I never knew how much I cared for America...

[kentuck]

Until the last couple of years, I thought all our lost freedoms and rights were retreivable. Reading this opinion piece in the NY Times this morning created a knot in my stomach. There is a sense of loss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/opinion/15sat2.html?ref=opinion
I feel that my country has been betrayed. Not only by Bush and the Republicans, but by my own Democratic Party and the national media, as well.

I have been mostly a very optimistic person all my life. Perhaps that is why I feel the way I do at present. My optimism is being challenged and I do not feel very confident about my country's future. It is a feeling of sadness and loss.

It is not about the flag or the Pledge of Allegiance or any of that patriotic symbols of nationalism. It is about a loss of freedom. I think I understand the concept of freedom for the first time in my life. The loss of that freedom is what causes the knot in my stomach and the lost yearning.

[annabanana]

1. We fish are discovering water...

to our dismay and shame.

[madokie]

2. I've known

I realized that years ago, I think it was somewhere around the time the bullets were flying around me too

[razors edge]

3. The last few years

really makes one think back to that oath they took to protect the constitution on the way to boot camp back in the early eighties, and just how far one should be prepared to go to uphold it.

Living on ones knees or dying on ones feet, decisions, decisions.

Oh well, 13 more months, what could go wrong. (please don't answer that)

[spanone]

4. losing the balance of power in this country is the end of it.

checks and balances were installed to keep presidents like george bu$h* from doing what president george bu$h* is doing.