The following blog was inspired by a news story from Friday, September 30th. Though I had already completed the microfiction assignments in my previous blogs, I felt compelled to write about the death by State of an American citizen which occurred yesterday. I chose to write about the event in the microfiction format because it reminded me of a line from Gopnik's Paris to the Moon, which I used in my piece. Let me begin with some background...
Yesterday, the US government sent a drone into Yemen (a sovereign nation) and killed two US citizens, along with five other people (as reported in the Washington Post). The target, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was considered a radical Islamic cleric, and was suspected to be the source of inspiration for Islamic attacks on US soil and abroad. Anwar al-Aulaqi was a US citizen. Without criminally charging the suspect, or benefit of trial by jury, (an inherent right provided for in the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution), the US government ordered and carried out his assassination, which resulted in the death of six others, including another US Citizen.
The event immediately made me think of the following line from Gopnik which struck me during my first reading; "We have won as large a victory as any country has ever won-no empire has ever stood in so much power, cultural, political, economic,military-and all we can do is smile and say that you might want to pack a sweater for the imperial parade." Due to the250 word constraint, I only used the highlighted portion of the line. I welcome all comments, view, reactions. My post is not a judgment on the actions of al-Aulaqi, which is irrelevant considering the greater implication of our government disregarding the rule of law. I feel very strongly about this issue.
So far this year, we have witnessed the assassination of two terrorists by the US government. Both assassinations occurred on the soil of sovereign nations, both events were provocative in nature, and could be construed as an Act of War by the US. I do not defend the actions of Osama Bin Laden or Anwar al-Aulaqi, however, I am deeply troubled that our government is using terror as a means to infringe upon our rights and the rights of others. We cannot allow the US to disregard the Constitution for extenuating circumstances. What we experience when the rule of law is ignored is a slow loss of individual rights. One day, precedent may find us without any rights at all. This is what I condemn. We fight a War on Terror that is ill-defined. We can't point to a specific nation and say, "there is our enemy." Rather, we fight an ideology of a few militants who are deeply rooted in a culture which is inherently different than ours. We need only look at Newton's laws of nature to see that the perpetual wars will never end until we change our approach dramatically.
Somewhere in America
Locals filled The Red Dawn Tavern to watch the final game. Some wore team jerseys, some were painted green, some just came to soak in the excitement. Coin flip, the crowd cheers as their team gets first crack at the ball. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. A shrill signal fills the air from every corner of the bar, the people hold their ears.
“Stand by for the President of the United States.”
“Oh, c’mon! Put the fucking game on,” eyes narrow, brows tighten, collective fists hit the bar.
“Shhhh,” people point to the fiery images on the big screens.
“…we have just confirmed that our drones have taken out a group of suspected radicals in Missouri. The group had been organizing rallies against the State at Lincoln University under the guise of exercising First Amendment Rights. Their acts of Sedition required an immediate response. As President, I was compelled to take action under the Presidential Powers Act. We have confirmed that all of the students have been killed…”
SLAP! Hands fly into the air and crash with deafening sound.
“Awesome!”
“We got ‘em!”
“Don’t fuck with America!”
Now, the busty blonde, red-lipped, Barbie Doll fills the screen, “We’ve just confirmed that there will be a parade tomorrow at noon in Jefferson City. It’s going to be a little nippy at 50 degrees, but don’t let that stop you. This is a great day, and all we can do is smile and say that you might want to pack a sweater for the imperial parade.”
(Note the hyperlinks embedded in the story.)