Backstage w/Supak: organic, progressive, environmentalist

Freedom of speech under attack

No, freedom of speech is not under attack just from the terrorists. Now the redneck republican Bush voters and the screwed up liberals who are buying their garbage in the the wake of this tragedy are trying to squash it too. I had a red-neck in a big red pickup fuck with me while driving down the freeway today. He was really mad about my silver spoon bumper sticker. Like I'm supposed to blindly follow this jerkwad who took over the presidency in an illegitimate coup put in place by a Supreme court that went against everything it's ever said before to stop the legal vote counting in Florida. This should be Al Gore we're rallying behind. And I'll bet whatever that asshole's truck is worth that he wouldn't rally behind Al in this situation. Just remember this: Al Gore was in Viet Nam while Dubya was drunk, coked up, spending his Daddy's money while AWOL from the Air Guard he used to dodge Nam. So, Mr. finger-pointing-red-neck-asshole-fascist-pig-scum-bag, stick that in your spoon and snort it. Remember this too: It was the "drug war" that W used as an excuse to give the Taliban 150 million of our taxpayer dollars. Snort snort....

One more time, here. Bush was AWOL for at least a year. Why did the Bush campaign refuse to release his military records, as Senator John McCain, Vice President Gore and President Clinton have all done? And people are claiming that we should blindly follow this lying cheat little rich frat boy who took over this country without actually being elected? Please! Spare me!

I got some hate mail from someone who is apparently into organic gardening and worried that I'm giving organic guys a bad name by keeping my dumbya page up during this time of tragedy. Please. Here's the exchange:

Hey, is there anyone out there?
For Christ's sake why don't you at least suspend the Dubya page for a while. There's a war going on out there and you're acting like you're on the wrong side.
Don't make us organic guys look like a bunch of radical idiots right now. The sixties are over.

Last time I checked, this is a free country. I don't believe in Christ. It's my right. I don't think Dubya is the president. Al Gore won. Dubya stole it and shouldn't be there. I'm not making all organic guys look like anything. In my experience, I've even seen Republican organic guys. I was born in the sixties. I don't remember them. I remember the seventies when another asshole president bombed the crap out of people, sent thousands of mostly poor American boys to die (while dubya was drunk, coked up, and AWOL and AL Gore was in NAM).

One can be radical without being an idiot. I have strong beliefs about what we should and shouldn't be doing right now and I will express them. W is a dickwad asshole who should go hide back in Texas. I'm acting like I'm on the wrong side? Are you suggesting that I'm helping the terrorists? What the hell kind of crap is that? I'm proud to be an American, and it's people like you, who suggest that I should stop my free expression of my views, who are the real threat to freedom in this world.

Get this right, man. W could seriously fuck this up. At no time should we ever blindly accept what our leaders are doing. EVER. The blind acceptance of leaders is what has caused the most trouble in this world.

So, get off my back, man. You want to vote for W, you go right ahead. I think I'll vote with the majority again. I love this country. I love what it stands for. So far, W has proven that he is the opposite of what I stand for. His right wing fanatic Attorney General is now going to try to take away our civil liberties. You're going to tell me I should accept that too?

Don't be a fascist like this coup that took our country and is now hiding behind patriotism while they prepare to make their war machine buddies richer while mostly poor, minority American boys go off to die. Just what Bin Laden wanted.

Scott Supak

I sent this exchange off to organic gardener Mort Mather, my long time friend, who had this to say:

Hey Scott,
Always good to hear from you. Thought you might like my thoughts for our
"president". It may win an award for thinking outside the box.

Dear President Bush:
Please do not play into the hands of the terrorists. They have used incredible bait for their trap and it is surely difficult not to respond in kind. If this is war, it is a very different kind of war. Just as our forefathers learned a different way to fight with guns (The British undoubtedly thought them cowards for shooting from hiding behind trees.) our current enemies have found a different way of fighting. Unless we want to lose we will have to find a different way to fight also. Ships and planes and missiles are what they are fighting against. We must surprise them with something they aren't expecting.

The word I'm about to use is put forward as a focus for really different thinking. It is out of the box and most likely not the answer but if you give it
some serious thought, it might lead to an answer. The word is "surrender."

Imagine Osama bin Laden's surprise if we offered to surrender. Would he come forward to talk? Would anyone from any country come forward to talk about
surrender? Could anyone? I know this would not sit will with many in this country and among those around the world who lost loved ones. But it would have
an incredible effect in the world of Islam I would think. Perhaps we would even regain some of the love and respect they had for us 30 years ago, before we
started showing favoritism in the middle east.

Mort Mather

Well, that is outside the box. I completely concur, Mort. It certainly brings a point home. Isn't it ironic that the supposedly most "religious," "christian" people are the ones most visciously demanding we carpet bomb Afghanistan. That the most Jesus loving freaks who are always in my face about saving unborn babies are the ones who want to bomb actual BORN babies in the middle east. How can all these people who believe in God somehow think that "Thou shalt not kill" doesn't apply to them? That Bush would even use the word Crusade is a diplomatic faux pas of majestic proportions. Was Karen Hughes or Carl Rove not there to jerk his chain, to mention that during the Crusades, Christians sent thousands of people, including children to massacre Moslems? That to this day the word Crusades is highly offensive to Moslems? Or are Karen and Carl really as dumb as Dumbya? We need to show the fanatics that we're in control of our fanatics over here, like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and John Ashcroft.

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites." --Thomas Jefferson

A friend (who probably knew it would piss me off) sent this along:

ON MONDAY
there were people fighting against praying in schools.
ON TUESDAY
you would have been hard pressed to find a school
where someone was not praying.

ON MONDAY
there were people trying to separate each other by
race, sex, color, and creed.
ON TUESDAY
they were all holding hands.

ON MONDAY
we thought that we were secure.
ON TUESDAY
we learned better.

ON MONDAY
we were talking about heroes as being athletes.
ON TUESDAY
we relearned what hero meant.

ON MONDAY
people went to work at the World Trade Centers as usual.
ON TUESDAY
they died.

ON MONDAY
people were fighting the 10 commandments on government property.
ON TUESDAY
the same people all said "God help us all"
while thinking "Thou shall not kill."

ON MONDAY
people argued with their kids about picking up their room.
ON TUESDAY
the same people could not get home fast enough to hug their kids.

ON MONDAY
people picked up McDonalds for dinner.
ON TUESDAY
they stayed home.

ON MONDAY
people were upset that their dry cleaning was not ready on time.
ON TUESDAY
they were lining up to give blood for the dying.

ON MONDAY
politicians argued about budget surpluses.
ON TUESDAY
grief stricken they sang "God Bless America."

ON MONDAY
we worried about the traffic and getting to work late.
ON TUESDAY
we worried about a plane crashing into your house or place of business.

ON MONDAY
we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived.
ON TUESDAY
we saw people celebrating people dying in the USA.

ON MONDAY
some children had solid families.
ON TUESDAY
they were orphans.

ON MONDAY
the president was going to Florida to read to children.
ON TUESDAY
he returned to Washington to protect our children.

ON MONDAY
we e-mailed jokes.
ON TUESDAY
we did not.

It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place
things into perspective.

To which I replied:

I still fight against prayer in schools. Don't pray in my schools and I won't think in your church. I'm still fighting having the ten commandments on public property and always will. It is my right as an American. I never say God help us all. The people who believe the most in the ten commandments are the first to say let's go kill those mother fuckers. I never eat at McDonald's. I hug my kids while I tell them to clean up their rooms. I hardly ever dry clean. It's one of the biggest sources of air pollution. I know that Bush is not the president and cannot protect our children. I know that Bush's faith says he should forgive and forget, that vengence is God's, that he should not kill. I also know that he wants to remove the law that stops us from assasinating people, he will accept "collateral damage," and that his idea of protecting children before this tragedy was to allow prayer in schools.

Protecting children indeed.

"Teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
--GW Bush

The suggestions that I should drop my free speech and blindly follow this president while we march off to war makes me sick. What kind of fucked up mentality just drops all the great things this country stands for and starts acting like the enemy? We have freedom of (from) religion here. So, let's drop all this God stuff. We are right because philosophically and ethically we are right, not because of some devine intervention that allows us to ignore our laws whenever we want. Not because our God can beat up their God. This is not some schoolyard brawl. This is serious stuff and we need to prove why we are better. We need to prove that we can practice all the things we preach, like justice belonging in court, not the belly of a bomber, and tolerance. I can tolerate your God crap if you can tolerate my lack of it. Apparently, a lot of people can't.

"Don't follow leaders. They're walking parking meters." --Bob Dylan

When these fascist pigs start knocking down your doors, holding you without charges, deporting your relatives or household help without reason, you'll wish you'd have said something. When they start locking up everyone who looks Arabic, like we did the Japanese during WWII, maybe people will start to realize what a bunch of dickheads took over this country. Blind faith in leaders is how Hitler came to power.

But, hey, keep 'em coming folks. We all have a right to free speech. Remember, I may disagree with what you're saying, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

supak.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SEPTEMBER 14, 2001
AMERICAN ATHEISTS, INC.

For more information, please contact:

Ellen Johnson, President (973)334-5110
Ron Barrier, Dir. Communications (718)967-6453

IN WAKE OF TERRORIST ATTACKS, GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED RELIGION SHOULD NOT BE USED TO RALLY NATION, SAYS ATHEIST GROUP

American Atheists today warned that citizens should not surrender civil liberties as the price for combating terrorism, and that government leaders must avoid using religion as a rallying point.

"Let's remember that Islamic terrorists despise the best ideas of the Western Enlightenment, including secularism and the separation of church and state," declared Ellen Johnson, President of the group. Ms. Johnson noted that Osama bin Laden, the man suspected to be behind the violence directed at the World Trade Center and buildings in Washington, D.C., has the goal of establishing a Pan Islamic theocracy combining fundamentalist Muslim religious doctrine with a stern, authoritarian political regime.

"President Bush and other political leaders should not be trying to use religion to unify the country," Johnson said. "Their 'God' didn't do any good on September 11 when thousands of people were being murdered."

Johnson says that Bush and local and state officials should refrain from organizing prayer vigils and other sectarian events. "If people want to pray on their own, that's up to them, but perhaps they should consider doing something more tangible like giving blood or writing out a check to a qualified relief agency."

Johnson also cautioned political leaders about excluding millions of citizens who profess no religion.

"Religious intolerance is one of the things that motivates Osama bin Laden" she noted. "Many citizens are Atheists, Freethinkers, and Secular Humanists who profess no religious beliefs. Atheists, too, are appalled at this tragedy and directly affected by it."

Johnson added, "Our elected officials should be trying to bring us together, not divide us by using public religion to marginalize Atheists."

American Atheists is asking all nonbelievers to donate blood and support the work of qualified relief agencies. "We think it's a tangible thing to do, and helps make this world we live in a better and safer place for everyone."

American Atheists is a nationwide movement defending the civil liberties of nonbelievers and the separation of church and state, and addressing matters of First Amendment public policy.

American Atheists, Inc.
P.O. Box 5733
Parsippany, NJ 07054-6733
Tel: (908)276-7300
Fax: (908)276-7402