Recently, there's been a critical review of Senator Obama's minister Jeremiah Wright and specific sermons he gave that were purportedly "Un-American". First off, labeling anything un-American is, ironically, un-American in itself. Our founding fathers constructed this nation on ideas expressed on parchment made from trees owned by the King of England. And, appropriately, the words declared nothing less than freedom of thought and expression, among other things. How dare anyone decry another for exercising their constitutional rights. And this includes every American flag waving zealot who can't stand an ounce of criticism of the United States from its citizen. Thomas Jefferson shifts in his grave.
We pride ourselves on being the leaders of the free world but denounce and seek to suppress speech that points out our flaws. The United States hasn't risen to prominence by sweeping dirt under the rug, but by confronting our flaws and finding solutions. Self criticism and reflection is what forces us to progress as a nation and people. Without it we'd still have no civil rights, no equal opportunity, and no place on top of the western hegemony. September 11th has somehow given conservatives the excuse of labeling any criticism of our past as unpatriotic and treasonous. We now reject the ideas of The Enlightenment for security from terrorism. We've subtly erased portions of the Constitution and pasted in portions from the so called Patriot Act. Isn't this what the terrorists ultimately want? We have played into their game of fear and now restrict ourselves and abandon our values because we're scared of them. And even more interesting is that we're afraid of the things we had a hand in creating.
One of the sermons reverend Wright is being criticized for was given immediately after September 11th and listed the past wrongs of the United States. Now I have no love or hate for this man, I don't even know him. All I know is that he presented two sermons which have recently garnered media exposure for being "inflammatory". But this sermon in particular has emboldened his critics and has seen them cry out that he's a terrorist sympathizer. But if you read the text of his sermon and actually know the history of the United States, there is truth in what he says and it is important to know why terrorists may hate us. I'm not saying that they are justified in their actions against us, but that there is veritable anger around the world at the United States. Sometimes we tend to forget that the US hasn't been the champion of the world that we believe it to be.
Slavery won't be included as a sin of the United States here because the practice has been around since the dawn of civilization and continues to be practiced in corners of the world. But lets take a look at the First World War. The United States justifiably entered the war on the side of the Allies to stop the Central Powers from taking Europe. However, its actions during the Paris Peace Conference was no different than that of the other imperial powers. We promised the world the ambiguous maxim of "self determination of people" and a League of Nations that would end conflict. We delivered on none of those by allowing the Middle East and Africa to be carved up by Clemenceau and Lloyd George. And we've seen the repercussions of that today in our ordeal with Iraq and the Middle East as a whole.
And we tend to forget the lessons of the Second World War. Again we were thrust into war to save the Allies from their Axis tormentors, this time including Japan. But we forget the xenophobic attitude that spread across the nation after Pearl Harbor and saw to the detention of many United States citizens of Japanese descent. And we tend to forget that the Japanese regiments in our military that fought in Europe were some of the most decorated outfits in the war effort.
America also became the first, and only, nation in history to detonate a nuclear weapon on a civilian population. I forgot, we did it twice. With a drop of two bombs we killed millions of people in the blink of an eye. These were people that were in school, playing with their kids in the park, going to the post office, doctors operating on patients, and people trying to earn a living. These were everyday people living their lives. And we took them from this world on the promise that it would save lives. We accepted that logic because we believed that dropping two nukes would save us the trouble and American lives needed to physically invade the Japanese homeland. And this may very well have been true.
But recent documents and writings by revisionist historians have uncovered that Emperor Hirohito had conceded defeat and was determined to surrender to the United States. He had a recording, on vinyl, that was to be played across the airwaves commanding the Japanese people to put down their arms. There is also documentation that the United States government knew of the emperor's intent. So there is a possibility that we sacrificed the lives of millions of Japanese not to defeat them, but solely to warn the Soviet Union that we had the power to destroy. And this wouldn't be the last time we'd risk American and other people's lives to best the USSR.
The entire policy of Containment, though crucial to the preservation of the Western hegemony, did no favors for the United States' image in the world. In the process we had U2 spy plane shot down over Russian territory, funded the Mujahadeen (later to become the Taliban), propped up pro western dictators (Pinochet and Saddam to name a few), and callously used countless other nations for our purpose. A realist would argue that this is how the new international order worked. However, we mortgaged influence and efficacy for the destruction of our rival. And now we pay the piper with terrorists seeking our destruction and our influence waning at a crucial juncture in our history.
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Anyone who waves the flag of patriotism and uses it to stifle any portion of the Constitution or to shackle our inalienable right to liberty should be headed as that scoundrel. They shouldn't be censored but the people should be weary of those who seek to advance their own cause by appealing to ignorant love of country. True love of country is only achieved by recognizing what makes our nation great and what makes our nation deplorable. We must remember the lessons of history and realize that the United States of America is like any other nation. It has flaws that must be addressed and a history marred by darkness. It is not perfect, and anyone who tells you otherwise is, to put it lightly, nothing more than a preying scoundrel using a bludgeon to smear the words of our Founding Fathers.
We pride ourselves on being the leaders of the free world but denounce and seek to suppress speech that points out our flaws. The United States hasn't risen to prominence by sweeping dirt under the rug, but by confronting our flaws and finding solutions. Self criticism and reflection is what forces us to progress as a nation and people. Without it we'd still have no civil rights, no equal opportunity, and no place on top of the western hegemony. September 11th has somehow given conservatives the excuse of labeling any criticism of our past as unpatriotic and treasonous. We now reject the ideas of The Enlightenment for security from terrorism. We've subtly erased portions of the Constitution and pasted in portions from the so called Patriot Act. Isn't this what the terrorists ultimately want? We have played into their game of fear and now restrict ourselves and abandon our values because we're scared of them. And even more interesting is that we're afraid of the things we had a hand in creating.
One of the sermons reverend Wright is being criticized for was given immediately after September 11th and listed the past wrongs of the United States. Now I have no love or hate for this man, I don't even know him. All I know is that he presented two sermons which have recently garnered media exposure for being "inflammatory". But this sermon in particular has emboldened his critics and has seen them cry out that he's a terrorist sympathizer. But if you read the text of his sermon and actually know the history of the United States, there is truth in what he says and it is important to know why terrorists may hate us. I'm not saying that they are justified in their actions against us, but that there is veritable anger around the world at the United States. Sometimes we tend to forget that the US hasn't been the champion of the world that we believe it to be.
Slavery won't be included as a sin of the United States here because the practice has been around since the dawn of civilization and continues to be practiced in corners of the world. But lets take a look at the First World War. The United States justifiably entered the war on the side of the Allies to stop the Central Powers from taking Europe. However, its actions during the Paris Peace Conference was no different than that of the other imperial powers. We promised the world the ambiguous maxim of "self determination of people" and a League of Nations that would end conflict. We delivered on none of those by allowing the Middle East and Africa to be carved up by Clemenceau and Lloyd George. And we've seen the repercussions of that today in our ordeal with Iraq and the Middle East as a whole.
And we tend to forget the lessons of the Second World War. Again we were thrust into war to save the Allies from their Axis tormentors, this time including Japan. But we forget the xenophobic attitude that spread across the nation after Pearl Harbor and saw to the detention of many United States citizens of Japanese descent. And we tend to forget that the Japanese regiments in our military that fought in Europe were some of the most decorated outfits in the war effort.
America also became the first, and only, nation in history to detonate a nuclear weapon on a civilian population. I forgot, we did it twice. With a drop of two bombs we killed millions of people in the blink of an eye. These were people that were in school, playing with their kids in the park, going to the post office, doctors operating on patients, and people trying to earn a living. These were everyday people living their lives. And we took them from this world on the promise that it would save lives. We accepted that logic because we believed that dropping two nukes would save us the trouble and American lives needed to physically invade the Japanese homeland. And this may very well have been true.
But recent documents and writings by revisionist historians have uncovered that Emperor Hirohito had conceded defeat and was determined to surrender to the United States. He had a recording, on vinyl, that was to be played across the airwaves commanding the Japanese people to put down their arms. There is also documentation that the United States government knew of the emperor's intent. So there is a possibility that we sacrificed the lives of millions of Japanese not to defeat them, but solely to warn the Soviet Union that we had the power to destroy. And this wouldn't be the last time we'd risk American and other people's lives to best the USSR.
The entire policy of Containment, though crucial to the preservation of the Western hegemony, did no favors for the United States' image in the world. In the process we had U2 spy plane shot down over Russian territory, funded the Mujahadeen (later to become the Taliban), propped up pro western dictators (Pinochet and Saddam to name a few), and callously used countless other nations for our purpose. A realist would argue that this is how the new international order worked. However, we mortgaged influence and efficacy for the destruction of our rival. And now we pay the piper with terrorists seeking our destruction and our influence waning at a crucial juncture in our history.
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Anyone who waves the flag of patriotism and uses it to stifle any portion of the Constitution or to shackle our inalienable right to liberty should be headed as that scoundrel. They shouldn't be censored but the people should be weary of those who seek to advance their own cause by appealing to ignorant love of country. True love of country is only achieved by recognizing what makes our nation great and what makes our nation deplorable. We must remember the lessons of history and realize that the United States of America is like any other nation. It has flaws that must be addressed and a history marred by darkness. It is not perfect, and anyone who tells you otherwise is, to put it lightly, nothing more than a preying scoundrel using a bludgeon to smear the words of our Founding Fathers.
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