Brightest in Dungeons, Liberty!
Lord Byron (1788-1824), though he was a very young man, expressed in his Sonnet on Chillon an intimate and empathetic grasp of the pain of tyranny and terror...
In a few hours the polls in Iraq will open. As Iraqi citizens abroad have since yesterday around the world, many will vote for the first time in their lives in an Iraqi election, and many will raise a blue stained finger in salute to freedom. The blue ink used by the poll workers will remain on the finger for a couple days which will preclude voting more than once. The terrorists have warned the populace that their blue-stained finger will mark them for death.
When I was a youth studying 'Civics,' which was still being taught with the emphasis on intellectual diversty rather than the cultural diversity and mutliculturalism so widespread today, we were bored to the extreme by the bland textbooks. We also didn't have the topical events from around the world to relate with our ideals of freedom and democracy. There were the negative comparisons, what with communism's influence spreading to Vietnam, Africa, and Central America. But today I would hope that the teachers are using the real-world events in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq to encourage the youth to observe the birth and development of liberty and the forms of governments that protect and nurture it.
History will show that Ronald Reagan was instrumental in impeding the spread, and hastening the fall, of Communist hegemony. History will also reflect that George W. Bush set the tone for opposition to and demise of the threat of terrorism, especially of the antiliberal, fundamentalist, apocalyptic, nihilist, radical, totalitarian, internecine kind (which I refer to as Islamic extremism). Let freedom reign!
I believe that the peoples of Iraq, as well as Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc., can embrace democracy, if given a fighting (and voting) chance. One has to search very hard in the mainstream media to find reason to believe as I do, but an interview I found does support my optimism. This interview will not spawn any soundbites found in the MSM.
Lord, give the Iraqi people strength and courage in the days ahead...
Eternal spirit of the chainless mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art.
In a few hours the polls in Iraq will open. As Iraqi citizens abroad have since yesterday around the world, many will vote for the first time in their lives in an Iraqi election, and many will raise a blue stained finger in salute to freedom. The blue ink used by the poll workers will remain on the finger for a couple days which will preclude voting more than once. The terrorists have warned the populace that their blue-stained finger will mark them for death.
When I was a youth studying 'Civics,' which was still being taught with the emphasis on intellectual diversty rather than the cultural diversity and mutliculturalism so widespread today, we were bored to the extreme by the bland textbooks. We also didn't have the topical events from around the world to relate with our ideals of freedom and democracy. There were the negative comparisons, what with communism's influence spreading to Vietnam, Africa, and Central America. But today I would hope that the teachers are using the real-world events in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq to encourage the youth to observe the birth and development of liberty and the forms of governments that protect and nurture it.
History will show that Ronald Reagan was instrumental in impeding the spread, and hastening the fall, of Communist hegemony. History will also reflect that George W. Bush set the tone for opposition to and demise of the threat of terrorism, especially of the antiliberal, fundamentalist, apocalyptic, nihilist, radical, totalitarian, internecine kind (which I refer to as Islamic extremism). Let freedom reign!
I believe that the peoples of Iraq, as well as Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc., can embrace democracy, if given a fighting (and voting) chance. One has to search very hard in the mainstream media to find reason to believe as I do, but an interview I found does support my optimism. This interview will not spawn any soundbites found in the MSM.
Lord, give the Iraqi people strength and courage in the days ahead...
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