(This is the last “serious” post for today.)
In my last post, I referenced an article about policemen having a large political network to cover for them. I think this article deserves a post of its own.
In a nutshell, it details what amounts to the assault, battery and kidnapping of a twelve year-old girl by three plainclothes policemen in Galveston, TX.
I don’t want to believe what I read here, but after doing some searching around the interwebs, I presently conclude that this is not a fictitious account. This particular incident is the closest that I’ve ever been to right out calling for someone’s head be displayed publically on a pike. It’s not the correct way to go about things, and it’s truly not what I’d do. But the depth of anger and frustration and disbelief that I feel in reading this account brings to the forefront emotion that leads to a temporary desire for this action to take place.
There’s a growing problem here bigger than many people are aware of, or are willing to confront.
I try to be a careful man who attempts to objectively consider how things come into being, and have never wanted to be considered a conspiracy nut. But after reading this account and countless others, reading the observations of others, and generally trying to have an ear to the ground, I have strong convictions that we as a country and a global community are but a few generations away from a society incredibly similar to the one set forth in the movie Brazil. I don’t mean this as hyperbole in any sense of the word. I truly believe that we’re quickly and unchangeably heading in the direction where posters like “Suspicion Breeds Confidence”, “Trust in Haste, Regret at Leisure”, and “Don’t Suspect a Friend, Report Him” will be commonly seen. Heck, posters like this are already appearing.
We’re heading toward another age of book-burnings, ladies and gentlemen. But it’s going to be on a global scale. Because, as V said, “truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look in a mirror.” (for the full quote, go here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/quotes). We all, including myself, have been letting, and will continue to let, things like this go on without making waves. It’s incredibly difficult to choose to make waves, because the one or ones making the waves are the ones taking the hits, being publically-humiliated, being beaten, arrested and put in jail. And even if we feel that we’re standing up for what is right, who’s to say if the person on our left or on our right is going to come to our aid, even if they believe as we do? Surely the price of a little part of us dying inside so that we can avoid being hurt is reasonable; and in the big scheme of things, it’s going to not count at all. Besides, there will be people who are more active and more powerful who will spearhead efforts to stop X or Y. They will do it; others will do it. I am just going to sit and, “eat microwave dinners and watch cable TV.” (Morgan Freeman, “Chain Reaction”)
So we will continue to allow things–things that should be stopped dead in their tracks–to not only continue to exist, but to flourish and propagate.
It’s a hard thing to take and accept, that no matter what we as individuals do, we may not affect much, if any, visible change upon the world. And it is precisely why the motive behind our words and actions must not be because we think we are going to change the world; rather, they should be because we believe them to be right and correct. Our conviction in the unchanging truth of the ideals we choose fight for is going to be the only thing allowing us to adhere to them as the rest of our world falls around us.
I am sad. But I choose to fight for a better tomorrow; not because I believe that a better world will necessarily come about, but because I think a better tomorrow is worth fighting for.
