Its been a while...

Even though this blog is oh so much more pretty, I've been sticking with my Xanga for the past few months. But now, enough is enough. I guess its time for me to get into the real world of blogging and away from Xanga... which is really a high school/middle school hang out anyways. We'll see what I can do with this here bad boy to get it looking cool, etc.

Never Falter, Final Thought

An addition thought to think about concerning Cindy Sheehan...

Under the Espionage Act of 1917, opponents of World War I were routinely prosecuted, and the Supreme Court routinely upheld their convictions. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes rightly wrote,

"When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right."

And just think people... this was stipulated in the hey-day of American Unilateralism.

Never Falter

I wrote this article last week following President Bush's State of the Union address. It was printed in The Orlando Sentinel.

"George Bush delivered his State of the Union this past Tuesday night. His goal was to assure the nation that our Union is strong and that our efforts in Iraq and across the world continue successfully. On a night when the country united around the television, and both Democrats and Republicans from the House of Representatives and Senate united inside the Capitol Building, Cindy Sheehan sought once again to create division. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq. Cindy Sheehan, the woman who picketed Bush’s home in Texas demanding to speak to the President. Cindy Sheehan, the woman arrested in September for protesting outside of Bush’s second home, the White House. Cindy Sheehan, the woman who was invited to hear the State of the Union by California Democrat Lynn Woolsey.
Upon entering the gallery, Sheehan removed her jacket to reveal a t-shirt which read: “2245 dead. How many more?” Before entering the gallery, Sheehan was warned by security that any kind of protest would not be permitted. Sheehan, upon revealing her t-shirt, was quickly escorted from the Capitol Building in handcuffs. She now intends to file a lawsuit on the grounds that her First Amendment rights were fringed upon. My question is this: how much longer must Sheehan dishonor her son’s death?
Ms. Sheehan has missed the point. Her son, and I don’t even know his name, nor could I find it after looking in numerous news articles (the American soldier is now effectively known as “Cindy Sheehan’s son”), was in the Army for a reason. Every person who joins the military knows the price he or she may pay when signing his or her name: death in the service of country. At a time when people proclaim “support our troops,” Cindy Sheehan is combating, and quite successfully with all of the press she has received, American support for its soldiers in Iraq.
The moment in President Bush’s speech which received the most applause and generated the most pride for our country was not a patriotic statement he made, or a reaction to a proposed economic policy, rather it was when the President personally thanked the father, mother, and wife of Marine Staff Sergeant Dan Clay who was recently killed in Iraq. The family stood proudly as the President read a letter written by Clay who stated that America should “Never falter. Don’t hesitate to honor and support those of us who have the honor of protecting that which is worth protecting.” The son of Cindy Sheehan, along with Dan Clay, died for that which is worth protecting, but Mrs. Sheehan does not have the will to honor what her son did. What America must remember from this year’s state of the Union is not that Cindy Sheehan was removed from the gallery for disobeying the rules and protesting. We must remember what our soldiers who have died would have us do. Never falter. Honor and support those who have died protecting that which is worth protecting."

Wasting Time

18 credits = my semester from hell.

Here I sit at my computer with yet another paper due and all I can think of are ways to procrastinate. Therefore, a new blog. I was tired of Xanga... Its kinda trendy and for kids... this seems to fit me better...

So I've got this paper for my History of Spain class on the book Lucrecia's Dreams. Its pretty much all about this crazy girl who had crazy dreams which got King Philip II of Spain crazy angry. To make a long story short, she got banned from her hometown and had to live in a convent for a couple of years... not worth a book. Oh well... I've got to write five pages about how she represented "the social and political conscience of sixteenth-century Spain." Wish me luck...