What's Wrong with Closet Compromise?

The compromise to which I am referring is the one made by Senators Warner, Graham, and McCain to the change of language in Common Article III of the Geneva Convention requested by GWB. Combine that with the recently passed additions to the Patriot Act, and our president seems to be holding all the cards. It wasn't much of a compromise, was it?

This issue is very clear cut. And the "compromise" more closely resembled the self-serving, ass-saving, slimy political maneuvering we have come to expect from our representatives. So why are there so many who can't see it? Don't get it? Won't get it? Why is this even an issue when as recently as two weeks ago, Americans could lay their heads on their pillows at night without giving it much of a thought? Because Constitutional freedoms have never been brought into question to this extent before, that's why.

Even when McCarthy was looking under the bed for communists, the Constitution and the Geneva Convention were left intact. Our historically shared and common belief in the limits of governmental power was, we thought, so tightly woven into the fabric of America, into being American, that it would hold forever like medieval chainmail.

Two hundred plus years beyond 1789 and we as a nation have forgotten that the thread of freedom was spun of delicate silk. It must be handled properly and periodically checked for moths. I think around 1980 we threw that silk in the back of the closet believing it would be just fine in there with the other consumer goods we just had to have and then grew bored with, discarded, and haven't looked at since.

Under the cover of closet darkness, Bush got his way with the extended Patriot Act and the rewritten Common Article III of the Geneva Convention, and thereby, he assumed total control over the rights of individuals. He not only broke the silken thread of freedom, he stuffed it in his pocket and walked away virtually unchallenged with the whole cloth. Now, you, or I, can be picked out of a crowd, labeled an enemy combatant, and waterboarded. One, two, three.

But like couch potatos who desperately needed to get out of the recliner long ago and hold a garage sale, I guess Americans grew so comfortable, complacent, and trusting that the closet was a safe place for what we hold dear that after years of protected freedoms, there are those among us who refuse to believe that the game has changed. This is, indeed, a sad day for America because there will be no hue and cry until a wealthy WASP or a popular middle-class citizen is plucked off the street for simply engaging in routine politics.

If we as a nation learned anything from watching Katrina victims sift through the remnants of their lives, it should be this: If you value grandma's silken cloak of freedom, you'd better keep it on your person when the storms come because once they have passed, you can't expect to find it still safe in the back of the closet.