by James Glaser
August 2, 2005

My dad died ten years ago and I can't help but think I let him down. He was a World War II veteran and he also served in Korea. I never knew if he was a hero or not, because he never talked about either war, but I knew that he was proud to be an American and believed our country and our way of life was worth fighting for.

The man never did like politicians. He always told me the story about Hubert Humphrey, and how he would come into his bar and order a drink, but he never had any money to pay for it. Someone would always be there to pony up for that drink, for the chance to shake Hubert's hand and talk for a bit. Dad said many politicians were that way.

The reason I think I let dad down, is that I haven't been able to keep America free. My dad would never believe something like the Patriot Act could pass here in the United States. People from my dad's generation were tougher, and they had guts. Today, most Americans will let Washington walk all over them, for the promise of security.

Today, Americans live in fear, heck we are at war and we can't get enough people to sign up for the Army. When my dad was enlistment age, they couldn't handle all the people wanting to go off and fight for America, but dad said, back then Washington had better liars. Back then, when the President said we had to go off to war, everyone pitched in. Today, no American has to do anything special for the war.

We don't have War Bond sales and people aren't out there collecting scrap metal. Nobody has to do without, because Americans today can't handle hardship.

I can still remember my dad talking about how bad things would be if the Russians took over. He talked about Secret Police and how a Russian could just disappear. He never called them "evil," but he said their government was bad and how great we were because everyone here was free.

I remember him talking about how great it was that we had this code, and that we treated all men with respect. He said prisoners of war, that we captured wanted to stay here. He was always proud of the fact that we were showing them what kind of people Americans are, by they way we treated them.

I can't imagine what my father would think about how we treat prisoners today. Sexual torture, murder of prisoners by kicking them to death, keeping prisoners in wire cages, my dad wouldn't believe that we were even capable of things like that.

Now we find out that some of the prisoners we hold in Cuba were found to be innocent, but we keep them anyway. Today we have Senators in Washington, Republican Senators, like John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham who are so sick of what our Government is doing to these prisoners, that they are trying to pass a law, that would expressly prohibit cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.

I know my dad would shake his head and say that our government was sick, if were treating any human being, the way we treat prisoners today.

No way would my dad ever believe that we would have a program like the one the Bush administration calls "extraordinary rendition." It is against everything America stands for, but the Bush administration will take prisoners, fly them to foreign lands, and have them tortured there, because it is against the law to torture them here in America. My dad would never believe that we could have stooped this low, and there is no way he could believe that the American people would stand for that, but we do. In fact many Americans think it is a good thing.

I think about how much we as a people have changed just in the past few years, and it scares me. Surveillance cameras on every street corner of American cities. Government agents able to sneak into your home with no search warrant or notification. The government able to look into what you read at the library. Talk of National ID cards. People suggesting that we do away with money, so nobody can work "under the table." Washington spending the future generation's money, with no thought or plans to pay any of it back.

I'm sorry dad, America has gotten away from us. The American people have changed, we aren't tough anymore. We live in fear of the unknown and we will do anything to anyone, if we think it will make us more secure. We will, and have thrown American citizens in the slammer with no hope of a judge or jury ever seeing them or deciding their fate.

Sorry dad, but "innocent until proven guilty" seems to be fading from American Justice.

I don't know what my dad would do if he were alive today, but he and the men and women of his generation were proud of our country and they could look the world in the eye and say that we treated all men with respect and fairness. My dad's generation gave our country a reputation that they were proud of.

What kind of reputation has our generation given our country? Do we still have the respect our parents earned for us or does the world look at us differently now. Will historians write about us and our government the way they wrote about Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan or will they compare us to Saddam?

Do we still believe that all men are created equal and that they have the right to pursue happiness, or is that just for some Americans?