I DID NOT VOTE FOR BUSH EITHER

From left, Jill Levin, Jill Meyers, Debbie Rosenberg and Irina Levitina of the Venice Cup championship team in Shanghai.

The Dixie Chicks

Years back the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines made a statement about being ashamed that President Bush is from Texas. You would have thought that Americans were intolerant of dissent and free speech. Hypocrisy is alive and too blatant in my country of the United States of America. The latest is this stupid response by the United States Bridge Federation of the Gold Medal winners of this card game, Bridge. One member held in her hands a little note that stated a truth “We did not vote for Bush.”

For mercy sake, they didn’t shoot anyone.

Six words proved to be enough to threaten what for them, is their livelihood and their freedom, at the same time. Pretty powerful – those 6 words.

Again as I have asked before, ARE WE NUTS?!

No lies, no criticism, no embellishments. Six words. Silent words. Handwritten. Held in the hands of a citizen of a democracy. Just the simple truth that they did not vote for George W Bush for President. I didn’t vote for Bush, either. And I am ashamed that Bush is my representative in the world. He certainly does not represent my views, beliefs or my understanding of the democracy that I live in, ruled by law and the U.S. Constitution. I understand that there is a mind-numbing sentimentality by some in the Divided States of America that this kind of speech is treason or sedition. But it is not.

It doesn’t matter that we are at war in Iraq with . . . well, truth be told, who we are at war with is a quandary. Whatever or whoever we are there fighting is not Saddam Hussein. He is long gone. And yet he was the scapegoat for why Bush went against the countries within the United Nations and went to war anyway. It is the same Bush antics that keep us there even though the American people want to bring our troops home. He just wants what he wants and he doesn’t care about anything other than what he wants. Bury the constitution, Bury the Geneva Convention, Bury the Human Rights of prisoners, Bury justice and abide by lies – that is what I see the Bush legacy as.

. . . But these 6 words “We did not vote for Bush” are just too much for this American country and our democracy to stomach. How dare these women exercise their freedom!

GW Bush is a disaster for this country and he doesn’t see it because he has no will to see it. He’s living on some dream that we live as a nightmare. Let me join the other patriots who are on this side of the American dime: I DID NOT VOTE FOR BUSH MYSELF. I found when I last visited Europe, that is, Germany, Austria and Italy November 2005 it was a 180 degree difference on how I was treated as an American to all of my previous trips to Europe. In 2005, I was treated with disdain. My friends who live in America now, but were raised in Lisbon, Portugal, say that they notice something similar when they travel to Europe and therefore always speak Portuguese while there to get treated better.

Those who are angered about anyone such as these bridge players writing who they didn’t vote for apparently don’t travel outside the country even online via websites because this fact of how we are viewed all over the world is CLEAR AND COMPREHENSIVE.

There is a scene in the movie Amazing Grace (the DVD went on sale on November 13) that always seemed so current to me, even though the movie is about something that happened 300 years ago in Britain.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=bIzB2ZjL-OQ
Amazing Grace, the movie, Part 8 of the entire post of Amazing Grace online
At 4:10 of the 9:57 segment, you can find the scene I am referring to.

Below are these words between two best friends in real life, William Wilberforce and William Pitt, the youngest ever Prime Minister about sedition.

WW: The only man I trust is you. Well?

WP: You know I can’t be openly seen to oppose the King when the streets of Paris are running with blood.

WW: You’ve read too many lurid newspaper articles.

WP: The French Republic plans to declare war within the year.

WW: On who?

WP: On who!? The rocks inside your head, man. On us, Great Britain. On Everything we stand for. . . . . Considering the situation you mix with the wrong people.

WW: Who do I mix with?

WP: Clarkson, for one.

WW: Remind me who introduced me to Clarkson.

WP: In different times. They say in cafes, that Clarkson is a French spy. And Equiano. They say he was born in Carolina and as an American therefore, must be a revolutionary. Others say they have seen with their own eyes, letters addressed to you from Thomas Jefferson.

WW: On matters to do with abolition.

WP: War changes everything.

WW: Even friendships?

WP: Yes, especially those. So, you will keep your precious conscience in tact and let the rest of us do the war’s dirty work.

WW: Conscience is indeed prescious.

WP: I am warning you as your Prime Minister, when war comes opposition will be called sedition.

WW: By who? By you?

The scene at the church after this is also so relevant to today.

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=Dixie+chicks+Bush
Dixie Chicks’ Bush comments article links

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http://youtube.com/watch?v=o-lJu5ibAM8
Not Ready to Make Nice
At the 2007 Grammys where they won!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g
The music video of Not Ready to Make Nice

Below are excerpts from the article by the New York Times
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: November 14, 2007

In the genteel world of bridge, disputes are usually handled quietly and rarely involve issues of national policy. But in a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003, a team of women who represented the United States at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month is facing sanctions, including a yearlong ban from competition, for a spur-of-the-moment protest.

At issue is a crudely lettered sign, scribbled on the back of a menu, that was held up at an awards dinner and read, “We did not vote for Bush.”

By e-mail, angry bridge players have accused the women of “treason” and “sedition.”

“This isn’t a free-speech issue,” said Jan Martel, president of the United States Bridge Federation, the nonprofit group that selects teams for international tournaments. “There isn’t any question that private organizations can control the speech of people who represent them.”

Not so, said Danny Kleinman, a professional bridge player, teacher and columnist. “If the U.S.B.F. wants to impose conditions of membership that involve curtailment of free speech, then it cannot claim to represent our country in international competition,” he said.

“What we were trying to say, not to Americans but to our friends from other countries, was that we understand that they are questioning and critical of what our country is doing these days, and we want you to know that we, too, are critical,” Ms. Greenberg said, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her six teammates.

The controversy has gone global, with the French team offering support for its American counterparts.

“By trying to address these issues in a nonviolent, nonthreatening and lighthearted manner,” the French team wrote in by e-mail to the federation’s board and others, “you were doing only what women of the world have always tried to do when opposing the folly of men who have lost their perspective of reality.”

A hearing is scheduled this month in San Francisco, where thousands of players will be gathered for the Fall North American Bridge Championships. It will determine whether displaying the sign constitutes conduct unbecoming a federation member.

Three players— Hansa Narasimhan, JoAnna Stansby and Jill Meyers — have expressed regret that the action offended some people. The federation has proposed a settlement to Ms. Greenberg and the three other players, Jill Levin, Irina Levitina and Ms. Rosenberg, who have not made any mollifying statements.

It calls for a one-year suspension from federation events, including the World Bridge Olympiad next year in Beijing; a one-year probation after that suspension; 200 hours of community service “that furthers the interests of organized bridge”; and an apology drafted by the federation’s lawyer.

It would also require them to write a statement telling “who broached the idea of displaying the sign, when the idea was adopted, etc.”

Alan Falk, a lawyer for the federation, wrote the four team members on Nov. 6, “I am instructed to press for greater sanction against anyone who rejects this compromise offer.”

Ms. Greenberg said she decided to put up the sign in response to questions from players from other countries about American interrogation techniques, the war in Iraq and other foreign policy issues.

“There was a lot of anti-Bush feeling, questioning of our Iraq policy and about torture,” Ms. Greenberg said. “I can’t tell you it was an overwhelming amount, but there were several specific comments, and there wasn’t the same warmth you usually feel at these events.”

Ms. Rosenberg said the team members intended the sign as a personal statement that demonstrated American values and noted that it was held up at the same time some team members were singing along to “The Star-Spangled Banner” and waving small American flags.

“Freedom to express dissent against our leaders has traditionally been a core American value,” she wrote by e-mail. “Unfortunately, the Bush brand of patriotism, where criticizing Bush means you are a traitor, seems to have penetrated a significant minority of U.S. bridge players.”

Robert S. Wolff, one of the country’s pre-eminent bridge players, who has served as an executive and board member of several bridge organizations, said that he understood that the women might have had a legal right to do what they did but that they had offended many people.

“While I believe in the right to free speech, to me that doesn’t give anyone the right to criticize one’s leader at a foreign venue in a totally nonpolitical event,” he wrote by e-mail.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/arts/14brid.html

Link to many articles regarding this minor incident in the world of major “incidents” regarding the Bridge Gold Medal winners:
http://tailrank.com/3745753/Anti-Bush-Sign-Has-Bridge-World-in-an-Uproar

http://www.usconstitution.net/constpix.html#const
The United States Constitution