One Brick Short

Just when you think that the American dream is hooey and hogwash, just when you begin to believe that our rugged individualism has slipped off our national cracker like so much Cheez-Whiz, only to be replaced by a mushy mass of Euro-styled spinach dip from a hollowed-out bread loaf, something happens to remind us why we should love our country.
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We may not have much of an economy. We may soon adopt European socialized medicine and labor policies, but at least we can stand on the street corner, set our flag afire and scream for freedom.

Try that in China.

According to the Associated Press, authorities in China’s southwestern Sichuan province have made a “coordinated effort” to silence dissent by arresting activists and detaining others. In Chongqing, two workers’ advocates were detained Feb. 15 for organizing a sit-in outside a closed silk factory. Family members say they have not been able to visit either man.

In Chengdu, four men are still detained without charges for publicizing two recent protests. In one case, a homeowner resisting eviction and demolition of his house injured six policemen with kerosene and firecrackers on Feb. 20. In the second case, about 20 people chained themselves together outside the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court on Feb. 23 to protest unfair rulings issued over the years.

The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has dispatched a team to criticize local government and municipal party committee handling of the incidents. (No such arm of the U.S. government is known to exist, yet.)

The crackdown on protests comes because Chinese worry dissent will grow as slumping global demand idles tens of millions of rural migrants who power China’s factories, according to the AP. We have the same issue here, but we’re more concerned with Congress passing a tax on everyone it hates.

To stifle dissent, the Chinese charged the protestors with the heinous crime of “assembling a crowd to disrupt social order.“

Imagine that. Take, for example, our local protestor deluxe, David Swanson, who spearheaded the protest against ex-President George Bush at Monticello. Heck, take the hundreds of protestors and those who disrupted the ex-president’s speech for example. In America, it’s cool to scream, yell and shout curses at your leaders. Personally, I ain’t got no heartburn with that. It’s irritating, sure, but hey, it’s the way we roll.

Had that occurred in China, however, Mr. Swanson and the Monticello Screamers would still be in prison.

That makes me feel good. Not that they would still be in prison, but the fact that they’re not. Yes, we may have permanently lost our status as the world’s economic powerhouse.

We may soon trade our belief in rugged individualism for social equality.

We may forever end up driving Smart Cars and mopeds instead of Cadillacs and Harleys, taking the bus instead of the Hummer, living in 1,000-square-foot, city-center condos rather than 3,000-square-foot McMansions on the edge of town and never see our standard living rise above that of England or Belgium or Finland again. That’s life. But as long as we don’t throw away our desire for free assembly, speech, religion and press, it will still be “Advantage America.“

Let us pray.