Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Florida Representatives Wife Ejected from State of Union

So evidently it wasn’t only Cindy Sheehan who was ejected from the State of the Union. Beverly Young, wife of Republican representative Bill Young, was ejected last night for wearing a T-shirt saying “Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom.”

It’s hard to say why this T-shirt would be found objectionable by the Bush administration (regime?), but they did find it objectionable, and booted the representative’s wife out of the room. I don’t know, maybe they thought the shirt was in favor of the troops and not the war? To me, this shirt seems to be pro-Bush and pro-Iraq, so it makes no sense to me. He should have loved the shirt. And Beverly Young should have been an ally, being husband to a republican representative, another patriot faithfully serving the United States.

What is going on here? At what point did we revoke citizens’ freedom of speech? How can Bush go up on that podium and say that life is better because the US is spreading freedom throughout the world, and then not ensure those freedoms here, in our own homeland. Instead, Bush feels justifying in censoring his political opponents (or who he perceives to be an opponent), and that is against the tenants of freedom, and frankly un-American.

There is a brilliant passage in the movie “The American President” that really pertains here. Look at this speech by the president, Michael Douglas, in the film, and ask yourself if our President Bush is living up to this standard which really exemplifies the spirit of the Bill of Rights:

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the 'land of the free'? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the 'land of the free.'"

Posted by Scottage at 11:29 AM / | |