I think New Hampshire has it right...

I had some difficulty sleeping, like I tend to do these days, so I got out of bed and turned on the television. After flipping through the channels four times, I finally decided to leave it on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olberman...undeniably my favorite news program, outside Comedy Central. He talked about killer whales, poisoned Russians, and various other items of interest. As I got up to cook my cheesy ramen, I heard Keith say something about Newt Gingrich and the first amendment. I couldn't wait for the commercial to be over, because I HAD to hear this. Basically, the former Speaker of the House was at a New Hampshire rally for the appreciation of the first amendment rights (freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, and the press). He told the crowd (who was there just to bask in the glow of the baby of the Bill of Rights) that to truly defeat terrorism in America, Americans should be willing to relinquish our first amendment rights.

Pardon?

Did he just tell us that to be true Americans, we should give up the most important right we possess as citizens of this country?

Mom, open up the safe deposit box. I think I'm going to need my passport.

This simply outrages me. I am just as afraid, if not more, as the next person about terrorism on my soil. I think about September 11, 2001 everyday, and not just because of my honors project. When I hear a plane fly too close overhead, I immediately think, where is that plane going and should I be running in a different direction right now. This is really inconvenient too, because BOTH of my residences are 20 minutes or less from an international airport, so planes fly overhead at lower altitudes a lot. It's sort of necessary so that they can LAND. After 9/11, I didn't spend a lot of time by myself because I was too scared to. I remember sitting on the driveway with my little sister on the Thursday following, we may have been chalk drawing, I don't know. I heard a noise that I hadn't heard in days and I wanted to die. The sound of a plane, flying at a normal altitude, scared the beejeezus out of me. I also typically spend 9/11 in bed and cry. I have vicarious traumatization and it sucks.

With all this in mind, you may wonder why I don't personally support the current administration's plan to aleviate this issue of terrorism. I'm targeted because I am an American. Why am I an American? Because at some point, my Irish ancestors decided enough was enough with this oppression crap and they came over. And in 1954, my mom's parents decided that post-WWII Germany was not exactly the place to raise a family either. We are lucky enough to possess certain rights, which our forefathers saw as not only a good thing, but natural rights that everyman should possess. Great! Cool! Awesome! Americans continue the task of granting others that right every day, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. We want them to have the same priveledges as us. We want the Iraqi's to vote in democratic elections and be able to say whatever they want. Good! Commendable! But wait! To do that and to keep 9/11 from happening again, Americans have to give that stuff up.

We were just founded on the principle of "I'm human and I can do what I damn well please, you oppressor you!".

I am an American Studies major. I've spent numerous classes reading the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence. I hold the principles near to my heart. I feel that these things are what defines us as Americans, along with the Miss America pagent and Sport Utility Vehicles. I refuse to give them up. I'm like a egocentric four year old when I say "MINE!". I'll gladly share them with others, but I will not let them go all together. People die in the name of America everyday and to take those rights away would cause their sacrafices to be in vain. When I inform people that I am an American Studies major, many automatically assume that I must be the most patriotic American around, some what like if I was a Women's Studies major and was called a feminist. That's not how things work in our little world of AMST. We discuss film, culture, religion, history, literature, and all the little things that make us American. We are not taught, however, to agree with everything that the President says. Frankly, although it's not said outright or anything, we are taught to constantly think outside the box and question everything. That's what the colonists did in the 1770's, when they decided to break away from Great Britain. If the Revolution had failed, men like George Washington, James Madison, my buddy T.J., and John Adams (founder of my heart) would have been hanged for treason. But they knew something was amiss and had to be corrected.

At this point, I do anticipate moving to Great Britain at some point in my 20's, most likely. I am officially a future ex-pat (an idea that I got from one of the people I met at Penn last year). People there will ask me, hopefully over a 4pm tea, what I studied at University. I will tell them American Studies and I will have to spend the rest of tea explaining myself. "I was young and naive". I kid. I'll have to explain myself, but nothing like that, I'm sure. I think that they'll see the difference and we'll go back to sipping Earl Grey and discussing David Beckham's sweet behind, or whatever ladies discuss over there.

I'm glad I can still write this and not fear for my freedom...yet.

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as a note to my readers: i seldom go on rants like this about anything important. the last time i wrote this much was when i wrote my article on the art of woo. yeah. i also sound like a crazy liberal at certain points. but i really just wanted to make my point somewhere and it's my blog and i'll do what i want with it.

enjoy.


"live free or die"...or go to Europe.

i'm peachy.