Sewart Udall wrote a very important book back in 1994 that still resonates today. The book is titled " The Myths Of August " and lays out the tragedy of secrecy in our government back in the 50"s unfortunately it is still alive today (secrecy that is). He drew a list of big issues that still trouble us today here are a few;
- What were the influences that allowed a Cold War mentality to cow critical thought in this country and to gain such a powerful grip on the minds of our nations leaders? ( You can slide in terrorism for Cold War)
- Why were members of Congress and the American people intimidated for so long by claims of insiders that only they should have access to information needed to make rational decisions about our country's security? ( Ohh that sounds like the PATRIOT ACT and all the other bullshit laws congress has passed to make us safe from the terrorists.)
- What were the influences that pushed America's once-prized moral principles into the background and encouraged our leaders to approve Cold War modes of conduct here and abroad that diminished our claim to moral leadership? (Ouch sounds like Abu Graihb and rendition)
- And what factors have combined to encourage our elected leaders to consciously mislead the American people and to hide behind classified information rather than admit mistakes? ( Geez can anyone say the Bush admin.?)
The scary thing is that these questions were related to the development of the Atomic Bomb and should we have dropped them on Japan. Unfortunately the Bush admin has co-opted the exact same operational traits and converted them to the war on terror. So my question is do we learn anything from history? Do we learn when government becomes a big secret for " National Security Reasons " leaving out Congressional decisions and exempting the American people from the conversation. A tried and true meme is FEAR used over and over again. First it was the Communists,greenlighting ridiculous spending of our tax dollars to equip the military industrial complex , because the Soviets could attack at any time. Now we cower on the roadside for fear of the " Terrorist attacks soon to come". The same logic is being used but we as Americans still don't get it. We have this childlike quality of viewing the Government as the be all end all to protect us never once contemplating the fact that maybe the Government doesn't care about our protection. Maybe it is good for us to be afraid and maybe in reality we don't have that much to be afraid about. Maybe we can turn that fake American bravado into reality ( We are the greatest Nation in the world) and hold our Government responsible. After all we pay their salaries they are beholden to US! Somewhere along the way we have lost this ideal and just hope and pray that Daddy will take care of us in a time of crisis. I leave you with a quote from Stewart Udall;
" As I looked back in the 1980's, it was painfully evident that the United States of America had paid a heavy moral and political price by ignoring the open-government commands of our Constitution. To me, it was no accident that most of the blunders that have marred the history of our nation over the past half-century were the outgrowth of secret decisions made by presidents and by unelected national security wizards. To recite the names of these blunders- Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Watergate, and Iran-Contra - is to underscore lessons of history the next generations of Americans should never forget."
Well guess what folks here we are again going through the exact same bullshit,when do we take the reigns and hold the people, elected officials who WE PAY TO DO A JOB , accountable for what we want?!?
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