Human Shield

[Dru]

shield

[murraysovereign]

Greg_W said:

...so what do you care? Our very existence and strength ALLOWS Canada to exist as freely as they do.

 

...which is exactly why I SHOULD care, as should the entire world. The United States of America is supposed to stand for and aspire to a set of principles that raised the standard for the entire human race. It's heady, important stuff about the innate equality of persons and the God-given rights of the individual and the need for all of us never to lose sight of those principles, no matter what. The world, including Canada, would be a vastly poorer place without that standard to reach for.

But the current administration in Washington seems all too willing to discard some of those basic principles in the name of political expediency. And that's a shame, because we'll all be worse off if we lose them.

That's why I care.

[gohawks]

Equality for which people Murray? You're talking to the wall.

[JayB]

murraysovereign said:

Greg_W said:

...so what do you care? Our very existence and strength ALLOWS Canada to exist as freely as they do.

 

...which is exactly why I SHOULD care, as should the entire world. The United States of America is supposed to stand for and aspire to a set of principles that raised the standard for the entire human race. It's heady, important stuff about the innate equality of persons and the God-given rights of the individual and the need for all of us never to lose sight of those principles, no matter what. The world, including Canada, would be a vastly poorer place without that standard to reach for.

But the current administration in Washington seems all too willing to discard some of those basic principles in the name of political expediency. And that's a shame, because we'll all be worse off if we lose them.

That's why I care.

 

I am with Murray on this one. Citizens of the US should be free to travel to any country on the face of the Earth that is willing to admit them. Period. Should they ignore the advisories which plainly state the risks of doing so, they should also be left to suffer the consequences of their decisions on their own, without our government expending a whit of energy in extricating them from a predicament of their own making.

 

I also think that criminalizing travel to the said countries grants those who travel to such places the very things that they are seeking. Publicity for their cause, sympathy from their fellow travelers, legitimization of their delusional notions about being the the 21st century's answer to Henry David Thoreau, and gratification their nauseatingly adolescent (Hey! Look at Me! Hey - over here! Look! I AM BREAKING A LAW! Look!) need to elevate and sanctify their utterly trivial agenda through their "suffering." The parlor Marxists and other ideological voyeurs who have made aligned themselves with, and made a spectacle of traveling to, nations run by some of the most despicable regimes ever to disgrace the planet (Soviet Union, China, Vietnam) make me sick, but it is their right to do so, just as it is my right to take pleasure in villifying and denouncing them whenever the whim strikes me. More often than not, is is not even necessary for me to do so as they discredit both themselves and the causes they wish to advance far more effectively than I ever could when they exercise their constitutional right to free speech upon coming home. The very fact that they elect to return to the US rather than emmigrate to join their ideological contemporaries in whatever godforsaken totalitarian hellhole that they are attempting to legitimize speaks volumes in and of itself.

 

I have little patience for ill-informed slander aimed at this country or its inhabitants, but if anyone living outside of our borders actually cares enough to articulate an honest, well-informed critique of our citizenry or our policies (as Murray has done here), I think that they are doing us a tremendous favor, as any policy that can be maintained in the absence of criticism is not worth keeping on the books. If they have the stronger argument, we should thank them for showing us the error of our ways and rectify them as well as possible. If their argument falls short, it can only serve to strengthen a legitimize whatever cause it is that they are opposed to.