Religion, Sex, and Politics

Turns out your pastor is a right wing radical worthy of government monitoring. I might as well play the role to the fullest, build a bunker in the backyard, and collect bottles of Diet Coke and Mentos to combine into dangerous carbonated foam-spewing weapons. All joking aside, I find it chilling that the Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Janet Napolitano, has identified a list of characteristics that make one worthy of being watched by the government that would pretty easily take in most conservatively-thinking people.

For instance, Napolitano says you might be a Right-Wing Extremist if you...
- harbor opposition to the government
- are extremely concerned about a single issue such as immigration or abortion
- are concerned about the size and scope of government
- are a returning military vet from Afghanistan or Iraq
- oppose increased gun control

(Are Democrats required to appoint scary women named "Janet"?)

So now having a dissenting voice or being concerned about the security of our nation's borders makes you a potential threat. I thought that was one of our protected Constitutional rights, a celebrated American liberty, rather than a way of earning special government oversight. I thought the left was supposed to be the champions of free speech. Clearly not. Am I paranoid, or do others find this very scary and chilling?

Where are the voices of those on the left who were opposed to Bush's Patriot Act? I will admit that I worried the Patriot Act sacrificed liberty for safety. Lump me in with Rom Paul and Neal Boortz on that. But those on the left who were shrill in their criticism then are silent as lambs now. Hmmmm. Maybe it's the "right" in Right-Wing Extremist that's comforting them.

What is also interesting and telling is that there is no report about Left-Wing Extremism. Shouldn't we also be concerned about people who have connections to admitted left-wing extremists like Bill Ayers? Shouldn't we also worry about the kind of people who would burn down homes and set vehicles on fire because they don't like developers building new homes (i.e. the Earth Liberation Front)?

We're supposed to watch out for the people who listen to Rush Limbaugh, but not the folks who listen to Al Franken?

Every continuum has two extremes, not just one. And to single out those on the right (and not even the far right, I might add), seems Orwellian and, again, chilling to civil liberty.

I am reminded of the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:

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.