We (America) spend a billion dollars a day to fight two wars and for what? For protection from terrorist who “hate out freedoms”? The reason terrorist hate us is because of our presence in their countries. They may dislike our culture, just as we may dislike theirs, but that dislike is not going to drive either side to kill thousands of innocent people. The impetus for action is our direct involvement and presence in countries other than our own. So our answer is to get more involved in those countries, depose their governments and install our own with significant civilian casualties? And we should expect terrorism to go away when?

For oil? If we spent a billion dollars a day paying the top American minds to come up with a way for our country to fuel itself without the dependence on foreign oil, I have little doubt that it would take significantly less time than it would to depose one government and establish one sympathetic to our plight… and to win over all of it citizen. And I know that it would create significantly less terrorists and cost significantly less lives.

For their own good? Because we have decided that all the countries of the world should be democratic and we are going to make them be? The self-righteousness in this sentiment is sickening. First, the idea behind democracy is that people know what is good for themselves. When the people of a country decide that it is in their own best interest to overthrow their government, so be it, but it is for them to decide. Second, upon a close examination of our country that is ruled by the dollar, that commits daily atrocities, that is supposedly ruled by the people who have no voice anymore, should it really be up to us to decide what is right for another country.

All of this sounds hauntingly familiar. Within the past fifty years, well within the life-time of most of the people in power in this country, America when through these same motions with communism and the Vietnam war. We look back now see the absurdity of the McCarthy era communist witch-hunts. But is there anything different between what they did then with suspected communists and what we do now with suspected terrorists?

Yes, actually, the communists were given due process of American law. The terrorists are tortured and denied any trial.

Forty years ago we fought a decades-long war in Vietnam to prop up an unpopular government because we thought it was in our and their best interests. We spent billions of dollars and sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives for nothing. The government in South Vietnam fell and communism didn’t domino into world domination. In America there was a huge movement against the war. In universities around the country there was unrest; massive demonstrations were held in protest. What has changed? There is no longer any massive resistance.

History repeats itself because no one cares to acknowledge those hard earned lessons that their forerunners paid for, fought for, and died for. Americans are so comfortable and complacent that their government and their popularly-elected president can torture and kill at will with so little backlash that it is barely felt by even the most liberal people.

I am an American. I love this land. I love what it once stood for. I am enraged by my government and repulsed by my fellow American. I am sickened every time I open a news paper or turn on a TV. People are dying, being tortured, being denied those very basic American rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and for what? So that we are free to choose between watching American Idol or Dancing With the Stars? I have been told that more people vote for those things than do for the president. That is why I have so little faith in my country. Its people take for granted those rights that so many people died for and that are denied to so many people around the world on their behalf. We slap bumper stickers on our cars saying “freedom isn’t free” and we think that we are justified.

I am enraged and I feel completely alone. If there was anything left fighting for in this county there would be a massive resistance against the perpetrators of these atrocities. I would not be writing this in a dark basement, but rallying with thousands of like minded people in an attempt to make a difference. But here I sit. Where is the America that I love?

The idea is simple.  We want to get people talking, on a regular basis, in person.  Small groups meeting formally to discuss important matters, in the hope that, although we will bring our own biases and can never fully escape the media’s influence, face-to-face discussion with the television off and our minds open will spark a renaissance in the depth and quality of adult discourse.  We are calling it the Assemblee.

Our manifesto:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all people have an intrinsic value, bearing with it the right to a voice in the community; that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people must always remain accountable to the people.  We believe that peace is the only true measure of a society, and that peace can never prevail without tolerance and respect. Intolerance is bred from ignorance and a lack of communication among the people. Thus, education and a neutral venue through which the populace can come together to share informed opinion and objective information to better understand each other are the roots of any peaceful, self-governing society.

Therefore we propose to establish a forum through which anyone may be heard. The group will be dedicated to listening to one another, learning from one another, respecting one another, and to seeking common ground. The only tenet of the group is that a more educated society will lead to a more tolerant society and that a more tolerant society will lead to a more peaceful world. This principle can only be upheld by providing an open, welcoming environment for individuals to voice their opinions. It stands, then, that though individuals within the group may hold their own political and religious beliefs, the group will have no ideological affiliation. The only pre-requisite of its constituents is an open mind. The group’s only goal is to restore vibrancy to the free marketplace of ideas, thus promoting a more just society.

There are four of us right now, and as circumstance would have it we aren’t near enough to execute our own design.  Some of us are away at school or for jobs.  Modern life has away of making the kind of interaction we’re aiming for difficult.  This site , intended as a forum for our own discussion-provoking thoughts and yours, represents our attempt at making the best of that.  We hope you find it as useful as we do.