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I've just finished watching Good Night, and Good Luck directed by George Clooney. It deals primarily with the journalist Edward R. Murrough and his outspoken opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy.
The number of parallels between the social and political climate of that time period and this one terrify me to no end. How is it that within 50 years we have once again come to a time in our history when to hold views differing from the somewhat rabid and certainly radical political majority is to be accused of being "Un-American" ?
This country was founded on the idea that every citizen not only deserved and had the right to speak out for what they belived in, but moreover carried the responsibility for both their actions and their inaction. When we fail to vote, to protest, to support those we believe to be acting in the best interests and oppose those we believe to be diminishing the spirit of America we lose the right, not only to be vocal about the state of the country as we see it, but also to call ourselves true Americans.
I may not always (and in this time rarely) agree with the decisions of the government, but however much I might disagree it is still my government and my represemtative to the rest of the world. If I fail to act, fail to at least attempt, to guide this country in the direction that I believe best....well then I have no one to blame but myself.
The number of parallels between the social and political climate of that time period and this one terrify me to no end. How is it that within 50 years we have once again come to a time in our history when to hold views differing from the somewhat rabid and certainly radical political majority is to be accused of being "Un-American" ?
This country was founded on the idea that every citizen not only deserved and had the right to speak out for what they belived in, but moreover carried the responsibility for both their actions and their inaction. When we fail to vote, to protest, to support those we believe to be acting in the best interests and oppose those we believe to be diminishing the spirit of America we lose the right, not only to be vocal about the state of the country as we see it, but also to call ourselves true Americans.
I may not always (and in this time rarely) agree with the decisions of the government, but however much I might disagree it is still my government and my represemtative to the rest of the world. If I fail to act, fail to at least attempt, to guide this country in the direction that I believe best....well then I have no one to blame but myself.
