Liberty Requires Disobedience
Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 16 May 2004 12:00:00 GMT
Two Bears
Once
After a hard day's forage
Two bears sat together in silence
On a beautiful vista
Watching the sun go down
And feeling deeply grateful
For life.
Though, after a while
A thought-provoking conversation began
Which turned to the topic of
Fame.
The one bear said,
"Did you hear about Rustam?
He has become famous
And travels from city to city
In a golden cage;
He performs to hundreds of people
Who laugh and applaud
His carnival
Stunts."
The other bear thought for
A few seconds
Then started
Weeping.
# Madeleine Pelner Cosman at JPFO - Medicalizing Guns - on the dangerously misguided notion, prevalent amongst misguided physicians these days, of treating guns as a disease. [jpfo]
Many physicians fear and hate guns. They are part of a powerful international movement to medically eliminate weapons in America. Gun use in medical literature and in the media is described with medical metaphor. Not only is gun use compared to a disease, it is said to be a disease. Language of epidemiology describes it. Pediatricians, family practitioners, and public health physicians claim that guns are a public health menace. Physicians want to inoculate children against infection by violence. The doctors want to eradicate the pathogen and cure people of the contagion of guns. People who shoot guns are infected with a malady manifested in clinical signs of aggression and symptoms of gun violence. Guns are the toxin that destroys health and shortens life in inner cities. Urban morbidity and mortality are determined by infestation of these environments with handguns and predations of peddlers of cigarettes, illicit drugs, alcohol, and handguns. Guns cause outbreaks of the contagious disease of violence. Medical intervention must eradicate the disease-causing organisms, the guns. The political intention is a world-honoring, violence-free nation. The medical intention is a gun-free America.
# Robert S. Rivkin at Pacific News Service - A Duty to Disobey: The Forgotten Lessons of My Lai - just as the soldiers in My Lai should have disobeyed orders to kill civilians, the soldiers in Abu Ghraib should have disobeyed orders to abuse their prisoners. Disobeying an illegal order is part of the sworn duty of a member of the armed forces. [root]
# Kathryn A. Graham at Rahtional Review - I am ashamed - Ms. Graham was a proud member of the U.S. air force. Her memories have been dishonored by the Busheviks. [root]
When I went through Basic Training, one part of that training common to all branches of service was precisely what constituted an illegal order, and how to go about legally refusing one. They made an extremely big deal of it in those days, and I still remember those classes to this very day. I had occasion to remember them once while on active duty, too, when confronted with an unpleasantly amorous senior NCO. I requested the order in writing (my right, when not in actual combat, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice), and somehow, the whole problem mysteriously disappeared, right along with what was being asked of me. I was told that I must have misunderstood. Yeah, right.
The system worked precisely as it was designed to work, and that training I received enabled me to use it with reasonable effectiveness, although if I had it to do over again, I would wish I had possessed the spine to report him to our mutual superiors anyway. Nevertheless, I was not forced to obey the jerk, and I was not forced to do anything I knew was wrong. By any definition, the system worked as designed.
...
It took my President and Vice President, an abomination known as the USA PATRIOT Act and its sequels passed by my Congress -- and now my Secretary of Defense and the military leaders who work for him -- to truly dishonor my memories. But they've done a damned good job of it.
We should call it what it most certainly is: Treason.
