Our “American Hats”

John McCain asked his fellow Republicans to “take off their Republican hats and put on their American hats” while calling for a postponement to the start of the Republican convention, set to begin tomorrow in St. Paul, due to hurricane Gustav.

Senator McCain should perhaps be asking the FBI, Minneapolis police, and the Ramsey County Sheriff to take off their police thug hats and stop harassing and detaining American citizens.

A friend, who lives in Minneapolis, alerted me to a series of raids carried out over the weekend by Ramsey county sheriff SWAT team with the assistance of FBI agents.

At least four homes were entered, computers, personal journals, and political pamphlets seized while occupants were handcuffed and forced to lay on the floor. Repeated demands to see a search warrant were apparently ignored until the heavily armed officers left.

Dozens of people were also handcuffed, photographed, and detained at a public venue and meeting place for an organization called the “Republican Welcoming Committee” for “fire code violations”.

There were no reported illegal acts nor has there been any evidence proffered by any source that I could find of any conspiracy to commit any illegal acts.

It appears nothing more than an abridgment of the constitutional rights of left-wing dissidents intent on carrying out their once-guaranteed freedom of speech and assembly.

Where is the Outrage?

Any American should be concerned when they see such tactics used, but little is being reported on this, save for the links below.

We all hope for the safety of those in Gustav’s path, but there is perhaps an even larger storm brewing in this country, one that has been gaining strength for some time. And it is one for which we must not evacuate but meet head-on.

George Bush and Dick Cheney have done much to eviscerate American principals, and too many have gone along for too long, either through agreement, ignorance, or apathy.

We are left with a police state in Minneapolis on the eve of the nominating convention of the party that has given us eight years of national tragedy. What’s next?

We’re losing America and too few seem to care.

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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/31/raids/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/30arrests.html?_r=5&adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1220227363-HMM8kJ4X/w6BmkQQfgYDeA

http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6158/breaking-food-not-bombs-house-among-saturday-raids

The conversation led to John relating the story of his recent conversation with two young men in his favorite Austin coffeehouse, one soon to be a senior in high school and the other just graduated. John asked them if they knew what the July 4^th holiday was all about.

They both knew that it was about American Independence. But from whom?

One thought we had liberated ourselves from the iron grip of Imperial Spain. “No, no”, said the other, “It’s France”.

And when?

“1965?”  

I was not there, I did not hear this exchange. But John has little reason to make such a thing up.

(I have a distinct memory of sitting on our couch in Denver during the Christmas holiday of 1965, watching the Vietnam war on television. At least I think it was Vietnam…)

Who to chastise here… The young men that have made it thus far in their American education without even a rudimentary understanding of our history? Or the adults charged with imparting this rudimentary knowledge? Or the society in general that allows both the adults and children to so egregiously miss the boat.

Take your pick.

How many of the young soldiers in Iraq are there, filled with talk of Fighting for Freedom – or the justification du jour – that don’t even know the history of their own fight for freedom? Is their idea of America only what they’ve seen since the election of George Bush and 9/11?

Is this what America has become? The vision of George Bush’s messianic mission – “crusade”, as he himself put it – and young men, products of mainstream American education, believing that July 4^th is a day to celebrate our independence from France on that fateful day in 1965?

This is what I think: If you can’t name at least six people who signed the Declaration of Independence (that’s right, six. Go crack open a book, or better yet, google it if you need to), who we were declaring independence from, and the year it was signed, then I think you should not be allowed to go to preemptive war in a foreign country until you’ve taken – and passed – an American history class (one hopes George Bush would pass muster).

If we can’t insure at least this much, then we shouldn’t put a gun in their hands and send them to a country whose culture their own leader doesn’t understand.

Is anybody paying attention here?