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26/7/03

Well we have just been to our fourth Wedding of this month which was my old Friend Paul and Sally it was a good day and i was to meet some of the guys that i worked with about 14 years ago which brought back a lot of memory's and a lot of fun times.

It's strange how we can be doing some extremly hard work and it brings out the humour in you and your Mates, work hard play hard!! I have fond memorys of the Guy's of Gardener Engineers of Tonbridge.

I have just been thinking about life and how we can become complacent with our lives and day today living untill we recieve a loss, be it a parent, lover or friend or anything we hold dear too us, life will at times deal a sledge hammer blow that will devastate us and leave us realing from the pain of it, some will seek some way of Numbing this Pain as i confess i have myself in times gone by! But after 55yrs we perhaps as the song say's become "Comfortably Numb" but we are still able to feel when others are going through there anguish but know it's just life saying "stay in the hear and now", worship each day in your life.

Love comes and love goes, just like a Summer Cloud Burst just as we are selves do.25/6/03

Free thought and expression are what has always made our country the greatest. We are able to express our views and feelings, whether we agree with government policy or not. But is that really true anymore?

Why are we being silenced and watched for speaking out in opposition?

As long as we do so, as we are guaranteed, under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, why must our voices be silenced because many of us are opposed to the War in Iraq?

Since the terrible tragedy of 9-11 and the horrendous loss of life, we have been fed a regular dose of propaganda. We are suppose to accept, without question, the policies that the United States Government, under the direction of George Bush Jr. and his advisors has decreed. If we question, if we THINK for ourselves and if we voice any opposition we are labeled un-American.

But isn't this what true freedom is?

To be able to voice that opposition and to demonstrate against any policies the people oppose - the right to peaceful protest?

Personally, I do not believe in, nor condone violent protest. But like many Americans, I am concerned about what is and has been happening to our individual rights as guaranteed under the First Amendment. Under the guise of Homeland Security, our rights as citizens of these United States are being denied and stolen from us.

No one wants war.....but sometimes it is necessary. But is this war? Why are individuals labeled as being un-American or not supporting our troops on the front lines, because we dare to voice our opinions?

I support our troops - I pray for every man and woman on the front lines. I want them all to return home safe to their families. My family has served this country honorably in every war dating back to the 1700's on paper. My Father is a veteran of Pearl Harbor. He is 82 years old now - loves his country and supports the troops, but he is opposed to this war. Is he un-American?

If we permit our voices to be silenced...if we believe everything we are told by elected officials without question....we are giving it all away and too many don't see this happening. Well, read this and THINK!

THINK for yourself - not what you are being told to think! Speak for yourself and have the courage of your convictions to speak out if you feel this war is wrong.

Speak out before it is too late!

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

FIRST AMENDMENT

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. From the the time of the Revolutionary War to the present, encompassing every major civil rights movement in the last century, Americans have a history of having the courage of our convictions -- and demonstrating that courage in public through nonviolent demonstrations.

The United States Constitution:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized

Our rights in so many ways are being trampled and denied under the guise of terrorism and national security. If your skin is brown or dark, you are suspect. If you speak out against George Bush Jr. or any of his advisors, you run the risk of having the "knock at the door." A visit by federal agents.

Wave the flag - demand that God remain in the pledge, but those who oppose these things as being nothing more than an attempt to rile up the citizenry to accept without question, without THINKING, are considered the enemy.

When we fail to question, or oppose any policy that we as Americans feel to be wrong, or unjust, we are nothing more than mindless followers. THINK!

IF WE DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY, WE ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.

This is a photo of Herman Goering. Read below and then all I ask of you, of anyone, and even myself at times is to THINK!!!!!!!!

Then come to a rational decision about what is and has been happening. To blindly believe what we are told......without question, is against the principals this country was founded on, the principals taken from the native people - who knew and still know and cherish the true meaning of a democratic society.

This is what he said in 1946:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

The quote cited above does not appear in transcripts of the Nuremberg trials because although Goering spoke these words during the course of the proceedings, he did not offer them at his trial. His comments were made privately to Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations of the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later published in the book Nuremberg Diary. The quote offered above was part of a conversation Gilbert held with a dejected Hermann Goering in his cell on the evening of 18 April 1946, as the trials were halted for a three-day Easter recess: Sweating in his cell in the evening, Goering was defensive and deflated and not very happy over the turn the trial was taking. He said that he had no control over the actions or the defense of the others, and that he had never been anti-Semitic himself, had not believed these atrocities, and that several Jews had offered to testify in his behalf. If [Hans] Frank [Governor-General of occupied Poland] had known about atrocities in 1943, he should have come to him and he would have tried to do something about it. He might not have had enough power to change things in 1943, but if somebody had come to him in 1941 or 1942 he could have forced a showdown. (I still did not have the desire at this point to tell him what [SS General Otto] Ohlendorf had said to this: that Goering had been written off as an effective "moderating" influence, because of his drug addiction and corruption.) I pointed out that with his "temperamental utterances," such as preferring the killing of 200 Jews to the destruction of property, he had hardly set himself up as champion of minority rights. Goering protested that too much weight was being put on these temperamental utterances. Furthermore, he made it clear that he was not defending or glorifying Hitler.

Later in the conversation, Gilbert recorded Goering's observations that the common people can always be manipulated into supporting and fighting wars by their political leaders:

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship." "There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

THINK!

Many Thanks to my Sister Friend across the pond for allowing me to use her words in England, Wado my Friend.

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