An Open Letter to Edward Snowden - Stand Your Ground
Politics / US Politics May 31, 2014 - 04:11 PM GMTBy: Michael_T_Bucci
Dear Edward Snowden,
Rumor has it you are contemplating a return to your beloved country, the country whose crimes against liberty and justice forced you to take a moral, principled position by revealing truths about a surveillance state so wide-sweeping it is totalitarian - ever expanding in lawlessness and reach. Your efforts have been both reviled by the powerful and praised by the powerless. Your life has been threatened. You have been turned into a pariah and criminal by the very agents you sought to expose to divert focus away from them and place upon you. Now, after the rigors and humiliations you experienced you are considering a return to your country which has only persecuted and avenged you; a country led by a President and Congress whose war crimes, militarism, imperialism, desecrations of the Constitution and Bill of Rights will forever by seen as leading America into the greatest crucible in its history from which she may or may not recover her birthright.
Why?
Are your reasons for returning today as moral and principled as those which motivated you to take the courageous position you took in becoming a truth teller? What possible reward lies in store for you by returning? Please explain. The rewards will certainly fall on President Obama and his cadre of avengers who sit in Congress, the media, and the military and intelligence communities. Do you believe any of these groups of powerful interests have the courage to defend liberty in the manner and to the degree you did? Do you believe any will stand up and risk their position - or life! - to defend the Constitution, let alone defend you and your position? Do you feel the American people who have sheepishly succumbed to totalitarianism, a police-state, a systemically corrupt financial establishment, a war-monger unbridled military machine, a two-headed one-party political system have suddenly recognized value in the truths you revealed? Mr. Snowden, the America you left is the same America you will be returning to. The avengers you escaped await your return. Don't give them your future. Don't give them your life. Don't betray your principles. Stand your ground.
Beware of bargaining. You are familiar with Doctor Faustus? You are familiar with the iconic photo of Neville Chamberlain waving a sheet of paper boasting of promises of peace made to him by a despotic government that knew no bounds, respected no international sovereignties, and honored no treaties? You will remember the inglorious and scathing persecution Thomas Paine received upon returning from Paris at the hands of fellow Founders, the media and religionists. Do you think the systemic corruption of America has undergone a miraculous transformation since you left? Do you think the American people have mounted even the slightest degree of collective opposition to NSA blanket surveillance, government incursions to the Constitution and the ongoing stripping of their civil liberties? Instead, you will return to popular fixations and distractions over sports, sit-coms, Facebook, Twitter, Google, iPads, cheap gas, the stock market bubble, and a collective willful disregard of what America is doing in the world and doing to its own citizens. You will provide sensationalism, not discourse leading to reform. You will return to a willful disregard for your own fate.
You were and are impelled to help restore what you feel have been abandoned and destroyed in this republic and democracy, and that began by pointing out discrepancies, contradictions and hypocrisy at the highest levels. However, the average American cannot AT THIS TIME clearly see the dangers you saw and see; cannot grasp the issues confronting them if those issues remain concealed and distorted by political leadership and consistently obfuscated by a governmentally aligned corporate media. To-date, your role and crusade has been manipulated and exploited by the powerful to retain the status quo. It will be again.
You have reached deeply into the meaning of the words of the Founders and touched the "spirit" which inspired the birth of this country. In so doing, you found your nation gravely wanting and at peril. You want to restore America. I tell you your achievement will someday be recognized as a major contribution to that end.
It is an elderly man's temptation to remember himself at your age. I remember thinking the world was going to end in 1971 and how certain I felt the financial system would soon collapse. Despairingly, I expected either Jesus to return or the glories of the Aquarian Age to dawn creating a planet of brotherhood and sisterhood overnight. By age 26, I lived through three assassinations of leaders I respected, loved and admired; Vietnam; Kent State; a disgraced President Nixon. My parents remembered climbing through a Depression that devolved into WWII where millions died to defend liberty and vanquish fascism. For many others, their dreams and idealisms died with them. Few lifetimes are untouched by personal tragedies and national crises. You are an exception. Life is happening to you on a cosmic scale, and that is why no one can judge you or your position because they never could reach it. You are not the star of a tragic drama. You are upon the hero's path.
Mr. Snowden, you have been abused and you must not fall into a pattern that abused people too often fall victim to: Stockholm syndrome. By returning to America you will be returning to the very place you left; the very place you escaped; the very same crisis you exposed; the very same abusers and their abuse.
Whatever the abuser promises and offers don't believe it. You ESCAPED the whip once and won your freedom under threats made by government at home who you naively thought would reward you for your patriotism and correct the abuses you discovered. Those same leaders are no better today than before. You want liberty for yourself and others but this cannot be achieved in America AT THIS TIME. You are in a limbo that feels like purgatory and want freedom from it. You also may want a finale to the saga you wrote and set in motion. My friend, you cannot have the freedom you seek AT THIS TIME. You cannot go backward, only forward. As the American novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote: You can't go home again. This is to say you can't retreat into a former life of normalcy, anonymity or invisibility - ever again! Your fate was and forever will be that of a pivotal figure in the history of contemporary America.
You are about to decide whether to come home but in so doing will you betray your own moral position? Will you betray those who placed faith in you and defended you? Will you betray other truth tellers? Will you countenance conformity and submission instead of integrity, honesty, forthrightness, courage and bravery?
But mostly, WILL YOU BETRAY YOURSELF AND ALL YOU ACCOMPLISHED?
You are an actor who has played a major role in helping others dramatically reinterpret the American landscape and psyche. Trust that other actors exist. Trust that you have contributed to setting them in motion. They might not be visible today because they are censored or barred from the stage, but they live and will eventually become visible. But many depend upon you continuing in your role. Much is at stake and you have taken upon yourself much responsibility. Carry through with it to the end. By deserting your role, you will be deserting all you accomplished and you will reverse the course of progress you helped motivate. Know that someday you will return home when it is safe to return. It is not safe today.
The world is entering a systemic transformation. America tomorrow will not be the same nation it is today. Thusly, this nation's attitude toward you and your mission will change also. Be patient.
Equip yourself with two tenets of belief that will see you through periods of doubt and hopelessness:
1) In the end, Truth always prevails.
2) In the end, Evil never triumphs.
Stand firmly on the ground you stand upon and act upon. Continue to uphold it for others to emulate.
What seeds you plant will grow.
By Michael T Bucci
Contact: mbucci@michaelbucci.com
(c) 2014 Michael T Bucci. All Rights reserved.
(Note: responses to emails might be delayed or not met.)
Michael T Bucci is a retired public relations executive from New Jersey presently residing in New England. His essays have appeared at The Market Oracle (UK). He is the author of nine books on practical spirituality including White Book: Cerithous.
© 2014 Copyright Michael T Bucci - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.
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