Grieving

I want to direct you to an article that captured my attention because the titled expresses my own sentiments. It's called Requiem For My Country and it's by Thea Paneth, a peace activist and a mother. Here's part of what it says:

I was thinking about Captain von Trapp this morning as played by Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music. One New York summer long ago we saw that movie at least 13 times. Toward the end of the film, the Captain sings Edelweiss to give the children and Julie Andrews time to flee the arena they have just performed at. He dedicates the song to Austria, which has welcomed the Nazi Anschluss. This scene is engraved in my memory.

The Military Commissions Act is totalitarian police-state legislation that has just been enacted by the U.S. Congress. It provides, among other things, that the President can decide U.S. citizens are enemy combatants. It strips foreign born enemy combatants of habeas corpus. Charges and evidence are secret and the person so termed can be held in secret and can even be executed in secret (through a “presidential finding” signed on 9/17/01). There is no recourse.

I don’t think these laws are aimed at terrorists. I think they are aimed at political dissenters (peace activists?) and will be used accordingly. It must be noted that the media has omitted the crucial details related to U.S. citizens in their scanty coverage of this Act.

I also think that these laws are aimed at political dissenters and I'm very concerned for I am one who dissents.