America, the land of the free and the home of the brave...

When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.

Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that their government participated in rendition, a ceertain practice where they kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. But no. They stood mute.

Then came the news that they jailed at least thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, I thought that they would never stand for that. Unfortunately they did.

And now, it's been discovered the executive branch of their government has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens, the Americans And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, they haven't.

In fact, if the people of that country have spoken, the message is, "We're okay with it all." Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. They, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.

There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people even seem to notice what is going on.

The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.

Stop for a second and try to fathom and think about that.

At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.

This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America!!!! Am I the only one embarrassed?

And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled unPatriotic. In this case, unAmerican.

I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic.

I read a book last night before going to sleep because I was just to bored. The book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson, the inspirational America politician. The year was 1952 when he made the speech. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."

Funny how a speech made 50 years ago still applies today. Now, instead of anti-communism, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."

I know we are all afraid. In this time of jihads and of course unbelievable oppression. If the strong countries are deemed feeble towards small cracks, where to we, Malaysians, stand? Think about it.