Saturday, December 12, 2009

Hypocrisy driven by Fear

During the Bush administration I have seen the same faces protesting in the suburbs of Philadelphia, in center city Philadelphia, Washington DC and NYC. It was not just the war on/in Iraq that took us to the streets but the warrantless surveillance of citizens, Guantanamo, torture of prisoners,water boarding, women rights to choose, gay rights -to name a few- Simply put, we spent 8 years protesting beginning with the shameful fiasco of the 2000 Election
We were good at pointing out lies and injustice and making our voices heard (well, at least we tried).
Today we Have the man we voted for and the whole world knows that he inherited Bush's mess. But today president Obama is a Noble Peace Prize winner and while some of us argue that we should not criticize him - as he does all he can and perhaps he knows things we don't know and that's why he is sending 30.000 more troops in Afghanistan - most of us agree that he does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. But here is where the hypocrisy surfaces: Among all of us only a minority has the courage to openly criticize our President for accepting this prize or better, for not openly criticize the Nobel Prize Committee and this pisses me off!

The bottom line is that the people with whom I have protested for justice for 8 years are adopting the Right Wing attitude that their man they put in the White House in 2000 and 2004 could not do anything wrong and since he was the President and the Commander in chief should no be criticized. They didn't. Republicans stick for each other, no matter what!
The argument today from the quiet Left is that we shouldn't give anything to the Sarah Palin's crowd. This argument does not make us better than those we criticized.
Sticking for each other - no matter what- is not the voice of justice. By continuing doing so, we are losing our collective voice I once believed was never to be called hypocrisy driven by fear.
We must stand for Justice, no matter who is in power.
Will you again SPEAK OUT?