An email exchange with a journalist
I wrote to Neil Mackay of the Sunday Herald about his piece, "Rage. Mistrust. Hatred. Fear. Uncle Sam's enemies within".
He wrote back. Very encouraging stuff. I felt it worth sharing, to remind everyone that we're not totally alone in this world.
--Z
Mr. Mackay,
After reading your piece, "Rage. Mistrust. Hatred. Fear. Uncle Sam's enemies within", in the Sunday Herald, I am compelled to express my profound gratitude to you for recognizing the truth about Americans.
Many of my fellow citizens seem to willingly blind themselves to the dangers we now face from our own government - indeed, the dangers that have lurked under the surface for decades now, dangers that the majority of the American populace simply cannot or will not acknowledge. I am ashamed to be associated with these unthinking, willfully obedient, arrogant Americans who wouldn't know a true patriot if he slapped them with a copy of the Patriot Act.
One of my worst fears is that such ignorance and compliance from those who cannot accept reality would lead people the world over to generalize all Americans, to simply assume we all support the burgeoning fascist state now being foisted upon us. Nothing could be further from the truth. I, and so many others, are vehemently opposed to the crimes of the United States government, be they under Bush or any other official, from any era. These men do not represent us, and we do not condone their actions.
Your piece is a tremendous reassurance to me. I cannot describe the relief at knowing that someone, somewhere outside the United States (United Empire?) understands that we are in a terrible position. Yes, we are fat, lazy, know-it-alls sometimes, but we are also dedicated to truth and justice for people everywhere.
I tremble to see the mindless masses around me. I sometimes fear pressing 'send' on an email such as this, knowing as I do that Ashcroft's cronies could swoop down and silence me, given enough rope with which to string up a dissenter like myself. I have suffered verbal attacks, been called everything from a Saddam-sympathizer (which my government certainly was in the 80s) to a traitor, told I have the same mindset as Osama bin Laden (who I, with no prodding needed from my government, already condemned for violent extremism) - I have even been pulled over by the police for having an upside-down American flag, the universal S.O.S. signal, on my car's antenna. Yet I refuse to cower. Even know, I continue to speak up, I add more bumper stickers to my car denouncing the horrors of the Bush regime, and attend protests and find ways to fight back.
Your words have reminded me that, perhaps, we Americans who live in fear under what is essentially a military occupation (an invisible one for now) are not in this battle alone. For this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you for remembering us.
Sincerely,
Matthew
Dear Matthew,
Thanks so much for your email. I can't tell you how sad it makes me to hear how you feel about your country. America as an idea is without question the most enlightened venture that human beings have ever put into practice - however, what is happening in the US right now is the polar opposite of the great ideals your nation represents.
I'm glad you found the article worthwhile - but I can tell you that many of your fellow countrymen did not. I've waded through many vitriolic emails this morning attacking the newspaper and myself for having the temerity to state the obvious.
A reader from Iowa told me I was (bizarrely enough) a Canadian pimp, whereas in Michigan I'm just a plain old 'a-hole'. Either way, I appear to have committed a liberal atrocity that is unforgiveable: exercising my freedom as a journalist to write as I find.
The irony is painful at times. How can people who live in a nation built on the idea of freedom, happily attack others for daring to exercise their freedoms - of speech, of thought, of assembly? Dissent is surely what America is about.
But I have to say that most of the readers who write to me from the USA are true American patriots - just like you - they are loyal to the republican ideas of liberty and freedom, not the incumbent in the White House.
Once again, thank your for your email and I wish you all the very best.
Cheers,
Neil
Neil Mackay
Home Affairs and Investigations Editor
Sunday Herald
Martha Gellhorn Award for Journalism 2003
200 Renfield Street
Cowcaddens
Glasgow
G2 3PR
The Sunday Herald is Newspaper of the Year
Tel: 0141-302-7824
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(second reply)
PS...would you like to turn your very moving email into a letter for our letters page - it would be great to see the sentiments of a true American patriot represented on our letters page?
(my reply)
I would be immensely honored to do so. I believe there are many others like myself here behind the Corporate Curtain, and fear holds their collective tongues. I am ready to do whatever I can to help shine light on the situation here in the U.S. - we need help from the outside world, even if many of my fellow citizens are too proud or scared to admit it.
--Matthew