Must we suspend the last lines of the National Anthem this July 4?

[grasswire]

I was in the company of 20,000 MLS soccer fans yesterday afternoon. As the crowd stood, hands over hearts, hats off in reverence, and sang our National Anthem, tears started streaming down my face at the last lines.

".....the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Of course, we apparently weren't free from surveillance last July 4, nor even for some years before that. But now we know the magnitude of the programs keeping us under constant watch. And we know the zeal with which TPTB will protect its programs and its powers.

We are considered the enemy by our own government agencies -- agencies with the power to literally destroy us; obliterate us, cripple us, defame us, deprive us of our freedoms. That overarching threat makes us no longer free.

Whether we are still the "home of the brave" remains to be seen.

[Savannahmann]

1. I can tell you I won't be standing for it.

Does that answer your question?

[railsback]

2. Were they serving Freedom Fries, too?

[Summer Hathaway]

3. "But now we know the magnitude of the programs keeping us under constant watch."

Can you explain how you are under "constant watch"?

There's nothing like paranoia mixed with a persecution complex.

[grasswire]

4. thanks for kicking this thread. nt

[Summer Hathaway]

5. Well, if having your thread kicked is a big deal to you

I'm happy to have made you happy.

My question still stands.

[Puzzledtraveller]

6. What is freedom if not privacy?

[Scurrilous]

7. There's no crying in major league soccer?

[Buzz Clik]

9. +1

[Buzz Clik]

8. "tears started streaming down my face at the last lines."