ADL’s Report Is An Affront To Liberty
Posted by Dan on November 19, 2009 in Constitution, Healthcare Reform, Obama, Tax Reform
The Anti-Defamation League recently released a report entitled “Rage Grows In America” in which it was stated that prejudice and “an intense strain of anti-government distrust and anger, colored by a streak of paranoia and belief in conspiracies” is behind a trending conservative and libertarian movement which has occurred in America since the election of Barack Obama.
The ADL report goes on to itemize tax party rallies, dissent at town hall meetings, requests for copies of the President’s birth certificate and increased media resistance to the Administration’s policies as threatening developments in America. The report then goes a step further and names specific individuals and organizations which ADL believes to be agents of incivility. We are led to believe, supposedly, that the best thing for Americans to do is to trust their government, be quiet, and don’t show any resistance to polices they oppose, because it leads to defamation.
In truth, the ADL’s recent report is a sad development for an organization which purports to advocate against anti-Semitism, because a climate of self-censorship and minority suppression is precisely what allowed Adolph Hitler to prosecute his war against the Jewish people.
America’s Founding Fathers took a completely opposite approach towards government than the ADL, which would appear to say by its report that we ought to just trust our government – particularly, the Obama government – to always have our best interests in mind. Thomas Jefferson warned, “Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence … In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
As touching to outrage and anger over government policies, Thomas Paine wrote, “The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of his image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have only a casual existence were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber and the murderer, would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.”
I am disappointed that the ADL would stoop so low as to create a blacklist of perceived state enemies and to suggest that the people of America have no right to voice their distress and concern against policies which they perceive to be at odds with their morals, faith, and collective prosperity. As a purported guardian of the Jewish way of life, perhaps the ADL should have recalled the words of Nehemiah, who, despite being called an insurrectionist, mourned over the oppression of his people and the fallen state of his city Jerusalem and stood up to say, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes” (Nehemiah 4:14 NIV).
The most “Jewish” thing that anyone can do is to firmly resist the destruction of faith, family, and nation. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – whose Jewish names were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah – were willing to obey the laws and codes of Babylon but refused the minute they were directed to worship Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Daniel, when told that the government had enacted legislation to ban him from praying to his personal God prayed all the more louder, and was thrown into the lion’s den. These men and many more were heroes not only to the Jewish faith, but to the Jewish nation, because their resistance preserved the existence of the Jewish way of life.
The ADL’s report is in effect a statement which says that we, the people of America, have no right to question the President, and, like Nebuchadnezzar, we ought to bow before Obama and worship him for who he is.
I for one, will live true to my name’s sake and say no.
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