On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, scott pfeifer wrote:

> hate us Americans so much. Freedom is great I love it.
> I love my country!

I feel similarly. I love my freedoms granted by the contitution and the
bill of rights. I love the principles on which my country was founded. I
am an american, and that is why I felt strongly enough to be at the SF
march yesterday.

I see my rights being slowly eroded to serve impotent
boosts to soccer-mom's sense of false security. I see the democratic
principles of this country being smited by a powerful allegience between
this nation's rich elite and it's politicians, thus circumventing the
regulating system of checks and balances.

All of this is happening under the rallying cry of "9-11". Yes, "9-11" was
a sad event, one for which the perpetrators must be punished. But frankly,
every independent investigation is being squashed or tainted by Bush and
company, and this does not give me the impression that they are sincere in
their attempts to bring the proper people to justice. They merely seem to
be directing this great nation's fear and anger where they wish,
regardless of wrongdoing.

I would rather see a 9-11 type event happen every couple of years because
our freedoms that are in place restricted our intelligence agencies than
to have said freedoms removed.

I cannot endorse an approach with includes "pre-emptive strikes" with no
legal provokation.

No matter what we've done for the countries of the world in the past, this
foreign policy is not only a recipe for disaster and unrest, but is an
affront to the basic ideas of civilization itself.

I cannot stand by and watch all this without standing up and saying, "this
is wrong". *That* would be un-american.

If you think differently, that is your right as an american, but please
don't paint the picture (like much of our media does at the moment) that
you are speaking for america as a whole.

-Brandon