you understand. The fewer freedoms we have, the more freedom they have to do whatever they like and get away with it. More money, more power, no accountability. Saddam Hussein, writ large.

Are you willing to trust them with that power? I'm not, and, fortunately, neither are a lot of people in Congress. Even some Republicans are beginning to see that things have gone too far.

I've never agreed with Sensenbrenner before in my life, that I know of. I'm glad to see that he, too, sees the so-called "USA PATRIOT" Act as a bad idea.

So it appears that we're not hurtling pell-mell toward disaster, at least not at the moment, but things are still Not Good in a very serious way. Jose Padilla is still in the Navy lockup, without access to counsel, without being charged, without trial. He has been held for over a year, now, and by the military for just under a year. Mike Hawash is in prison in Oregon under a "material witness" warrant, as if a man with such deep roots in his community and with such a long, solid history in his career would be a "flight risk."

And some 43 other American citizens are also being held. Without trial, without charge, without due process, in flagrant violation of the rights purportedly guaranteed them by the United States Constitution.

I am appalled not only by the fact that so few people are speaking out against this, but even more by the fact that there are even those who believe that it's actually good that these people are being held. These are people who have never learned how to think critically, who never question what they see on Fox News and who think that George W. Bush is a wonderful President.

There are those of us that notice this stuff and who try to speak out about it. I try to be one of them, although my resources aren't at all what I wish they were. I have a distinct disadvantage in that not only am I forced to fight the horrors on the outside but I have inner, much more personal horrors of my very own that cost me the energy I could otherwise use elsewhere.

So what can I do? Well, I can write this thing, hoping that one or two people might see it and begin to realize that the Bush people must be stopped. I can write my Representative, Jane Harman, and my Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, and I do. I'm a member of the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I'm on their alert lists so I can help in a small way when there are specific issues that need attention.

And I vote. Of course, I voted in 2000 and 2002 as well. The guy I voted for as President, along with the rest of my state, isn't in office. Instead, the guy who got the minority of the votes had the office handed to him by the Supreme Court. I'll never understand why a simple recount of the votes wasn't the right thing to do. Even Kennedy, Scalia and Rehnquist should have seen that. But what do I know, I'm just a well-educated, fortysomething Software Engineer who has been paying attention to events for a long time.

Every day I hope for some good news for a change. It is too much to hope that Cheney will have a heart attack or that Bush might have an attack of conscience (we already know that neither Rumsfeld nor Ashcroft have a conscience), but maybe another Republican Senator or Congressperson might finally have had enough and started arguing with those who would keep trampling our liberties.

It hurts to hear of people who are afraid to speak out for fear of being branded "unpatriotic" or a "traitor." CJ Silverio pointed out Teddy Roosevelt's take on criticizing a President:

CJ thinks that today's Republicans would disown Roosevelt (who was a Republican himself). I think that CJ doesn't know how right she is. Roosevelt supported equal rights for women and conservation and was a very intelligent and well-spoken man. Unlike someone else I know.

So I guess it's time to put a bumper sticker on my car and get ready to volunteer for whoever I can stomach in 2004.