20 June 2005

America: the Land of the Free or the Censored?


It has been a tradition since our the founding of our nation to be the bastion of freedom in the world. Yet time and time again, it seems that those who drape themselves in the American flag, scream their devotion to our great country, and terrorize anyone who stands in their way seem to bury the real truth.

Case in point, after 60 years, a story from the good ole days of WWII is finally surfacing. About the after effects of the atomic strike on Nagasaki, Japan, our "glorious" general MacArthur and the always trustworthy US government carefully censored, or more accurately buried the articles. Even with the Freedom of Information Act (passed way back in the 1970's!), it has taken this long for the story to come to light.

Sort of makes one wonder, what other stories are still buried in the past, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq...hell, even major domestic news that the government censors in this country absolutely refuse to release. It took Sen. Paul Wellstone months of work to finally get our own government to admit to the chemical weapons spraying of a major part of Minneapolis in WWII to test its effectiveness.

What it all boils down to, is if we simply accept the government propoganda, lies, distortions, and censorship, or stand up and refuse to accept this behavior. Our greatest cultural legacy is in fact, freedom, so why voluntarily turn a blind eye to the freedom of being told the truth by our own government?