SILENCING VOICES - A HARBINGER OF BRUTALITY TO COME

You can usually judge the humanity of a regime by the amount of unsympathetic brutality they are willing to employ in putting-down public demonstrations against their policies. Recently, in places like Iran, Tunisia, Libya and Tibet, the regimes in power have demonstrated no compunction against using lethal force to quell civilian dissenters, while leaders in Bahrain and Egypt and even Venezuela, Hugo Chavez's backyard tolerate a modest degree of political opposition in their countries without attempting to forever silence critics with bloodshed. Those latter countries may not be paragons of democracy, but at least they're a step above the former list of countries where leaders joyfully bathe in the blood of their opposition.

Nationalism and nationalistic interests frequently fuel the drive of a nation and its rulers to attempt to subjugate the citizenry of another nation, and in the process of doing so, unleashes the sadistic brutality we know as modern day warfare, but when efforts to subjugate one's own citizenry reach a similar feverish pitch, the brutality of government leaders seems to know no limit. That's why the prevailing color of many a revolution is red.

I greatly admire the dissenters in Egypt, Iran, Libya and Bahrain who have taken to the streets to protest the oppression of their corrupt political and religious leaders, and their courage in the face of grave risk of death and imprisonment speaks highly of their moral character and fortitude. They are the true modern patriots.

Likewise, I applaud the working class people of Wisconsin who have risen to protest the corrupt attempts of their state government leaders to silence their collective voices and to deny every day workers the right to band together to improve their common lot. I'm talking about the right to collective bargaining and unionization, and the attempt by the GOP governor and legislature of Wisconsin to deny workers those rights.

When governments attempt to forever silence the voices of their citizenry and deny those citizens the right to affect change, sadistic brutality and bloodshed is never far behind. Citizens of Wisconsin – beware!