smooth

no, because bin Laden doesn't comprise any part of my identity.

america is not some entity external to its people. its comprised of me, part of me. my ideals are american ideals because I grew up here every second of my life. I've never been anywhere else. I have no exposure to any other ideas other than what I have formed while filtering them through me, as an american.

I don't understand why people don't get that. treason is a political tool to contain revolution. people in support of the second amendment should support the abolishment of treason as well.

if you were to pick up arms against the government, that would be treasonous. if I pick up specific words against the government, that is treasonous evidently.

yet, the government is here for me and you. We are not here for it. and it is an it.

nothing I do can be treasonous, because I own the government. I can do whatever I want with it. the limit is the consensus of my fellow citizens. so if i get out of hand, shoot me dead. but don't limit my speech or actions via some abstract entity--that you view as legitimate only because some parchment says it's so. that's such a locked in mentality.

spit on me, punch me, shoot me, but don't try me for a crime because I work actively against a structure I don't think represents me. that's my inaliable right. and it's totally american.

treason as a label and tool is abhorrent. the ideals I grew up with are that if our government doesn't serve the people, we have a right and an obligation to change it. we have multiple tools--the first one is our voice. the second one is our weapons.

__________________
"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman